This should be standard info at this point if you buy one of these things, but I still find Amazon's specifically-crafted responses to this so frustrating.
Out of one side of their mouth is the standard obfuscation with not selling _personal information_ or _requests_ per se:
> "We are not in the business of selling our customers' personal information and we do not share Alexa requests with advertising networks."
But out of the other side is indeed confirmation that they're sharing the "results":
> "Developers get the information necessary to fulfill your requests within their skills, such as answers when you play a trivia skill, or the name of the song you want to play..."
Maybe they're not actually sending raw audio or transcripts (or they are in some cases or with some partners, I would not be surprised about that either), but they're sending some amorphous amount of "information necessary to fulfill [our] requests" with no specifics obviously. A non-shady company would clearly articulate what they're sharing.
How do you trust this at all, or not just assume it's all going to the "41 advertising partners" they currently share it with?
> Amazon confirmed to The Verge that it does use voice data from Alexa interactions to inform relevant ads shown on Amazon or other sites where Amazon places ads. “Similar to what you’d experience if you made a purchase on Amazon.com or requested a song through Amazon Music, if you ask Alexa to order paper towels or to play a song on Amazon Music, the record of that purchase or song play may inform relevant ads shown on Amazon or other sites where Amazon places ads.” Amazon spokesperson Lauren Raemhild said in an email.
> Amazon told The Verge that it believes the research is flawed. “Many of the conclusions in this research are based on inaccurate inferences or speculation by the authors, and do not accurately reflect how Alexa works,” Raemhild said. “We are not in the business of selling our customers’ personal information and we do not share Alexa requests with advertising networks.”
So if you make a purchase via Alexa it informs your recommendations like if you made a purchase via the website? If this is the case, then the title is incorrect: the voice data is not being used, it's the actual purchase history that's being used.
All this talk about smartphones and Alexa listening to conversations to power ads fail to comprehend the economics of it. Constantly recording and analyzing audio to parse out relevant conversations would take lots of compute power and transmission usage. I am incredibly skeptical that this would yield enough of an advertising edge to make it a net positive. And this isn't even touching on the reputation hit of companies did this.
[+] [-] andrewgioia|3 years ago|reply
Out of one side of their mouth is the standard obfuscation with not selling _personal information_ or _requests_ per se:
> "We are not in the business of selling our customers' personal information and we do not share Alexa requests with advertising networks."
But out of the other side is indeed confirmation that they're sharing the "results":
> "Developers get the information necessary to fulfill your requests within their skills, such as answers when you play a trivia skill, or the name of the song you want to play..."
Maybe they're not actually sending raw audio or transcripts (or they are in some cases or with some partners, I would not be surprised about that either), but they're sending some amorphous amount of "information necessary to fulfill [our] requests" with no specifics obviously. A non-shady company would clearly articulate what they're sharing.
How do you trust this at all, or not just assume it's all going to the "41 advertising partners" they currently share it with?
[+] [-] ctvo|3 years ago|reply
> Amazon told The Verge that it believes the research is flawed. “Many of the conclusions in this research are based on inaccurate inferences or speculation by the authors, and do not accurately reflect how Alexa works,” Raemhild said. “We are not in the business of selling our customers’ personal information and we do not share Alexa requests with advertising networks.”
Doesn't seem very surprising.
[+] [-] Manuel_D|3 years ago|reply
All this talk about smartphones and Alexa listening to conversations to power ads fail to comprehend the economics of it. Constantly recording and analyzing audio to parse out relevant conversations would take lots of compute power and transmission usage. I am incredibly skeptical that this would yield enough of an advertising edge to make it a net positive. And this isn't even touching on the reputation hit of companies did this.
[+] [-] AbbeFaria|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] u2077|3 years ago|reply