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Amazon employees are listening to what you say to Alexa, here’s how to stop them
James G:
This is probably old news by now because it has been all over the news. Amazon has thousands of employees listening to Alexa even when you think it is not activated. Here is how to turn it off:
To turn these settings off, do this:
Open the Alexa app on your phone.
Tap the menu button on the top left of the screen (3 horizontal lines).
Select "Alexa Account."
Choose "Alexa Privacy."
Select "Manage how your data improves Alexa."
Turn off the button next to "Help Develop New Features."
HA Dave:
--- Quote from: James G on April 16, 2019, 04:02:11 PM ---...... Amazon has thousands of employees listening to Alexa
--- End quote ---
Thousands "world-wide" because German speaking techs are better at finding errors in German understanding than say most Koreans. And that is all they are doing is reviewing errors and problems in Amazons understanding. If you ever have a problem... it will tell you it will review the problem.
--- Quote from: James G on April 16, 2019, 04:02:11 PM ---even when you think it is not activated.
--- End quote ---
That part isn't true. Fake news, bold-faced lie... who knows? But it just isn't true.
Tuicemen:
--- Quote from: HA Dave on April 17, 2019, 12:56:05 AM ---
--- Quote from: James G on April 16, 2019, 04:02:11 PM ---even when you think it is not activated.
--- End quote ---
That part isn't true. Fake news, bold-faced lie... who knows? But it just isn't true.
--- End quote ---
I agree with Dave, however it is possible Alexa is listening when you think she isn't but not all the time. The reason is she misunderstood you and thought she heard the wake word.
Proof of this can be heard for your self if you listen to the history. Yes you can pull that up!
Amazon employees are working to improve that which is where the "they are listening to you all the time" misconception comes from.
bkenobi:
Actually, it depends on what you focus on in the OP statement.
If you read that "Alexa is always listening", this statement is 100% true. Alexa is always listening for her wake word. She may think she heard it and start recording when not intended, but she is, by spec, not recording all the time.
If you read "Amazon employees are listening to everything you say", well...that would be a stretch and I don't think I've heard anyone claim that before. The literature states that Alexa will only record once she hears the key word. That may be different than what is recorded from the "help Amazon with development" setting. That will flag any time the box doesn't do what it was supposed to do. IOW, you ask it to play Spongebob and it plays "Spongebob helps lonely wife" then an employee will HOPEFULLY fix whatever happened so your 4yo doesn't learn some new things...
I'd call this Alexa alert partially true but a bit of alarmism. That said, there is nothing that says another entity couldn't find a way to utilize the microphone for their own reasons. Having any IoT device exposes you to a risk unless the developer is careful and cares.
dhouston:
Here's the original Bloomberg article.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-10/is-anyone-listening-to-you-on-alexa-a-global-team-reviews-audio
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