Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Thousands of Amazon Employees Listen to Alexa Requests for Improvement Purposes [Updated]
Amazon has thousands of employees around the world that listen to voice recordings captured in the homes of Amazon Echo owners, reports Bloomberg.
Voice recordings are captured when the Alexa wake word is spoken and then a subset of those recordings are listened to, transcribed, annotated, and added back into the software as part of Amazon's effort to help Alexa better respond to voice commands. Amazon has facilities for Alexa improvement in places that range from Boston to Costa Rica, India, and Romania.
Seven people familiar with Amazon's review process spoke to Bloomberg and revealed some insider details on the program that may be concerning to Echo users.
While much of the work has been described as "mundane," employees have sometimes come across more private recordings, such as a woman singing off key in the shower or a child screaming for help. Amazon employees have internal chat rooms where they share files when help is needed parsing a word or, more concerning, when an "amusing recording" is found.
Two workers told Bloomberg that they've heard recordings that are upsetting or potentially criminal, and while Amazon claims to have procedures in place for such occurrences, some employees have been told it's not the company's job to interfere.
According to Bloomberg, recordings sent to employees who work on Alexa don't include a user's full name or address, but an account number, first name, and the device's serial number are associated with the recording.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Amazon said that an "extremely small" number of Alexa voice recordings are annotated and that there are measures in place to protect user identity.
Google too has employees who are able to access audio snippets from Google Assistant for the purpose of improving the product, but Google, like Apple, removes personally identifiable information and also distorts audio.
Amazon does not appear to be removing all personally identifiable information, and while the Echo is meant to collect audio only when a wake word is spoken, the employees who spoke to Bloomberg said they often hear audio files that appear to have started recording with no wake word at all.
Alexa users concerned with the data that's being collected and used by Amazon should make sure to enable all privacy features and uncheck the option for letting Amazon save Echo recordings. Additional details on how Amazon uses the voice recordings it collects can be found in the original Bloomberg article.
Update: Amazon has provided the following statement to MacRumors as clarification: "By default, Echo devices are designed to detect only your chosen wake word (Alexa, Amazon, Computer or Echo). The device detects the wake word by identifying acoustic patterns that match the wake word. No audio is stored or sent to the cloud unless the device detects the wake word (or Alexa is activated by pressing a button)."
Voice recordings are captured when the Alexa wake word is spoken and then a subset of those recordings are listened to, transcribed, annotated, and added back into the software as part of Amazon's effort to help Alexa better respond to voice commands. Amazon has facilities for Alexa improvement in places that range from Boston to Costa Rica, India, and Romania.
Seven people familiar with Amazon's review process spoke to Bloomberg and revealed some insider details on the program that may be concerning to Echo users.
While much of the work has been described as "mundane," employees have sometimes come across more private recordings, such as a woman singing off key in the shower or a child screaming for help. Amazon employees have internal chat rooms where they share files when help is needed parsing a word or, more concerning, when an "amusing recording" is found.
Two workers told Bloomberg that they've heard recordings that are upsetting or potentially criminal, and while Amazon claims to have procedures in place for such occurrences, some employees have been told it's not the company's job to interfere.
Sometimes they hear recordings they find upsetting, or possibly criminal. Two of the workers said they picked up what they believe was a sexual assault. When something like that happens, they may share the experience in the internal chat room as a way of relieving stress. Amazon says it has procedures in place for workers to follow when they hear something distressing, but two Romania-based employees said that, after requesting guidance for such cases, they were told it wasn't Amazon's job to interfere.Alexa users have the option to disable the use of their voice recordings for improvements to the service, but some may not know that these options exist. Amazon also does not make it clear that actual people are listening to the recordings.
According to Bloomberg, recordings sent to employees who work on Alexa don't include a user's full name or address, but an account number, first name, and the device's serial number are associated with the recording.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Amazon said that an "extremely small" number of Alexa voice recordings are annotated and that there are measures in place to protect user identity.
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. For example, this information helps us train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand your requests, and ensure the service works well for everyone.It is standard practice to use some recordings for product improvement. Apple has employees who listen to Siri queries to make sure the interpretation of a request lines up with what the person said. Recordings are stripped of identifiable information, however, and stored for six months with a random identifier.
We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system. Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow. All information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption and audits of our control environment to protect it.
Google too has employees who are able to access audio snippets from Google Assistant for the purpose of improving the product, but Google, like Apple, removes personally identifiable information and also distorts audio.
Amazon does not appear to be removing all personally identifiable information, and while the Echo is meant to collect audio only when a wake word is spoken, the employees who spoke to Bloomberg said they often hear audio files that appear to have started recording with no wake word at all.
Alexa users concerned with the data that's being collected and used by Amazon should make sure to enable all privacy features and uncheck the option for letting Amazon save Echo recordings. Additional details on how Amazon uses the voice recordings it collects can be found in the original Bloomberg article.
Update: Amazon has provided the following statement to MacRumors as clarification: "By default, Echo devices are designed to detect only your chosen wake word (Alexa, Amazon, Computer or Echo). The device detects the wake word by identifying acoustic patterns that match the wake word. No audio is stored or sent to the cloud unless the device detects the wake word (or Alexa is activated by pressing a button)."
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19 weeks ago
Comical. People laugh at Apple for not having good "Machine learning" / voice assistance when it's really just other companies sucking every byte of personal data to make the "user experience" better.
19 weeks ago
Is there an option to enable voice recordings to be sent to Apple when the user says "Goddammit Siri you suck!"
19 weeks ago
Thousands of Amazon Employees Listen to Alexa Requests
What an abhorrent violation of user privacy! :mad:for Improvement Purposes
Oh, well then, it's all cool. Carry on. Gotta purposely improve things, yeah?:rolleyes:
19 weeks ago
If only some people realized what they are giving up (re: personal information and privacy) for the sake of Amazon and Google products. The sad thing is, many do know and just don't care.
19 weeks ago
Should be opt-in only, and we should have exact control over what they can do with it.
19 weeks ago
Incredibly unacceptable. What the hell is wrong with these large tech companies completely trampling on customer privacy.
19 weeks ago
I stand with Amazon. They are an honest company run by an honest man. I have nothing to hide. They have no agenda other than to deliver the best speaker with the best voice assistant, which, I might add, is something Apple FAILED to do with the HomePod. And we all know how shady Apple is. Their privacy stance is a farce.
I laughed so hard, I peed. Thank you!
19 weeks ago
I stand with Amazon. They are an honest company run by an honest man. I have nothing to hide. They have no agenda other than to deliver the best speaker with the best voice assistant, which, I might add, is something Apple FAILED to do with the HomePod. And we all know how shady Apple is. Their privacy stance is a farce.
Knock it off, dude. April Fools is long gone.
19 weeks ago
Interesting, so no Amazon Prime, Amazon Video, Google Search, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.?
I don't have any Amazon or Google voice or music products. I do not use any Google products (including search). I do use Amazon prime (for deliveries) and I do control what information I share with Amazon (re: address and payment details). All my Macs, iPhones, and iPad are locked down. Nothing goes out that I don't know about.If you want to use Google and Amazon in the manner that the article addresses, have at it. I want no part of it.
If you want to try and paint me in some corner with the "its all the same because everyone has information on you already" rhetoric, you can try that on someone else.
19 weeks ago
Apparently, Google and Amazon seem to think there is some merit to listening in.
I guess you missed the part of the article says Apple has its employee listen to the Siri queries as well?
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