A couple in Oregon thought Amazon’s Echo was just the thing to make their life easier.  They purchased the device and then connected it to their environmental controls, lights and security.  With Echo, they could use the Alexa voice assistant to control their whole home with voice commands. Everything was wonderful until they received a panicked phone call from someone on their contact list telling them to unplug their Alexa device.  Without the couple’s knowledge, a message had been sent to him containing a recording of their private conversation.  He was sure they had been hacked.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  No hack had occurred. In fact, Alexa had become ‘confused’. According to Amazon, the voice assistant ‘heard’ a word similar to Alexa that caused it to start recording. It then ‘heard’ a string of requests that resulted in the recorded conversation being sent to the panicked caller. Amazon has since assured the public, that occurrences such as this are very rare and that they are working to reduce the odds even more.

For this Oregon couple though, the trust has been broken.  Feeling violated, they will never be plugging the device in again. They are choosing the privacy of their home over the convenience of a voice assistant.

Sources:

• (2018, May25) ‘Alexa are you recording this?’ The Calgary Herald,  NP6
• http://business.financialpost.com/technology/personal-tech/amazons-alexa-eavesdropped-on-a-couples-conversation-and-then-sent-the-recording-to-someone-else