Alexa recorded private conversation and sent it to someone in contact list

[ElderflowerWaterIsDelish]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44248122

Aibu to be wary about ever buying one of these after knowing it can do that?

(although I still kind of want one for the other features it can do)

You can turn off the ordering function.

We have 5 Alexas of various forms. I love them.

I find them very creepy too, surveillance society and all that.

I was at a conference with someone from Google Home a few weeks back and he said they had - just the week before - got the capability for it to hold conversations. So in a couple of months they'll roll out an update, and it will be able, for example, to phone and book a table at a restaurant for you.

That blew my mind. If you have the time to tell a machine to do it, you have the time to do it yourself!

Will admit, despite having 2, I didn't know they recorded things.

I use mine:
To play radio
To play podcasts
To play music
To play audiobooks
To play white noise/ambient sounds
To tell me the weather
To tell me information about my commute
Remind me of whats on my calendar
As a bedside alarm clock
Turn lights on and off by voice command
Set reminders and timers
Add things to to-do and shopping lists
Order things quickly as I remember

I find that it is all by voice command so so useful. Allows me to multitask and whilst initially I thought voice command lights were just the height of laziness now I use them all the time. I love how everything is all synced together automatically. If I owned my own house and was a basquillionairre then I'd have it all fully smart connected up and voice controlled, video doorbell, locks, windows, curtains, lights, heating, the lot. It's one of those things that the more you put into it in terms of programming etc, the more you get out of it.

Have you got your microphone turned off on your phone?

MsJinglyJones

Love mine, we have three, all respond to different names.

Most people on this thread probably have their phones listening to them anyway.

I find it very hard to get worked up about the minute possibility of someone listening to my mundane conversations.

People have MULTIPLE Alexas?

Can they chat to each other?

You can talk to each other through them. Handy rather than shouting up the stairs. You can also talk to family on them if they have them at their house.

I have our Alexa programmed to respond to "computer", because I like feeling like I am on Star Trek

Just as long as nobody calls it HAL.

MrMeSeeks I don't know. Can you tell me how to do that?

If I want to know the weather, I open the window, and if I want to buy something, I get on my horse and ride to the local market. Are people really that lazy? :)

I got an Echo as I needed a new speaker and that one had good reviews. It has pretty good sound for the price. A bit annoying that you can't choose your own activation word, as all the ones you can use come up in normal conversation, my son's name being Alex (close enough, apparently). We refer to Alexa herself as Voldemort.

My sister's one does this creepy laugh when its not even meant to be on.

Apparently they do/can - My DS was telling me about this the other day - I'm glad I know now, because if my Alexa did that unexpectedly, I'd have had a nervous breakdown. I'm already convinced our house is haunted.

We don't have the ordering function on. Lord knows what would turn up. I must remember to turn it off when having dodgy conversations

If I want to know the weather, I open the window, and if I want to buy something, I get on my horse and ride to the local market. Are people really that lazy?

Yeah true although opening the window doesn't tell you whether it will rain later on that day. I am afraid I still haven't heard anything magical that Alexa does that would convince me to part with any cash. And even the remotest chance that it could accidentally call someone I was talking about is enough to put me off for life. Obviously the data it collects is being stored somewhere. You might think it's mundane conversations, but it's actually pretty creepy and it seems odd that people would be voluntarily signing up to surveillance when Alexa doesn't really offer anything new.

it seems odd that people would be voluntarily signing up to surveillance

Apparently there is that risk with some Chinese companies too. You've been warned.

If I want to know the weather, I open the window, and if I want to buy something, I get on my horse and ride to the local market. Are people really that lazy?

Nah, just disabled.

You do have to be careful with Alexas.

People have MULTIPLE Alexas?

Can they chat to each other?

Once you have more than two, they plot to take over the house

I had the conversation on MN already. The amount of people who thought the fact that Alexa listens to their conversations and answers was astonishing and scary.
I wouldn't be surprised if they only shrugged their shoulders reading this and ignored it.

Most people on this thread probably have their phones listening to them anyway.
Nope.

I find it very hard to get worked up about the minute possibility of someone listening to my mundane conversations.
Perfect! You are just the customer they require!

Wow...

This is why I won't have one.

I do lots of things that are odd, like voluntarily giving shops my credit card number via the Internet, or sending people I have never met money because they claim they will then send me their second-hand shoes. Or getting into a plane and letting some man who could be on drugs for all I know fly me several thousand feet into the air. Or buying packets of ready-made food even though some have been discovered to have bits of dead rat etc. in them. I've weighed up the convenience versus the risk and decided to go for it. But I do understand that other people don't want to do that, and I respect their choice.

@MsJinglyJones

Go to settings, find microphone settings and it should list all the apps that have access to your microphone. You can toggle them on and off accordingly.

Ah, sorry swimlyn. I forgot you could see into the settings of every Mumsnet user ever.

ICantCope I'll assume that you missed the fact that was a jokey response to someone else's similar coment.