Posted on 11/10/2018 9:36:06 AM PST by Captain Peter Blood
DOVER, N.H. —
An Amazon Echo device could play a role in a double-homicide case in Farmington.
A judge has ordered Amazon to turn over recordings that might have been captured by an Echo smart speaker in the Farmington house where two women were stabbed to death in January 2017.
(Excerpt) Read more at wmur.com ...
If you have a Amazon Echo in your home it is possible that it is listening to all conversations when it isn't playing something you asked for.
Now we have a murder case and this figures into it. Did "Alexa" hear everything having to do with a murder? The Prosecutors are asking for anything that might have been taped by Alexa on the Echo.
The implications of this go far reaching other than a criminal case. Think about divorce or any matter that could be be litigated.
Can it be argued that there is no expectation of privacy if you have a Amazon Echo in your home and you know it can record all your conversations when in range of the microphone?
Very slippery slope here. Any comments???????
Yeah, do not buy an Echo. Block all cameras. Assume Big Brother is watching and listening.
In the old days, law enforcement, the CIA and the KGB would have to sneak into your house to install these things.
Amazon claims that echo doesn’t record unless the “wake up” word is used. I have no reason to doubt them.
Think of it this way, you’re an Amazon engineer. You can set up Alexa to perform as claimed OR you can put your company in an easy position to be sued by tens of millions of people. That Amazon is secretly recording everyone makes no sense, regardless of what the conspiracy theorists believe.
“Can it be argued that there is no expectation of privacy if you have a Amazon Echo in your home and you know it can record all your conversations when in range of the microphone?”
The expectation is that it does NOT record all conversations.
Smart TVs can do the same thing.
Same with the microphones on your laptops and phones. Everything is accessible now.
We don’t know that.
>>Yeah, do not buy an Echo. Block all cameras. Assume Big Brother is watching and listening.<<
That is what I do.
I also have almost zero social media footprint — I have Linkedin but only use it to directly email people in my industry,
How do you know that? If it isn’t turned off how do you know it isn’t picking up everything said. This case will be interesting to see.
I agree, I believe them too. And I think the proof will be when these “recordings” are released... they are going to get a bunch of “Alexa” answers. I think this is right up there with “Q” and “Global Warming”. The echo is one of the best things I’ve purchased, love it. And if she can listen to me, it’s gonna be boring as hell.
I’m sure they have covered themselves legally IF it records without using using the wakeup words- I’ll bet there is some fine print somewhere stating that
Dont be paranoid.
By the way, do you really want to go with those window curtains?
What Amazon engineers do is irrelevant, of course those companies would never sell a device that is basically a glorified wiretap. But it’s a piece of hardware with a microphone and an IP address. All that stands in the way of it becoming a glorified wiretap is a wake word and whatever IP security you have. Do you feel lucky?
Fortunatly most people’s daily conversations are not really of much interest of value and Google and Amazon have plausible deniability. But hackers are everywhere and everything gets hacked. How would receiving a voice recording of a private convesation in your home when you did not activate the device make you feel? It did these people:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/24/alexa_recording_couple/
But Amazon has always claimed that Alexa only starts recording when the command, ‘Alexa’ is spoken.
How then, to explain recent reports from Danielle, from Portland, Oregon that a private conversation between her and her husband was recorded and mysteriously ended up in the inbox of her husband’s colleague?
https://www.techworld.com/security/does-amazon-alexa-listen-to-my-conversations-3661967/
A few years back a school gave all of its students laptops. Unbeknownst to the students or their parents, the school’s IT department installed software onto those laptops that allowed the school to turn on the cameras remotely, at any time. To believe you are not recorded and photographed based on search criteria that you enter into your computer is very naive. If you don’t care, fine. If you do, cover your phone camera and microphone when not in use.
I remember that case. I am just posing some questions here.
Seems to me, and I’m happy to be corrected, that it has to be always listening so it can respond to its wake word which would mean at the very least, it hears everything. What it does with everything is the question, then.
exactly- I don’t trust them anymore than i trusted google-
Do you remember the Far Side cartoon about what dogs hear?
“Bla bla bla bla bla ROVER bla bla bla ROVER bla bla bla bla bla FOOD bla bla bla bla bla”.
The device on my end table hears noise but does nothing with it. Then it hears its name, and then records what follows it. Then it opens a connection over your wifi, sends that recording to “central” where it is decoded, an answer formulated, then returned. The device receives that, turns it into a synthesized voice, and delivers it to you.
The device itself understands nothing. Not even the information it returns.
There will be no recordings from this murder case unless (for instance) one of the people involved was named “Alexa” and the name was repeated throughout the event.
I have seen it demonstrated with a wifi detector. The device was active for less than a second and only when being deliberately used.
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