Because if they would publish it, the other security experts would say "well, duh, that's how it works".

It is just the average people that are unaware of it, or don't seem to care.

be aware, everything you say around amazon, apple, alphabet, meta, and any other corporate trash products are being sold, trained on, and sent to your local alphabet agency. it's been this way for a while, but this is a nice reminder to know when to speak and when to listen

be aware, everything you say around amazon, apple, alphabet, meta, and any other corporate trash products are being sold, trained on, and sent to your local alphabet agency. it's been this way for a while, but this is a nice reminder to know when to speak and when to listen

Per that article, it only happens when it thinks it's been activated, and only when you opt in. Not much of a bombshell.

So... if you own an inexpensive Alexa device, it just doesn't have the horsepower to process your requests on-device. Your basic $35 device is just a microphone and a wifi streamer (ok, it also handles buttons and fun LED light effects). The Alexa device SDK can run on a $5 ESP-32. That's how little it needs to work on-site.

Everything you say is getting sent to the cloud where it is NLP processed, parsed, then turned into command intents and matched against the devices and services you've installed. It does a match against the phrase 'slots' and returns results which are then turned into voice and played back on the speaker.

With the new LLM-based Alexa+ services, it's all on the cloud. Very little of the processing can happen on-device. If you want to use the service, don't be surprised the voice commands end up on the cloud. In most cases, it already was.

If you don't like it, look into Home Assistant. But last I checked, to keep everything local and not too laggy, you'll need a super beefy (expensive) local home server. Otherwise, it's shipping your audio bits out to the cloud as well. There's no free lunch.

::: spoiler spoiler
It still captures your voice

:::

jk (I hope)

Or simply "...they will be deleted after Alexa processes your request and generates a token for AI training".

Only a fool would put an Amazon listening device in their home.

That's covered by my phone.

Always listening AI. I always thought the future would be awesome but capitalism has figured out a way for it to not be that.

What happens if I buy one and start playing porn on my computer ?

I have always told people to avoid Amazon.

They have doorbells to watch who comes to your house and when.

Indoor and outdoor security cameras to monitor when you go outside, for how long, and why.

They acquired roomba, which not only maps out your house, but they have little cameras in them as well, another angle to monitor you through your house in more personal areas that indoor cameras might not see.

They have the Alexa products meant to record you at all times for their own use and intent.

Why do you think along with Amazon Prime subscriptions you get free cloud storage, free video streaming, free music? They are categorizing you in the most efficient and accurate way possible.

Boycott anything Amazon touches

The part that really gets me is that you have to opt out to not have everything you say saved. Bonkers that that isn't the default! There's no good user-based reason for this. Alexa doesn't remember shit for users, like any AI there's no recall feature. You can't say remember what I told you last night - give the address for that place, I was drunk and don't remember the name.

Jam the mic?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08Y5GGP4D

Works on my phone...

Why not fuck around and find out?

I honestly have no idea why anyone who cares even 1% about their privacy would have ever bought one of these abominations in the first place. If I ever receive one as a gift I will burn it with fire.

Amazon employee with no piss breaks listening in on my echo:

"How many fucking cats does this guy have? Just chose one name and call it that!"

Edit: "I don't know Jeff, sell him a fucking dr seuss book or something the guys mental."

Emphasis on "when it thinks". Not much point to a privacy control that the device can just ignore for unspecified reasons, and they had 150+ instances of that occurring in this data set.

I agree with your sentiment and despise Amazon but they do not own roomba the deal fell through.

I don't think Google home listens in.

Because I'd absolutely be disappeared by now if it did.