... to think a family member could listen in via Alexa without us knowing?

[NoseyAlexa]

My elderly aunt was given an Alexa a few months ago as a birthday gift by a family member - lets call him John. John set it up for her and she loves it and uses it every day. She doesn't have her own Amazon account that it's linked to and no app of her own that is connected to it.

There have now been a few incidents that have caused me to wonder if John has listened in to conversations between my aunt and I using the Alexa. It was actually my aunt that first raised this, but now I'm convinced too.

I've done some research and can see that people can use the device to listen in on conversations but the Alexa should notifiy you that someone has dropped in. However my 12 year old DD who is very techy is telling me there are ways of "jailbreaking" this, whatever that means, to disable the notification.

And apparently even unplugging the damn thing might not be enough to stop someone listening in as it has some kind of back up battery. Aunt has started unplugging it when she's not using it which has caused the latest incident which has convinced me that John is dropping in to the Alexa somehow.

Does anyone have any experience of this to tell me for sure it can be done?

No experience but I wouldn't at all be surprised if it was possible though.

How horrible for your aunt and you. Can they be turned off until she actually wants to use it?

The app shows transcripts of conversations that you have with Alexa. Normally if it picks up anything not aimed at the device it appears as ‘indistinct sound’ rather than a transcript of what was said.

There is a setting called ‘Do not disturb’ where Alexa won’t send through audio notifications to that device e.g in a kids room you won’t get shipping notifications waking them. However the light at the bottom still comes on so you know something is going on.

Also with the drop in feature, you can’t drop in on a room set to do not disturb.

There may well be a way to listen in through the back door of the device but how easy that is for the average person (doubtful it took me forever to find some of the basic settings!) and how obvious it would be to the device holder, I don’t know.

If she’s very concerned could she get a cheap Amazon Kindle/fire device, have someone set it up on there for her and delete John’s access so she has full control?

Alternatively, if she unplugs it between uses I’d imagine she’s not using it a great deal. Could she just unplug, put in a cupboard and tell John she doesn’t find she uses it?

Yes you can see transcripts via the host Amazon account of what is said.

The short answer is yes. If "John" has set up and linked your aunt's Alexa to his Amazon account and he has set up the app then the Alexa is basically his to control. I think in this instance he can drop in on "his" Alexa without your aunt knowing. Your aunt is in effective just using "John's" Alexa and the only way you can be 100% sure he is not listening in is either to set your aunt up with her own account or put the Alexa out of earshot when your aunt has visitors. You could also mute the microphone on the device, but then I guess there is no point in having an Alexa!

Just get her her own Amazon account?

YANBU

I sometimes use mine to spy on my children (under 8s) when they are playing in their bedrooms and I am elsewhere in the house out of earshot,

they know when I'm doing it though as it constantly flashes green for the entire time I'm listening and they've cottoned on that's what it is and sing nursery rhymes at me down it.

people can use the device to listen in on conversations but the Alexa should notifiy you that someone has dropped in.

Yes, it does. You'll hear a notification from the device.

It isn't possible in any normal sense for someone to do this illicitly.

However, it isn't at all right that this device is set up linked to John's account - from his app, he potentially can set up notifications, alarms, shopping lists, routines, order things. I mean, there's no obvious reason why he would but it's still an odd and not really acceptable way to do things.

What should happen is that an account should be set up for your aunt and the device linked to that.

On the wider issue, I don't think you've any basis for worrying you are being listened to.

think in this instance he can drop in on "his" Alexa without your aunt knowing.

No, there will be a notification. I use it all the time with my kids.

However, if OP's aunt is perhaps hard of hearing or in a different room, she may not hear the notification & yes, he can stay 'dropped in' without her knowledge.

The device will change lighting so you can see, but again, you might not immediately notice this.

Again, he shouldn't have 'his' Alexa in her house, basically.

This advice is for an echo show model:

1.What you should do is get your Aunt an Amazon account of her own.

2.Then she can register the device to her Amazon account - from the device go to settings > device options >reset to factory settings
3.Register the device under her account

If it’s a non-video device I would throw it out- get your aunt an Amazon account and have her buy a new one.

There is zero legit reason for registering someone else’s device on your account. I’ve set up two households with Alexa. I do it under their account, in both cases I had their passwords, set it, and then had them change their passwords to something new that I didn’t know. In both cases, with permission, I set up their account so I could drop in. But it sounds like your Aunt doesn’t want that, so she doesn’t have to allow that. Any calls would then have to be answered by her.

To add because it wasn’t clear, the reason for tossing the non-video device is that you need the app to change accounts and the app would have to logged in as John’s account.

Presumably one could sort that out from a position of naive ignorance though.

"Hi John, just been catching up with Aunty and she is loving the Alexa. She loves it so much that she has decided she would like her own Amazon account etc. I have set an account up for her. Do you mind deregistering the device please?"

Tbh though I am surprised you can't do a factory reset on the Alexa without the App. It looks like you can do one by pressing and holding the action button for 25 seconds?

We’ll there’s my new thing learned today 🙂

How to reset an Amazon Echo Dot to its factory settings:
Press and hold the Microphone Off and Volume Down buttons at the same time for approximately 20 seconds.
Release both buttons when you see a spinning orange light ring on the device.

Excellent. I have had to factory reset a Google Chromecast which is a similar no screen job so I thought there would probably be something!

I've set my parents up on our account. They use it to listen to music. They haven't got an Amazon account, couldn't manage one and wouldn't pay for a music subscription. I couldn't think of any other way to make it work for them. As you all seem to think this is a really bad idea, am I missing an obvious way to have set them up with music, without linking them to me? Plus if I do drop in on them, they can tell as it flashes and beeps. No way to disable that.

If "John" is controlling the app he can turn off both the flashing green light and voice notifications from Alexa.

It wouldn't bother me at all to have my granny on my Amazon account or vice versa, but once the trust is gone, as it is here, it becomes clearly hopeless.

Thank you. I think setting up her own Amazon account and completely resetting the device is the best way forward.

She leaves it plugged in for most of the day and uses it for stuff like asking what the weather forecast is, what todays news is, or asking it to play her favourite radio station, or asking it answers to questions so she can cheat at the crossword .

But the past couple of weeks after a previous 2 incidents with John she has started unplugging it when she is using the phone or if she has visitors.

The latest incident has been an out of the blue phone call from John, apropos of nothing, along the lines of “I’m just phoning to let you know, in case you’re worried about the Alexa using up electricity when you’re not using it, that it doesn’t, so you can leave it plugged in and on stand-by all of the time, you don’t ever need to switch it off”.

Alexa themselves have admitted to listening to people's conversations

Your phone can be hacked and used as a listening device

Don't underestimate what can be done

Trust nobody!

I hope you are both plotting conversations for John's benefit, think of the fun you can have

I’m intrigued! What do people use their Alexa for?

When you drop into an Alexa it makes a beep and then flashes green the whole time. Plus you would hear his end so it seems unlikely he would do this.

Those people saying it's wrong he has her linked to his, why? We had thought of getting my in laws one and linking it to ours so they could drop in to us in an emergency. The reason we didn't was because we use the announcements a lot and it would be annoying plus, we buy a lot and my mil would be tracking the notifications once she figured out how 😂

I do think setting up her account is the best way to go… that said

The latest incident has been an out of the blue phone call from John, apropos of nothing, along the lines of “I’m just phoning to let you know, in case you’re worried about the Alexa using up electricity when you’re not using it, that it doesn’t, so you can leave it plugged in and on stand-by all of the time, you don’t ever need to switch it off”.

This could have a non-nefarious explanation. John would be able to see on his app if her device is offline. No listening or dropping in required. His app will show her device in a list of all other devices (including lightbulbs, plugs, etc) and show their status including offline.

-I have about half my lightbulbs and a few plugs hooked up to Alexa
Very handy when traveling to turn lights on and off, play music, etc.
-I use my video ones to check in on the cats when we travel
-Listening to audiobooks, music, and radio
-Get my husband’s attention and talk to him when we’re in different rooms (we have multiple devices)
-Reminders, Timers, and alarms
-Check on deliveries
-Talking to my my old neighbors who moved to a retirement community (this was great during lockdown)
-communicating with my mum when she was in a transitional care unit after an illness during lockdown. This was a godsend as she wasn’t able to answer her phone or make calls

How do you do this?

My niece tried (was thinking of using a dot as a baby monitor and didn't want it to announce or have the green light and disturb baby), but after searching was pretty sure it could not be done in the standard settings (which makes sense as a privacy feature).