One day Digital Assistants WILL Affect Your Home Insurance

capital0ne

I was laughed at when I posted my thoughts about Amazon's Alexa being hacked and this could be a serious risk for your home being burgled,bank accounts being emptied and so on.

Well further reports today confirm this risk.

From The Telegraph today:

Amazon Alexa recorded owner's conversation and sent to 'random' contact, couple complains

A woman whose private conversation with her husband was recorded by their Amazon Alexa and sent to a friend by email without their knowledge said she feels "invaded" by the worrying intrusion.

Luckily for the the Oregon couple, the discussion picked up by the hands-free devices placed around their home went no further than the subject of hardwood flooring.

But Danielle, who did not want to give her last name in local press reports, said that although the conversation was not highly personal, she nevertheless felt her privacy had been compromised by what Amazon said was a series of unfortunate events.

Every room in the family home in Portland is wired with the devices, which control the home's heat, lighting and security system. Amazon said Alexa misinterpreted the conversation as a set of demands which led to the conversation being packaged up and sent to a seemingly random contact.

Read the whole story from the Telegraph.

Personally I wouldn't risk having one, even doubtful about my phone, but it is just an old Nokia 1100, smart tv, it may have mike and it may have camera, I just dont know.

But now that we have many internet connected devices I wouldn't be surprised if companies are secretely harvesting tons of data from us.

Just wait till smart locks turn up, and i think they have. Well If you install onbe I'm sure that will invalidate your home insurance - maybe not now, but certainly in a few years tim.

Sleep tight folks, it'll never happen!

worried_jim

This has already been done and dismissed in discussion time about two weeks ago.

Tin foil hats.

huckster

Neighbourhood watch is a risk as well :)Think about having neighbours that keep a watch on your house and might know when you are not at home

eddddy

capital0ne wrote: »

I was laughed at...

It's just so tempting to say "...and they're still laughing".

But that would be smug and unkind (and not in the spirit of MSE), so I won't do that.

jonesMUFCforever

Did they not say something similar when automatic cars came LOL LOL

DCFC79

Just lock yourself away in a lead lined house with only books and a pet to pass the time.

Im not bothered by it, im more concerned about other things like England at the world cup, brexit and the next film I see.

capital0ne

Ahh well, you may all be correct, time will tell and I'll be back

eddddy

capital0ne wrote: »

Ahh well, you may all be correct, time will tell and I'll be back

You're correct that Digital Assistants can potentially be hacked, just like computers, phones, TVs*, fridges*, kettles*, centrifuges* and just about anything else connected to the internet can be hacked.

• *TVs https://www.consumerreports.org/televisions/samsung-roku-smart-tvs-vulnerable-to-hacking-consumer-reports-finds/
• *fridges https://www.networkworld.com/article/2976270/internet-of-things/smart-refrigerator-hack-exposes-gmail-login-credentials.html
• *kettles https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/19/bods_brew_ikettle_20_hack_plot_vulnerable_london_pots/
• *centrifuges https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/01/obama-sped-up-cyberattack-iran

It's the suggestion that local burglars will start hacking these devices to help them find properties to burgle, that doesn't make sense. It's ineffective and illogical.

Hackers are more likely to be located hundreds or thousands of miles away, and looking much bigger rewards than a few local burglaries.

badmemory

I would certainly think that blackmail would be a much more likely than burglary & probably more lucrative too.

worried_jim

badmemory wrote: »

I would certainly think that blackmail would be a much more likely than burglary & probably more lucrative too.

Good luck blackmailing me for singing along to absolute 80's and asking about the weather.

takman

You seem very paranoid about this... So Alexa misinterpreted a conversation as a command to send an email and this somehow proves your points about it being untrustworthy?.

It's also worth noting while this was happening that Alexa device would have lit up to show it's listening and also would have asked for confirmation of who they wanted to send the email too. It also would have probably been only a very short message as they conveniently omitted what the message was and how long it was.

If you all up these kind of news stories which are exaggerated to make a good story then you must be scared of almost every thing used in everyday life!.