Last dark , Bloombergpublished an alarming reportabout the “ thousands ” of Amazon doer pay to listen to Alexa recording captured incustomers ’ homes and office . But users of the company ’s digital assistant should n’t be too shocked . After all , CEO Jeff Bezos has been endeavor to differentiate us for years .
Bloomberg describe that Alexa ’s “ human supporter ” are tasked with critique as many as 1,000 audio magazine each day to improve its speech recognition . ( Apple and Google , the outlet take down , have standardized computer program for their digital assistant . ) These customer second range from the mundane to the intimate , to the potentially criminal , agree to Amazon proletarian .
While the society ’s websitevaguely statesthat it utilise customer recordings to “ train ” its systems , there are also the words of Bezos himself , who has long advocate ( highly ) active hearing .
Photo: AP
2000
“ You have to listen to customers , companies that do n’t heed to customers fail , ” Bezos told Charlie Rosein a 2000 audience , providing an former hint at Amazon’spassion for surveillance .
2009
“ You need to mind to client , ” say Bezosin a videoto Zappos employees in 2009 . “ But they wo n’t tell you everything , ” he added , a bug Amazon has clearly been working on since .
2010
“ Listen to customers , but do n’t just listen to customers — also invent on their behalf , ” wrote Bezos in a 2010 stockholder letter , something few would criminate Amazon of flunk to do . As Bezos notes ina afterwards alphabetic character , “ no customer was asking for Echo ” in 2014 .
2018
“ You hear , ” say Bezos whenasked by Michael Lewishow he conduct with critic last year , a response that in person brings me swell consolation and relief .
2019
“ Much of what we progress at [ Amazon Web Services ] is ground on listen to customers , ” write Bezos in a shareholder letterpublished just today , bear on to the cloud reckon platform thatpowers much of the weband also Amazon’sdystopian facial recognition computer software .
In a program line to Bloomberg , Amazon emphasized that the party has “ strict technical and operational precaution ” and only “ an extremely pocket-sized sample distribution ” of Alexa recordings are review by human being . But give the volume of information the company collects from more than 100 million Alexa - enabled twist , even rare mistakes can have huge consequences .
Two high - profileAlexafiascoslast twelvemonth showed just how extreme these privacy failure can be . Bezos has always said Amazon is listen in one direction or another . Do you rely the company to never pass it on , even by mistake ?
AlexaAmazonJeff BezosPrivacySurveillance
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