listened in on users – with occasionally dubious
implications for these users’ privacy.
HOW AMAZON’S ALEXA BUBBLE
THREATENED TO BURST
Amazon’s smart speaker, the Echo, has achieved
undoubted commercial and critical popularity
since the product was first launched back in
- However, in April this year, Bloomberg
reported that Amazon was tasking employees
around the world with regularly listening to
recordings from the smart speakers. Some
workers were listening to entire commands to
assess how accurately the automated system of
Alexa, the virtual assistant inside Echo devices,
picked up on them.
Although Echo users had technically given
permission for their vocalized commands to be
verified by humans, Amazon nonetheless put out
a statement to Bloomberg to reassure Echo users
on the matter. This statement read: “We take the
security and privacy of our customers’ personal
information seriously. We only annotate an
extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings
in order [to] improve the customer experience.”
Amazon also referred to its “strict technical and
operational safeguards”, adding: “Employees
do not have direct access to information that
can identify the person or account as part of
this workflow.” Nonetheless, the original story
has drawn public concern, with ROBO Global
CIO Bill Studebaker opining to Fox Business
Network that Echo users were not fully aware
of how their data was being used. Amazon’s
indiscretion even inspired a comedy sketch on
Jimmy Kimmel Live.