Amazon Echo Club

Originally Posted by ApK

BTW, we moved our gen 1 Dot out to the living room for our holiday party, and just for the heck of it, I tried once again to pair it to the cheap old Bluetooth-adapter on our living room speakers that I was unable to pair with in the past.

Whether because the Dot was moved, or because it got some firmware update, I don't know, but now it paired and worked without issue (and sounded fine).

So if you have failed to pair with some Bluetooth device in the past, it might be worth trying again.

I saw my Echo updating its FW a few days ago. When it updates the FW the ring on top glows yellow/orange. So Amazon may have patched up the BT issue.

[CWatkinsNash]

I've been using Alexa on my Fire since I've been in Florida. She's been quite useful, and makes me miss my Echo a bit less.

[tubemonkey]

Alexa: Who dunnit?

In what may be a first, police in Arkansas asked Amazon for recordings potentially made by an Echo device in connection with a murder investigation. Amazon declined to provide the data.

Police in Bentonville, Ark. asked Amazon for audio and other records from an Echo digital assistant in the home of James Andrew Bates after Victor Collins was found dead in Bates' hot tub last year, The Information reported Tuesday.

But in a digital twist that raises questions about privacy inside the home as we increasingly surround ourselves with devices that track our movements, listen to our utterances and record our activities, police also twice asked Amazon for audio from Bates' Echo.

Amazon refused both times. In a statement to USA TODAY, Amazon said will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on it. Amazon objects to over broad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course, the company said.

It's important to note that "always listening" doesn't mean "always recording." The Echo is actually only always listening for its “wake word,” which by default is the name of its voice recognition program Alexa.

The Echo only keeps fewer than 60 seconds of recorded sound in its storage buffer. As new sound is recorded, the old is erased. So there's no audio record made of what went on in a room where an Echo sits.

[ApK]

I'd like to hope that under the circumstances, if there is a chance of the system having evidence, that Amazon is acting to preserve it until the dispensation of the legal demand.
And if there is, I hope there should be no problem getting the legal demand and, that Amazon will then promptly cooperate.

[Blossom]

Amazon does keep weeks of recordings. You have to asked for them to be deleted from your account. I've done this a few times.

Sent from my XT1528

I saw this link in a thread in our News forum. This seems to be a more relevant place to discuss this though as most of those readers don't have an Alexa enabled device.

https://www.rt.com/usa/371984-amazon...nt-recordings/

According to this article Echos, and I assume Dots as well, are always listening to the sounds around them and are actually recording snippits of those sounds and storing them in the Amazon cloud. I'm not sure how accurate the article is what with journalism being a joke these days, but it does make sense that Amazon could do this. So it brings up the privacy issue of having your Echos, Dots, and many other smart home devices always on and always listening and often recording parts of what they are listening to or commands they are being asked to execute. I'm definitely not a tin-foil hat person, but I also never knew that always on Alexa devices were recording snippits of my life and storing them on a cloud. Good information to know I guess.

[ApK]

Until someone reverse engineers the source, or sniffs the traffic and proves otherwise to my satisfaction, I tend to trust what Amazon says, and what they say is that it's constantly listening LOCALLY ONLY for the wake word, then ONLY STUFF SAID following the wake word (you know, while the blue light ring is active....) is sent to the cloud.
So unless someone in the room said the wake work followed by something significant to the crime, it's unlikely there is audio evidence in Amazon's cloud, but it's worth checking.

Hmm. I wonder if an Alexa "Call 911!" skill would be useful?

Originally Posted by ApK

Until someone reverse engineers the source, or sniffs the traffic and proves otherwise to my satisfaction, I tend to trust what Amazon says, and what they say is that it's constantly listening LOCALLY ONLY for the wake word, then ONLY STUFF SAID following the wake word (you know, while the blue light ring is active....) is sent to the cloud.
So unless someone in the room said the wake work followed by something significant to the crime, it's unlikely there is audio evidence in Amazon's cloud, but it's worth checking.

Hmm. I wonder if an Alexa "Call 911!" skill would be useful?

i agree and I'm not too concerned about Alexa. Companies like Amazon and Apple have pushed back against the law enforcement community whenever they have demanded access to accounts and information stored on devices, and that is good. They tell law enforcement bring your warrant and we will comply, but don't expect carte blanche access. However, there are a lot of smart home devices that might not be playing so nicely. And there are likely some devices that record information because they need to, but that information might not be what you would want spread around. So it pays to understand the high tech world in which we live and to be cautious. Wearing a tin-foil hat is over reaction in my opinion, but constant vigilance is a good idea. Be aware of your surroundings and environment and the devices you welcome into your home and life. They have no conscience as they are merely machines.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by ApK

Until someone reverse engineers the source, or sniffs the traffic and proves otherwise to my satisfaction, I tend to trust what Amazon says, and what they say is that it's constantly listening LOCALLY ONLY for the wake word, then ONLY STUFF SAID following the wake word (you know, while the blue light ring is active....) is sent to the cloud.
So unless someone in the room said the wake work followed by something significant to the crime, it's unlikely there is audio evidence in Amazon's cloud, but it's worth checking.

Hmm. I wonder if an Alexa "Call 911!" skill would be useful?

But why should ANYTHING I ask be sent to the cloud? Why does it need to be preserved?

I have wondered if there are or will be apps to integrate Alexa with medical/emergency alert-type services, or with 911.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Catlady

But why should ANYTHING I ask be sent to the cloud? Why does it need to be preserved?

I have wondered if there are or will be apps to integrate Alexa with medical/emergency alert-type services, or with 911.

It has to go to the cloud to do effective speech recognition and Natural Language Processing, not to mention to do whatever it is you asked it to do.

The preserving it offers some benefits to both users and, mostly to Amazon.
Primarily it let's Amazon have a big dataset to improve the recognition and NLP.
On the user side, I often go into the app and replay something that was said recently, either to get hints on how to make the system work better for me, or just to remind myself what I actually said when the recognition was wildly and humorously inaccurate.
It's come in very handy when I check the shopping list at the grocery store and am CERTAIN that I didn't say we needed "intentional woodchuck vacation."

ApK

LOL, "intentional woodchuck vacation"! I have all sorts of trouble with Siri. She works fine for asking questions and to do most tasks, but for some reason when I ask her to dictate a text message or email it comes out as total gibberish. So yes, Amazon, Apple, and others need to look at what we say and how their devices interpret that to make them better. One thing Alexa needs more work on is alternative ways to phrase commands. If you are locked into a strict verbatim command and no flexibility, you will screw up on occassion, or perhaps even often. But having a bit of flexibility is good. I suspect in real lfe we don't often use the same verbatim command over and over again, except with kids and pets. Stop! Quit! Sit! Don't bite your sister! Don't set your brother on fire!

[Blossom]

Ask Alexa about her New Year's resolution.

Sent from my XT1528

[Purple Lady]

Check out Alexa's response to a toddler.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/12...ty-mind-video/

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Check out Alexa's response to a toddler.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/12...ty-mind-video/

I love the response from the parents:

no, no, no no, no... Alexa, stop!

[tubemonkey]

I finally enabled Jeopardy. Pretty cool app