Two senators are demanding answers about Amazon devices’ privacy policies following an incident wherein a device recorded a conversation and sent it to a friend without the customer’s knowledge.
“While Amazon has stated that the company is evaluating options to make this series of events less likely to occur, we are concerned that the device in this instance performed precisely how it was designed,” Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Christopher Coons of Delaware wrote in an open letter to the company on Friday.
“Is the Echo designed to record background conversations while it listens for a command?” the senators asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The letter included numerous other privacy-related questions that they want Amazon to answer. Flake is the chair of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on technology and privacy, and Coons is the top Democrat on the panel.
An Amazon device, powered by the artificial intelligence assistant called Alexa, allegedly recorded a private conversation of a Portland, Oregon, couple and sent it to a friend in their contact list to which the device had access. (RELATED: Turns Out Amazon Alexa Really Is Listening To Your Private Conversations)
The device appears to have accidentally heard the “wake up word,” turned on to record the following conversation, and misheard a demand to send the conversation to a contact in the list in early May. The news broke on May 24 and turned into a nationwide sensation due to consumers’ concerns regarding a device that can so accurately “talk” to users.
The senators also wish to know how many similar complaints Amazon has received from customers who say their device improperly misheard commands.
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