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NEW YORK — Amazon met with skepticism from some privacy advocates and members of Congress last year when it introduced its first kid-oriented voice assistant , along with brightly colored models of its Echo Dot speaker designed for children. Now those advocates say the kids’ version of Amazon’s Alexa won’t forget what children tell it, even after parents try to delete the conversations. For that and other alleged privacy flaws they found while testing the service, they’re now asking the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday to investigate whether it violates children’s privacy laws.

An Amazon user in Germany was accidentally sent 1,700 audio recordings of someone he didn’t know after he requested his own data file, exercising his rights under the EU’s GDPR. A magazine listened to the files and was able to put together a detailed picture of the other user and his personal habits. They worked out which devices he owns, which music he likes, and who his girlfriend is, and even listened to him in the shower. They tracked down the victim, who confirmed it was he and said that Amazon had not informed him about the leak.

Last week we saw bitcoin, the great hope of cryptocurrency, skyrocket to over $13,000. It was in the vicinity of $3,200 as recently as December. Why? Maybe it was Facebook’s new venture into creating its own digital currency, Libra — although, if that were to be successful, how it would offer any type of validation of bitcoin is beyond me, and a whole lot of smart people on Wall Street. In fact, it might spell the beginning of the end for bitcoin. There are almost no major Wall Street investors of substance with meaningful track records who have invested in...

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — A Pasco County deputy was shot overnight while responding to a call in New Port Richey that turned into an intense gun fight. Pasco deputy shot in leg overnight in New Port RicheyDeputy was responding to domestic violence callDeputy is expected to recover, suspect in custody According to authorities, the deputy responded to a home in the 7300 block of Humboldt Avenue just before 12:30 a.m. when several shots were fired. The deputy was shot in the leg and the suspect barricaded himself in the home.  The suspect, identified as 62-year-old Terrance J. Peterson, remained in...

It’s worth noting that even in the Jetson’s future world of flying cars a driver was still required. That’s because the Jetsons lived in a world where technology may have advanced but the fundamental elements of human nature remained the same. Which is to say most humans like to be in control. Driving gives us that sense, we can’t control the other idiots on the road but we can control how we maneuver around their stupidity. And that may be why we may actually be closer to the flying car than the driverless car. Warning: the images in your rearview...

Would you let a stranger eavesdrop in your home and keep the recordings? For most people, the answer is, "Are you crazy?" Yet that's essentially what Amazon has been doing to millions of us with its assistant Alexa in microphone-equipped Echo speakers. And it's hardly alone: Bugging our homes is Silicon Valley's next frontier. Many smart-speaker owners don't realize it, but Amazon keeps a copy of everything Alexa records after it hears its name. Apple's Siri, and until recently Google's Assistant, by default also keep recordings to help train their artificial intelligences.

The worst fears of privacy advocates were confirmed this week after a Bloomberg report noted that Amazon employs thousands of specialists to decipher private conversations picked up on different types of Echo speakers. Of course, these devices use an automated assistant named “Alexa” to respond to requests for information, to play music, to turn off the lights and perform countless other tasks. All of this interaction with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) device is supposed to make life easier, not allow for a sophisticated spying operation.  This bombshell news should alarm every one of the millions of Echo users worldwide. In a...

Today's most creepily Orwellian story is about tech/retail giant Amazon. A Bloomberg story, picked up by Fox News, says that Amazon's Alexa talk-to-the-computer 'digital assistant' service, which a lot of us use, has a bunch of listeners-in on the other side. Far from talking to a machine, as you think you might be doing, you are offering up some reality-TV for the hipsters listening in. And lots of them like to pick up the conversations, the ones that amuse them, and share their recordings of with all their co-workers on some company bulletin board: Here's the Fox writeup: Alexa is like having...

AMAZON is listening to customers through Alexa devices - with employees recording thousands of clips including a woman singing in the shower and a sex assault, it emerged last night. Full-time workers and contractors at the online retail giant reportedly sift through as many as 1,000 recordings per shift - and even share "amusing" clips between themselves.

...home assistants could soon report their owners to the police for breaking the law based on a “Moral A.I.” system, if the ideas of academics in Europe are implemented. ...academics at the University of Bergen in Norway discussed the idea of a “moral A.I.” for smart home assistants, like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod, during a conference. Moral A.I. would reportedly make home assistants have to “decide whether to report their owners for breaking the law,” or whether to stay silent. “This would let them to weigh-up whether to report illegal activity to the police, effectively putting...

The artificial intelligence has gone rogue ==================== AMAZON'S virtual assistant Alexa stopped working for some users around the world on Wednesday morning. The mysterious outage meant that Alexa – typically controlled by voice – was "ignoring" user requests. AMAZON'S virtual assistant Alexa stopped working for some users around the world on Wednesday morning. The mysterious outage meant that Alexa – typically controlled by voice – was "ignoring" user requests. Outage tracker Down Detector received hundreds of reports about Alexa not working at around 8am UK time – and was resolved about an hour later. Most of the reports were related...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A user of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in Germany got access to more than a thousand recordings from another user because of “a human error” by the company. The customer had asked to listen back to recordings of his own activities made by Alexa but he was also able to access 1,700 audio files from a stranger when Amazon sent him a link, German trade publication c’t reported. “This unfortunate case was the result of a human error and an isolated single case,” an Amazon spokesman said on Thursday. The first customer had initially got no reply...

A parrot that was kicked out of an animal sanctuary for swearing too much is in trouble again, but this time, for a different reason. Rocco the African grey parrot – who was removed from a National Animal Welfare Trust sanctuary in the United Kingdom – enjoys chatting with Alexa on his owner’s Amazon Echo so much so that he keeps using it to order things. According to the Sun, Rocco has ordered strawberries, watermelon, raisins, broccoli and ice cream, as well as a kite, kettle and light bulbs... Wischnewski said Rocco also uses Alexa to play music, with rock...

New research from the Imperial College Business School suggests that digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home may soon be able to predict a user's love life. According to the study, in-home listening devices will be able to judge if a relationship is happy and healthy or on the rocks. Researchers say the device could act as a therapeutic resource within a relationship. For example, the device could listen to conversations and arguments and give advice or suggest ways to resolve issues.

DOVER, N.H. — An Amazon Echo device could play a role in a double-homicide case in Farmington. A judge has ordered Amazon to turn over recordings that might have been captured by an Echo smart speaker in the Farmington house where two women were stabbed to death in January 2017.

With an increasing number of households buying into virtual assistants like Google Home and Amazon Alexa, it’s important to keep in mind that these devices are designed to listen. This includes recording and learning the tone of your voice and improving voice recognition and features for the virtual assistant. It’s supposed to be a feature and not a bug, but it’s landed Amazon’s Echo speakers in hot water after they spontaneously erupted in laughter. Amazon claimed the affected Echo speakers were triggered by false positive commands. If you’re an Alexa user, it’s possible to delete all of your recorded queries....

Ask around, and you’ll find a surprising number of people have a smart speaker in their homes. As of January, 1 in 6 Americans own a voice-activated speaker, but Gartner predicts 75 percent of U.S. households will have one by 2020. With a broad gamut of capabilities—streaming news and music, answering questions, issuing reminders, and controlling connected home products—they can offer a good value proposition, particularly when paired with an attractive price point. But just because our Echos, Google Homes, and HomePods can do all sorts of things doesn’t mean we’re taking advantage of every single one of their features....

In a statement Thursday, Amazon confirmed the woman's private conversation had been inadvertently recorded and sent. It says the device interpreted a word in the background conversation as "Alexa" — a command that makes the machine wake up — and then it interpreted the conversation as a "send message" request. The company says it is "evaluating options to make this case even less likely."

The nation’s largest home builder is betting voice-activated digital assistants and smart devices will become as expected in a new home as garages now are. Lennar announced Wednesday that standard features in its new homes will include built-in Wi-Fi, smart locks, doorbells, thermostats and lights — all controlled by Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated digital assistant. Each house will come with two Alexa-enabled smart speakers, an Echo Show and an Echo Dot. New homeowners will also get a free visit from an Amazon technician to help set everything up and teach them how to use it. ... The 3,600-square-foot model home in...

Amazon wants to show you how much you can rely on its Alexa voice assistant to control everything in your home, from thermostats to TVs. The company announced Wednesday it's partnering with homebuilder Lennar to create "Amazon Experience Centers" — model homes containing built-in Alexa-controlled appliances — in hopes of persuading homeowners and homebuyers to embed Amazon services into their houses