When smart homes misread their owner’s intentions, the results can be scary. After Amazon Alexa mistakenly recorded a conversation between a Portland, Oregon, woman and her husband, the voice assistant sent the recording a Seattle resident’s phone on the couple’s contact list, a Fox affiliate reports.
The home was equipped with Amazon smart home devices to control heating, lights, and their home security system. “My husband and I would joke and say, ‘I’d bet these devices are listening to what we’re saying,'” Danielle, who declined to give her last name, told KIRO-TV.
The Portland residents only learned of the error when the person who received the voice message, one of her husband’s employees, called to alert them.
“The person on the other line said, ‘Unplug your Alexa devices right now. You’re being hacked,'” Danielle said.
“We unplugged all of them, and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house. 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.'”
What had been family joke became an ugly reality. “I felt invaded,” Danielle said. “A total privacy invasion. Immediately, I said, ‘I’m never plugging that device in again because I can’t trust it.'”
Danielle contacted Amazon for an immediate investigation into their privacy invasion. Amazon engineers found that indeed Alexa had listened, recorded, and sent the conversation to the contact, she said.
According to Danielle, “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!'”
With no further explanation Amazon’s part, the engineer told Alexa assumed the wrong command had been given. Danielle also said that, although the Alexa software includes instructions to inform senders before transmitting recordings, they had no audible notice.
In response to a KIRO-TV inquiry, Amazon sent the following statement: “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 reportedly offered to shut off the family’s Alexa communications features, but Danielle is done and wants her money back from Amazon. So far, according to the Fox affiliate, Amazon has not agreed to refund the family’s costs for the devices.
The home was equipped with Amazon smart home devices to control heating, lights, and their home security system. “My husband and I would joke and say, ‘I’d bet these devices are listening to what we’re saying,'” Danielle, who declined to give her last name, told KIRO-TV.
The Portland residents only learned of the error when the person who received the voice message, one of her husband’s employees, called to alert them.
“The person on the other line said, ‘Unplug your Alexa devices right now. You’re being hacked,'” Danielle said.
“We unplugged all of them, and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house. 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.'”
What had been family joke became an ugly reality. “I felt invaded,” Danielle said. “A total privacy invasion. Immediately, I said, ‘I’m never plugging that device in again because I can’t trust it.'”
Danielle contacted Amazon for an immediate investigation into their privacy invasion. Amazon engineers found that indeed Alexa had listened, recorded, and sent the conversation to the contact, she said.
According to Danielle, “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!'”
With no further explanation Amazon’s part, the engineer told Alexa assumed the wrong command had been given. Danielle also said that, although the Alexa software includes instructions to inform senders before transmitting recordings, they had no audible notice.
In response to a KIRO-TV inquiry, Amazon sent the following statement: “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 reportedly offered to shut off the family’s Alexa communications features, but Danielle is done and wants her money back from Amazon. So far, according to the Fox affiliate, Amazon has not agreed to refund the family’s costs for the devices.
