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buffportion | 10 years ago

A cautionary tale: Echo starts recording when it hears the "wake" word ('Alexa' or 'Amazon'), but it can mistake other words or parts of speech for a wake word (for example, consider how close the phrase "he likes her" is to "Alexa"). Browsing through the history I have found snippets of conversations that Echo had no business listening to, and which the recorded subjects certainly did not wish to send to Amazon.

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shepardrtc|10 years ago

I've had Echo ever since it was first released for Prime members. I live in a small studio apartment. Not once has it ever accidentally turned on. Not from me, guests, or the tv.

rgoodwintx|10 years ago

I've had maybe 3-4 times in the same period, but they were understandable. Like "a mess of" triggered it once. We just laugh and move on. I do think the "always listening" argument has some merit, because it seems to me it must keep a buffer of sound to recognize so that it always catches the "A" part of Alexa. But that's not "always listening to everything", versus "always listening for a very specific initial trigger sound".

pdkl95|10 years ago

Do you have complete tcpdump logs to prove this, or are you assuming it works that way Amazon said so?

What about new versions of the firmware?

pavedwalden|10 years ago

I'd heard that users can see a complete history of all commands "heard" by Alexa. I was also told that you can "delete" entries from this history (similar to cleaning your browser history). Is that true, and is that the history you're referring to?

Although it doesn't undo the creepyness of an always-on microphone picking up your conversations, it's an interesting way for Amazon to mitigate that.

buffportion|10 years ago

Yes, you can list (and listen to) your Echo voice command history, and delete them. Frustratingly, there is no bulk delete that I have found - you have to go through them individually.