It doesn't matter, people will still tinfoil hat that the thing is listening and uploading everything they say.
I had this exact same conversation with a number of people when the news came out about the Echo being in the Wynn Hotel in Vegas.
I had this exact same conversation with a number of people when the news came out about the Echo being in the Wynn Hotel in Vegas.
There is really only one question: can this device be remotely modified to passively monitor a specific device in a way that is relatively undetectable to the end user?
If the answer is no, then fine. If the answer is yes, then what guarantee do you have that the ratchet of tyranny will not eventually deploy those capabilities? "I'm not hiding anything" is a poor response.
https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/4inesj/rooting_the_...
Am I saying people shouldn't be skeptical? No. But I'm saying people are focusing on a subset of devices when they've had cordless phones, cell phones, and PCs in their homes for decades.
I just get tired of the constant fear-mongering, if we have evidence of a problem, call out Amazon and have them fix it.
The cops in this story are banking mostly on the fact that it was accidentally triggered and they have some kind of audio, that's legit. Yet this article was written as if Amazon might magically expose some recording capability.
These microphone devices are new. People, even HNers, mistakenly think that these devices are not listening until a magic word is uttered (full stop). Many people will not realize that the connection to the internet is bidirectional for data AND code (updates). That's really bad - it means that people don't understand the capabilities of the device they've brought into their homes.
There is a problem here and the evidence is plain: (a) wide spread ignorance about how these things work, and (b) the hot mic combined with the network connection imply a capability, even if currently unexpressed. Device manufactures are not adequately informing the public of the possible side effects of these products.
Therefore, I believe that LE should gain access to these devices with a warrant under the Third Party Doctrine, and that these warrants should be published on sites like HN so that people may become aware just as they are aware of taps on phones.
Your claim that "these microphone devices are new" seems to imply you're excluding almost every smart phone we already have in our pocket, with the exact same network attached hot mic concerns.