Smart column Echo recorded a private conversation and sent a random contact

Technology helps us to live, work and relax, it really is. At the same time, they should be handled with care so that later it would not be excruciatingly painful. In particular, special attention should be paid to protecting the private information of users - many companies are engaged in this.



And they do it for a reason - the results are there, some companies are really able to protect their users and their data from external factors like hacking. But from time to time there are problem situations that lead to sad results - the attackers do get to the cherished "needle in the egg." True, it also happens that technology fails sort of like on their own.



This happened to Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant, living in the smart Echo column. According to a number of media reports, the other day, one such column recorded the conversation of its owner with another person. And then the audio file was sent to a random contact by the column itself. Moreover, the victims did not intend to record their conversation, sending to someone - all the more.

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Amazon spent a lot of time and money convincing everyone about the security of their devices. Representatives of her stated that in the passive mode, the speakers do not record anything at all. Moreover, they do not even listen to their owners - people. Again and again it was proved that the system is activated only after the owner utters the word “Alexa”. True, there is a contradiction - if the system does not listen to anything, how then does it hear an appeal to itself? But this is a rhetorical question. Returning to the case of recording and transferring an audio file.



Echo customer from Portland, Oregon, USA, believed all these stories. She bought several speakers at once and placed them in her home with smart bulbs. Daniel, the so-called fan of technology, decided that the company could not be mistaken, and installed gadgets everywhere.



In fact, it turned out a little different. Alexa did not just record a private conversation, which Daniel had with her husband, but also sent her to a random number in the address book. And all this - without the permission of the owners. Daniel and her husband found out about everything after they received a call from her husband's colleague. He said that they should disconnect the devices as quickly as possible, since someone had hacked them.



The victims did not believe the husband’s colleague, having decided that he was joking. But this time the jokes didn’t smell - to be believed, the caller told about the essence of the conversation. The spouses did not discuss anything of this kind, it was about covering the floor in their house with wood. But hardly anyone would have rejoiced at the place of the married couple, even the transfer to the third hands of such a minor conversation. After all, who needs your conversations recorded and broadcast unknown where, right?



In a media interview, the woman said that she felt as if someone else, a mysterious observer, had snuck into her life. Of course, Daniel turned off all smart devices. Deciding never to connect them again, because you simply can not trust them.



Amazon support confirmed the incident, adding that for now the company will not comment on the situation. A spokesman said the victims were faced with "an extremely rare situation."







According to the support, the reason was in an unfortunate set of circumstances. The fact is that the spouses during the conversation mentioned a word that for the column seemed similar to Alexa. Then the phrase “send a message” flashed in the conversation. After the column asked who had to be sent to it, one of the names from the user’s contact book sounded. The column began to record the conversation of its owners, and after it was completed, it sent the recording of the conversation to the very person whose name was spoken in the conversation.



Whether this is true or not, we hardly know, although anything is possible.



After the support of Amazon was asked about the possibility of a repetition of this situation, company representatives said that the probability is extremely small. However, a few months ago it became known of another similar case, when a column ordered doll houses and cookies for listeners on a TV channel in one of the US cities. Plus, some speakers laugh angrily, frightening their owners, besides laughter, also with incomprehensible phrases. Information security experts believe that someone is hacking into the speakers.



Smart devices at home, especially those equipped with microphones (which is almost all modern gadgets) should be treated with caution. A phrase incorrectly interpreted by a gadget can cause a service call, purchase of a product, or, as in the case described above, recording a private conversation sending an audio file to a random contact. And if this is unpleasant for ordinary people, how difficult can it be for corporations that keep their secrets like the apple of their eye?