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Comment by DanBlake | Hacker News Reader

The device does not communicate with amazon.com until you say "alexa" and the code/hardware for that is all done on the device itself. So its not listening and streaming everything, all the time. It is listening all the time, yes- But only for the word 'alexa' - If it hears that word, then it starts talking to amazon.com and starts doing voice recognition. This is very easy to verify yourself with a network monitor.

Do you ask people with iphones or androids to turn them off when you are close because its listening for "hey siri" or "ok google" ?

If you asked me to turn mine off when visiting, I would happily oblige you- And then label you as a nutcase who has lined their walls with tinfoil.

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I've got a Moto-X android phone and I changed its voice activation function to be the phrase "Kirk to Enterprise" (geeky yes, but also very unlikely to be spoken in public) and what I've found is that the limited ML classifier in the phone hits it regularly. I suppose I could try something in Klingon. In the referenced article, the unit activated unintentionally as well.

That is a nice way to say that your argument is unconvincing in that it depends on the ML classifier to recognize the 'wake' phrase reliably, and I have ample evidence that it has a number of false positives. And when it "wakes up" it is trying to figure out what you're asking it to do, and if you're not then you are perhaps in danger of it doing something you didn't intend. I eventually turned this feature off on my phone entirely, I could not make it reliable.

And I expect to hear interesting stories of that time when someone's phone called or did something unexpected, because the technology makes it inevitable.

> This is very easy to verify yourself with a network monitor.

Are you sure? Suppose, hypothetically, I was looking to circumvent this.

It would be extremely easy. I could monitor for key phrases (e.g. bomb, terror, NSA, freedom.) and then simply wait until the next "alexa" to send that recording to Amazon.

> If you asked me to turn mine off when visiting, I would happily oblige you- And then label you as a nutcase who has lined their walls with tinfoil.

That's an interesting response. So because someone does not like to have unknown third parties listen to everything that is said in a room they're right away tinfoil hatters?

No, because the device does not communicate with amazon.com until you say "alexa" and the code/hardware for that is all done on the device itself. So its not listening and streaming everything, all the time.

(in case you skipped that the first time)

No, I didn't skip that. It's just that there is an awful lot of trust involved here and I personally would not like a 'live mike' on with a connection to a DC in a room where I'm talking to someone in private simply because I'd have to trust that software not to contain any bugs, backdoors, overrides or other tricks. And that's a guarantee you can't really make without a ton of reverse assembly.

I'm surprised at how trusting people are when it comes to tech like this.

Regular, definitely-not-tinfoil-hat types that I know have little pieces of tape over the cameras in their laptops.

I think jacquesm's question makes more sense combined with this (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10611179) plus a possible distrust of closed software with automatic updates.

Edit: corrected link (was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10605775)

I fail to see the connection with a 'Secret pagan basilica in Rome', can you please explain?

Sorry, my phone's clipboard is very erratic and pasted the wrong link. It's kind of funny in a Dan Brown/Da Vinci Code sort of way, to think that there's a link between modern surveillance and ancient Roman religions.

The link was supposed to point to another comment in the same thread. I have corrected it.

But that's like saying that your telephone or PC does not communicate until you invoke it. Arguably, that may be the default mode of the devices, but it is not strictly true ("hackers", legal & illegal wiretaps, etc.). You're depending upon the device to behave as it should, but you don't have complete authority over the device.

> The device does not communicate with amazon.com until you say "alexa" and the code/hardware for that is all done on the device itself. So its not listening and streaming everything, all the time. It is listening all the time, yes- But only for the word 'alexa' - If it hears that word, then it starts talking to amazon.com and starts doing voice recognition. This is very easy to verify yourself with a network monitor.

My personal issue with this is: That could be changed at anytime without any warning. Yes, I tend towards the tinfoil side of things, but the fact is: You can't really always know that, unless you are consistently monitoring the connection.

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