Not only is Alexa listening when you speak to an Echo smart speaker, an Amazon employee is potentially listening, too.Amazon (AMZN) employs a global team that transcribes the voice commands captured after the wake word is detected and feeds them back into the software to help improve Alexa’s grasp of human speech so it can respond more efficiently in the future.
Amazon reportedly employs thousands of full-time workers and contractors in several countries, including the United States, Costa Rica and Romania, to listen to as many as 1,000 audio clips in shifts that last up to nine hours. The audio clips they listen to were described as “mundane” and even sometimes “possibly criminal,” including listening to a potential sexual assault.
Source: CNN Technology News
Date: April 12th, 2019
Link (includes video):
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/11/tech/amazon-alexa-listening/index.htmlDiscussion
If the audio clips don’t come with a name and address, is this even a privacy issue?
Why does Amazon need to have humans listen to what Alexa is hearing?
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