{"id":216591,"date":"2019-05-29T20:30:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T00:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=216591"},"modified":"2019-05-29T20:30:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T00:30:17","slug":"mozilla-exec-tells-big-data-committee-he-was-shocked-by-what-alexa-recorded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/29\/mozilla-exec-tells-big-data-committee-he-was-shocked-by-what-alexa-recorded\/","title":{"rendered":"Mozilla exec tells big data committee he was ‘shocked’ by what Alexa recorded"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Amazon Echo series by Best AI Assistant (Photo<\/a>: BestAI Assistant<\/a> via BestAI Assistant\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 A security executive for the internet browser company Mozilla says he was shocked by the recordings\u00a0of\u00a0his family that were collected and retained by Amazon’s popular Alexa voice-activated interactive speaker.<\/p>\n

Alan Davidson, the vice-president\u00a0of\u00a0global policy, trust and security for the company that makes the Firefox browser, says the Amazon Echo device is a wonderful product but when he recently examined the online records for his family’s Echo, he found they included conversations among his young children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked honestly and my family was shocked to see these recordings\u00a0of\u00a0our young children from years ago that are in the cloud and stored about us. It’s not to say that something was done wrong, or unlawfully,\u201d Davidson said Wednesday in testimony before the international grand committee on big data, privacy and democracy. \u201cBut users have no idea \u2014 they have no idea this data is out there and they don’t know how it’s going to be used in the future either.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee, which includes politicians from\u00a0Canada, Britain, and several other countries, is examining the role\u00a0of\u00a0internet giants in safeguarding privacy and democratic rights.<\/p>\n

Davidson said internet companies need to give customers more \u201cgranular\u201d consent options for how specific pieces\u00a0of\u00a0personal information are collected and used by high-tech companies.<\/p>\n

Mark Ryland, the chief security officer for Amazon Web Services, testified Amazon makes it very clear that consent is part\u00a0of\u00a0the Alexa experience, and that customers can delete any collected data if they like.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlexa is listening for a key word \u2014 an ‘awake’ word \u2014 that alerts the system you want to interact with it in some fashion,\u201d said Ryland. \u201cThere’s a light on the device that tells you it is active and subsequent sound in the room is then streamed to the cloud.\u201d<\/p>\n

That stream is then taken through a \u201clanguage-processing system\u201d that produces a text\u00a0of\u00a0the conversation, said Ryland.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see a full list\u00a0of\u00a0what you’ve said; you can delete any one\u00a0of\u00a0those. Those will immediately get removed from the database,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s very clear, the consent is part\u00a0of\u00a0the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The information the Alexa service does store \u201cbecomes part\u00a0of\u00a0your account information just like if you were buying books on our website and therefore could influence\u201d other things the company might present to a customer, said Ryland.<\/p>\n

The committee is in its third and final day\u00a0of\u00a0hearings\u00a0of\u00a0Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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