Woman says her Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
Woman says her Amazon device recorded private
conversation, sent it out to random contact
By: Gary Horcher Updated: May 24, 2018 - 10:37 AM
A Portland family contacted Amazon to investigate after
they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa --
the voice-controlled smart speaker -- and that the recorded audio was sent to
the phone of a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list.
"My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these
devices are listening to what we're saying," said Danielle, who did not
want us to use her last name.
Every room in her family home was wired with the Amazon
devices to control her home's heat, lights and security system.
But Danielle said two weeks ago their love for Alexa
changed with an alarming phone call. "The person on the other line said,
'unplug your Alexa devices right now,'" she said. "'You're being
hacked.'"
That person was one of her husband's employees, calling
from Seattle.
"We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell
us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house,"
she said. "At first, my husband was, like, 'no you didn't!' And the
(recipient of the message) said 'You sat there talking about hardwood floors.'
And we said, 'oh gosh, you really did hear us.'"
Danielle listened to the conversation when it was sent
back to her, and she couldn't believe someone 176 miles away heard it too.
"I felt invaded," she said. "A total
privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again,
because I can't trust it.'"
Danielle says she unplugged all the devices, and she
repeatedly called Amazon. She says an Alexa engineer investigated.
"They said 'our engineers went through your logs,
and they saw exactly what you told us, they saw exactly what you said happened,
and we're sorry.' He apologized like 15 times in a matter of 30 minutes and he
said we really appreciate you bringing this to our attention, this is something
we need to fix!"
But Danielle says the engineer did not provide specifics
about why it happened, or if it's a widespread issue.
"He told us that the device just guessed what we
were saying," she said. Danielle said the device did not audibly advise
her it was preparing to send the recording, something it’s programmed to do.
When KIRO 7 asked Amazon questions, they sent this
response:
“Amazon takes privacy very seriously. We investigated
what happened and determined this was an extremely rare occurrence. We are
taking steps to avoid this from happening in the future."
Amazon offered to “de-provision” Danielle’s Alexa
communications so she could keep using its Smart Home Features. But Danielle is
hoping Amazon gives her a refund for her devices, which she said their
representatives have been unwilling to do. She says she’s curious to find out
if anyone else has experienced the same issue.
"A husband and wife in the privacy of their home
have conversations that they're not expecting to be sent to someone (in) their
address book," she said.
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