The setup of the Echo turns Amazon into an extra gateway that every online interaction has to pass through, collecting data on each one. Alexa knows what you are searching for, listening to or sending in your messages. Some smartphones do this already, particularly those made by Google and Apple who control the hardware, software and cloud services. But the difference with an Echo is that it brings together the worst aspects of smartphones and smart homes. It is not a personal device but integrated into the home environment, always waiting to listen in.
Some Echo devices already have cameras, and if facial recognition capabilities were added we could enter a world of pervasive monitoring in our most private spaces, even tracked as we move between locations. This technology gives Amazon a huge amount of control over your data, which has long been the aim of most of the tech giants.
So the potential issues run much deeper than Alexa listening in on private moments. One area of concern is the potential for putting the ears of law enforcement in our homes, schools and workplaces. Apple has a history of resisting FBI requests for user data, and Twitter is relatively transparent about reporting on how it responds to requests from governments.
But Ring, the internet-connected home-security camera company owned by Amazon, has a high-profile relationship with police that involves handing over user data. Even the way citizens and police communicate is increasingly monitored and controlled by Amazon. This kind of mass surveillance also creates severe potential for discrimination, as it has been shown repeatedly to have a worse impact on women and minority groups.
In the study, 90 participants were recruited to interact with Amazon Alexa through an Amazon Echo device by asking several health-related questions. In the first part of the study, half of the users were randomly given the opportunity to customize their privacy settings — such as deleting their voice recordings — while the others were not.
Then, another random half of the sample was able to customize their content — such as adjusting speed or content length, or selecting the source of information — while the other half was not afforded the opportunity.
Trust in Amazon Alexa Trust in Amazon Alexa went up for regular users who were given the option to adjust their privacy and content settings, the researchers found in a recent study. Daily Newsletter - E-mail sent every business day with a recap of the last 24 hours.
For the most part, the ear on the other side of Alexa is an algorithm: a computer program that processes the words, figures out what they mean, and responds appropriately. That fact that it does this so quickly usually in just a few seconds and correctly is what makes smart speakers so easy to live with. There are always humans somewhere behind the curtain pulling the levers, and occasionally there are even humans listening to your requests for weather reports in Punxsutawney, and trying to figure out what you meant when you added mangosteens to your shopping list.
After a lot of bad press on the topic, Amazon gave Alexa users the option to prevent human screeners from listening to their recordings. You can do this by going to the Privacy section of the settings menu and opting out of allowing your recordings to be used by Alexa developers.
Amazon is not the only one doing this. A Belgian news report revealed that subcontractors for Google are also listening to and transcribing some Google Assistant voice recordings, many of which were recorded accidentally and could contain sensitive personal information.
Like Amazon and Google, Apple also employs humans to make Siri work better, and recordings may be saved for up to two years. Amazon and the others argue that this is a necessary process meant to make their digital assistants better at understanding you.
Both Amazon and Google allow you to listen to and delete the recordings that Alexa or Google Assistant have made of you. When Alexa hears a command and sends those words up to the cloud , Amazon has just learned something about you.
Maybe the company learned only that you like to listen to the Police, or that you like fart jokes, or that you turn your Hue lights off at 11 p.
0コメント