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It Looks Innocent Enough Doesn’t It?
John saw an article a few weeks ago ….
… literally gushing with enthusiasm about The Wynn Hotel in Vegas installing an Amazon Echo in every room. I wasn’t so enthused. Imagine someone stationed in your room, 24*7 jumping up to your every instruction … “James-open the drapes”, “James - get me some coffee”, “James - put on Fox News” - ok - just checking - nobody would ever say that - would they?
Turns out someone at Wynn thought it would be a great idea to replace ‘James’ with ‘Alexa’ … “Alexa -open the drapes”, “Alexa - get me some coffee” .. you get the drift.
Want to know more? There you go.
My problem is that what is Alexa actually listening to. When is it listening? I mean now if you want to quietly murder someone in your hotel room - it’s got a tad riskier … and you certainly won’t need Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
Turns out, that we are about to find out the answers to these questions since the police have just requested Amazon to provide all the recordings that Alexa has made on a specific Echo that was in the home where a murder took place.
Interesting to note that Amazon provided some of the information requested - but not all.
Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us.
The point is then, that Amazon is storing something and could release it to the authorities if the correct legal process is adhered to. No fight needed.
Now how secure do you feel? Amazon would know if you asked Alexa to watch Fox News,
Graham shudders
Alexa is always listening, and in the boudoirs of Vegas that could get pretty interesting… So, what goes on in Vegas now stays on an Amazon server? And the server of whoever hacks Alexa that day, of course.