Thread: Be Mindfull - Amazon's Alexa is listening and learning

Amazon staff reportedly listen to Alexa recordings, but company insists it takes privacy seriously


Amazon is insisting it takes its customers' privacy and security seriously, after a Bloomberg report found recordings of voice commands made to AI-powered voice assistant Alexa could be heard by more people than expected.

Key points:

• Amazon specifies it uses data to train Alexa's speech recognition and language understanding systems
• The company did not make it clear that recordings from devices can be heard by workers in the US, India, Costa Rica and elsewhere
• Devices only record when a "wake word", like "Alexa", are spoken, but ambient noise can sometimes trick them into recording

Bloomberg News reported Amazon employees around the world listened to recordings from smart speakers as part of improving its machine learning in assisting customers.

Like Apple's Siri and the Google Home devices, Alexa is a digital assistant built into several Amazon devices.
Amazon does make it clear that it uses data "to train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems", with users given the chance to opt out.

But it does not explicitly say that training involves workers in the United States, India, Costa Rica and other nations around the world.
The report said Alexa's auditors do not have access to customers' full names or address, but they do have serial numbers and account numbers associated with the device.

"We take the security and privacy of our customers' personal information seriously," an Amazon statement given to Bloomberg said.

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