Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Alexa Just Listened To A Couple's Conversation And Sent It To One Of Their Employees—Whoops.

A Portland, Oregon couple is claiming that Alexa, Amazon's voice-controlled home assistant and entertainment device, listened to one of their conversations and then emailed it to one of their employees.


"Danielle" said that one of her husband's employees called her and said, "unplug your Alexa devices right now. You're being hacked."

"We unplugged all of them and he proceeded to tell us that he had received audio files of recordings from inside our house," she told KIRO-7 in Seattle. At first, my husband was, like, "no you didn't!" And the (recipient of the message) said "You sat there talking about hardwood floors." And we said, "oh gosh, you really did hear us."

Considering the employee lives in Seattle, which is 176 miles from Danielle and her husband, she was understandably disturbed that it had been recorded and sent without her consent. "I felt invaded," she said. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.'"

An Amazon engineer investigated the incident, and was equally surprised at what had happened. According to Danielle, the engineer was apologetic and appreciative of her bringing the problem to Amazon's attention.

"They said 'our engineers went through your logs, and they saw exactly what you told us, they saw exactly what you said happened, and we're sorry,'" Danielle said. "He apologized like 15 times in a matter of 30 minutes and he said we really appreciate you bringing this to our attention, this is something we need to fix!"

"Every room in her family home was wired with the Amazon devices to control her home's heat, lights and security system."

Danielle says she no longer wants to use Amazon devices, which are all over her home, and hopes Amazon will give her a refund. So far, Amazon has refused to do so. "A husband and wife in the privacy of their home have conversations that they're not expecting to be sent to someone (in) their address book," Danielle said.

In a statement to KIRO-7, Amazon laid out why Alexa thought Danielle was giving instructions to record her conversation and send it in an email.

"Amazon takes privacy very seriously. We investigated what happened and determined this was an extremely rare occurrence. We are taking steps to avoid this from happening in the future."

Thursday afternoon, Amazon spokeswoman Shelby Lichliter sent this statement:

"Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like 'Alexa.' Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a "send message" request. At which point, Alexa said out loud 'To whom?' At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer's contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, '[contact name], right?' Alexa then interpreted background conversation as 'right.' As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely."


More from Trending

Screenshot of Alex Jones; Pam Bondi
Infowars; Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images

Tearful Alex Jones Says He's Gonna 'Throw Up' After Pam Bondi Now Claims There's No 'Epstein List'

InfoWars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was openly tearful after Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that the so-called Epstein files—documents related to the late financier, pedophile, and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein rumored to contain the names of Epstein's most high-profile enablers—do not exist.

The claim that Epstein had no list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked marks a public reversal of a theory previously amplified by the Trump administration. Earlier this year, Bondi had suggested in a Fox News interview that such a document existed and was “sitting on my desk” awaiting release.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @weatherchris's TikTok videos
@weatherchris/TikTok

Meteorologist Speaks Out After Getting Hate For Saying 'Gulf Of America' And 'Gulf Of Mexico' During Forecast

Some people do not enjoy politics. Whether it's discussing politics or even staying current on politically-charged subjects, they would just as soon ... not. Though they might think that staying out of it is helpful, it's actually a sign of complacency and speaks volumes about a person's privilege.

Ironically, only those who are not directly impacted by a political movement can go without staying educated and having an opinion on the subject, but it's exactly those people who should be working on behalf of those being targeted.

Keep ReadingShow less
Willem Dafoe
Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Video Of Young Willem Dafoe In 1975 Resurfaces—And Fans Are Thirsty AF

Willem Dafoe is one of those actors who has been in so many roles that nearly everyone has a favorite version of him.

But where most people might think of more recent roles, some remember Dafoe in his younger years, and some Redditor decided it was time for more people to recognize the actor back when he was taking over the stage.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kelly Clarkson
Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images

Fans Outraged After Kelly Clarkson Postpones Las Vegas Debut Hours Before Showtime

Fans of singer Kelly Clarkson were disappointed—and then quickly angry—when Clarkson abruptly announced that she was postponing the opening of her highly anticipated Las Vegas residency this past weekend.

Clarkson, who first began her career two decades ago on American Idol and has since been a household name for her entertainment work, including performing and also hosting a daytime talk show, was set to kick off her residency with a debut performance.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshot of KSAT ABC 12 news anchors  and Stephania Jimenez

Texas News Anchor Slams Noem And Abbott For Using Flood Press Conference To Praise Each Other

KSAT ABC 12 News anchor Stephania Jimenez called out the priorities of federal and state officials during disasters live on air on Saturday.

Jiminez spoke out after a fifth news conference that was supposed to be about the deadly flash flooding west of San Antonio began with yet another mutual admiration society performance by Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, and nearly everyone else behind the microphones.

Keep ReadingShow less