Amazon Alexa user received audio files of a stranger at home with his female companion
- Company blames ‘human error’ for sending Germany customer recordings made by device belonging to someone else
- Privacy problem highlights the risk of keeping an always-on, internet-connected microphone in intimate spaces
When a person using Amazon.com’s voice assistant in Germany asked to listen to his archive of recordings, he got much more than he was expecting.
Besides receiving his own audio history captured by a home microphone the user also gained access to 1,700 audio files from a person he did not know.
Amazon sent the man a link that contained a stranger’s recordings, allowing him to listen to another man speaking inside his home with a female companion, according to German trade magazine, c’t.
“This was an unfortunate case of human error and an isolated incident,” Amazon told The Washington Post in a statement on Thursday. “We have resolved the issue with the two customers involved and have taken steps to further improve our processes. We were also in touch on a precautionary basis with the relevant regulatory authorities.”
The first man notified Amazon of the improperly shared recordings, according to the report. Amazon deleted the files from the link the company had accidentally shared with him. But the violation of privacy had already transpired. After Amazon had sent the user the link, he downloaded the audio recordings of the stranger to his computer.