“Alexa, set the alarm for 8 a.m.”, “Alexa, play the movie Oppenheimer” or “Alexa, tell me what the weather will be like at Easter.” All of

Do Alexa, Google and Siri listen to our conversations?

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2024-03-31 22:30:03

“Alexa, set the alarm for 8 a.m.”, “Alexa, play the movie Oppenheimer” or “Alexa, tell me what the weather will be like at Easter.” All of these interactions with the smart speaker are recorded and are available to any user who requests them from Amazon. And that’s exactly what criminologist María Aperador did. But she was surprised to discover that some of the recordings made by the device were not preceded by the activation word, “Alexa.” She reported her findings in a video on TikTok and Instagram that has since gone viral. How is this possible?

Amazon’s policy is clear: no audio is stored or sent to the cloud unless the device detects the activation word. This is confirmed by the company. Amazon adds that a user knows when Alexa sends their request to the cloud due to the blue light indicator or the alert sound from the speaker.

With this in mind, David Arroyo, a Spanish researcher specialized in cybersecurity and data, explains what might have happened: “The system they have is only activated when someone says the trigger word. But, for various reasons, it can have false positives. What we would have to see is to what extent it is able to counter elements that are disturbing the interpretation of the wake word.”