Did you know Amazon’s Alexa saves a copy of everything she records?
Creepy.
And if you’ve owned an Alexa for an extended period of time, you know she sometimes goes off the rails – listening even though you never said her name, or asking you to repeat something when you weren’t even talking to her in the first place!
Also creepy.
Just last year it was revealed that Amazon actually employs thousands of people to listen to your old Alexa recordings, to “improve the AI and help it better understand human speech.”
Amazon's Alexa saves and records all interactions, which can subsequently be analyzed by Amazon employees to enhance AI capabilities. Alexa's advanced and ever-improving speech technology poses significant privacy concerns. Unsettling aspects include its ability to record private conversations unknowingly and respond with human-like emotions. Despite privacy risks, Alexa devices continue to proliferate globally due to their low cost and utility. Always remember, Alexa will record and send whatever it hears back to Amazon.
Amazon Alexa – The Creeper
Alexa is basically a spy that we willingly let into our homes.
It collects and saves the things we say to it and then uses that data to improve its own intelligence.
Have you ever wondered why they’re relatively inexpensive or given away for free?
One user reported, “I was lying in bed about to fall asleep when Alexa on my Amazon Echo Dot lets out a very loud and creepy laugh… there’s a good chance I get murdered tonight.”
Imagine you’re about to fall asleep and your Alexa just starts laughing, like a crazy person!
Amazon actually acknowledged the problem and ultimately changed the phrase “Alexa, laugh” to “Alexa, can you laugh?”
They claimed the first phrase was causing a lot of false positives and setting off the device, making it laugh randomly. Hmmm, ok then.
Recording a private conversation
One day, a Seattle couple got a phone call from a contact in their phone who they hadn’t spoken to in a while.
When they answered the contact said, “Unplug all the Alexas in your house, now!”
It turned out that the Alexa in their home recorded a private conversation and then sent that conversation as an audio file to a random contact in their phone.
After the couple finally got through to them, Amazon ultimately thanked them for bringing the issue to their attention and said “It is something we need to fix.”
They went on to publicly state that “it was an extremely rare occurrence” and that they are “taking steps to avoid this in the future.”
Amazon didn’t even try to deny it!
You have to ask yourself how many times this has happened before and since, but people just haven’t reported it or even noticed it.
Alexa’s new emotions
At the end of 2019, Alexa announced something new – “Starting today, you can enable Alexa to respond with either a happy/excited or a disappointed/empathetic tone in the US.”
On the service, this sounds quite innocent and fun. That is until you hear the results.
Here is the emotion “Excited – High Intensity.”
And here’s “Disappointed – High Intensity.”
Alexa’s speaking style and capabilities are improving by the day. At what point will her voice be indistinguishable from an actual human voice?
I can only imagine all the creepy stories we’ll hear about when that day comes.
Conclusion
There is no question that Amazon Alexa remains a massive privacy risk.
And yet people willingly welcome her into their homes.
It makes you wonder just how far Amazon can push things before people actually start to unplug.
I hope you got a kick out of these creepy things to ask Alexa. Thanks for reading!
Michael Xavier Donovan, the visionary behind Good Home Automation, has dedicated a decade to elevating the tech world's standard, lending his expertise to some of the globe's most renowned products. Disturbed by the prevailing gaps in online tech troubleshooting, he founded Good Home Automation as an antidote to generic, often misleading advice. A Summa Cum Laude graduate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Michael's academic prowess is underpinned by numerous accolades, further cementing his commitment to excellence. Trust in his insights to steer you right when technology throws a curveball. Connect with Michael on LinkedIn