‘Alexa, what do you know about us?’ What I discovered when I asked Amazon to tell me everything my family’s smart speaker had heard
‘Alexa, what do you know about us?’ What I discovered when I asked Amazon to tell me everything my family’s smart speaker had heard
For years, Alexa has been our on-call vet, DJ, teacher, parent, therapist and whipping boy. What secrets would the data reveal?
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A couple of days later, I received an email containing links to gigabytes of information: particulars of every purchase I’ve ever made – from the noir novel I bought on the day that Amazon UK launched to the 28th pair of headphones acquired in as many years. Records of every page turn of every Kindle ebook I’ve opened, every moment of Prime content I’ve watched, measured by the second. And, of course, the details of every interaction we have ever had with our Echo; every question asked, every song requested, every timer set.
They don’t make it easy to find gold among the fields of data available for download.
That’s exactly what it is.
It gave him back every piece of data he had put into Amazon which was tied to a log in. Where is the spying? He willing did this and the whole piece felt like an observation more than a worry. Just my perception that though.
"it gave him back every piece of data"
Back from where? Back from Amazon where it lives, after being collected from the writer's house. Where it is regularly used for algorithmic massage to better pluck dollars off of them and further direct their media habits.
Honestly, this is not hard.
Collecting data is different than spying.
Wow.
I know, I'm supposed to be terrified of technology, the internet and big corporate!
You're supposed to know spying is all about collecting data
I do know that, but collecting data isn't always spying.
This is the first result for "spying" in a search:
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an espionage agent or spy.
Does it apply to amazon? I think it depends on what's considered "confidential". Which is not just about what one thinks is confidential but the context in which that information is used.
Also, this is just the information they send back to you. It may only be due to GDPR. It does not mean there isn't more.
Of course there could be more but I don’t see the point of making that assumption or living that way. I’ll just limit my data input in case. While Amazon should be more transparent people still wouldn’t believe them and “if” they are truly only collecting the input I give them then I don’t consider that spying. With that said it’s good to know and each individual can choose if they’re ok with it or not.
It's a mistake to send any data to a corporation for their continued use. Yes, it's the default EULA and it's wrong. This is how Brexit and trump were able to happen - they slurped up all the facebook "confidential" data and pinpointed the most vulnerable to propaganda - suddenly MAGA is a thing and they actually got the UK to shoot itself in the foot.