this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
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This definitely is conspiracy. You're claiming that Amazon is secretly conspiring to make Alexa devices behave differently than they advertise them to. That's like the definition of conspiracy lol. But that aside, I really don't believe this. What's the exact claim, that they're always listening? No, they don't. People can analyze the traffic and tell that's false. That they're intentionally overly sensitive? I have an easier time beginning to buy that but I still think we'd see more quantitative articles about that if it were true. Like we haven't had whistle blowers or security researchers saying anything like that.
We have had stories like this one where marketers claim to be able to actively listen:
https://www.404media.co/cmg-cox-media-actually-listening-to-phones-smartspeakers-for-ads-marketing/
Whether you believe them or not is important. But they are secretly claiming to have this capability.
Article doesn't mention Alexa which is specifically what we're talking about, but I get your point.