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"It is outrageous that the Amazon Echo is recording every conversation in a person’s home and transmitting it to the cloud," Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., tweeted May 26.

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In one highly publicized incident, a Portland family’s Alexa captured a private conversation after the voice-controlled device misheard what it thought was the wake word. It later sent the audio recording to someone in Seattle whose number was stored in the family’s contact list.

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Khanna said, "Amazon Echo is recording every conversation in a person's home and transmitting it to the cloud."

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Amazon’s Alexa technology is designed to capture voice data only after a specific voice command, called a wake word, triggers a recording mechanism.

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Once the stuff of science fiction, voice-activated virtual assistants like the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod now reside in millions of American homes, tweaking thermostats, streaming music and scheduling appointments.

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While some see these devices as helping hands, others view them as Trojan horses in the age of digital surveillance.

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At least one of them starts recording, randomly, at least once per week," he wrote.

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The devices constantly listen for a user to say a "wake word," which triggers Alexa to begin recording voice data and respond to commands. Wake words include "Alexa," "O.K. Google," and "Hey Siri."

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"It happens when they pick up a sound from the TV, or a stray bit of conversation that sounds enough like one of their wake words."

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Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like 'Alexa.' Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a ‘send message’ request. At which point, Alexa said out loud 'To whom?' At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer’s contact list.

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You would be forgiven for thinking that your private conversations were just that, but two leading voice assistants are listening to everything you say, a new report claims.

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In fact, the devices listen all the time they are turned on – and Amazon has envisioned Alexa using that information to build profiles on anyone in the room to sell them goods.

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A written transcript of the conversation said: ‘If you ever get booked down to my house for some reason the key safe for the back door is 0783.’

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Google and Amazon appear most interested in using the data they get by snooping on your daily life to target advertising, Consumer Watchdog said.

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‘Instead of charging you for these surveillance devices, Google and Amazon should be paying you to take one into your home.’

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‘You might find them useful sometimes, but think about what you’re revealing about yourself and your family, and how that information might be used in the future.

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Amazon filed a patent application for an algorithm that would let future versions of the device identify statements of interest, such as ‘I love skiing’, enabling the speaker to be monitored based on their interests and targeted for related advertising.

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In fact, the devices listen all the time they are turned on – and Amazon has envisioned Alexa using that information to build profiles on anyone in the room to sell them goods.

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A Google patent application describes using a future release of it smart Home system to monitor and control everything from screen time and hygiene habits, to meal and travel schedules and other activities.

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Law enforcement is already seeking information from smart devices.

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As secret recordings go, the Portland couple's conversation was pretty mundane: They were talking about hardwood floors.

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The wife, identified only as Danielle, told Seattle TV station KIRO 7 that they learned something was amiss when they received a phone call from the husband's employee who lived in Seattle, telling them what he had inadvertently received. He told them to unplug their Alexa devices right away.

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The employee sent the couple the sound file that the Echo had sent to him, and they were shocked to realize they had essentially been bugged.

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at least five times in a row, Alexa heard background conversation and misconstrued it as very specific directives. And it all happened without the people in the room knowing that the device was listening, much less recording their conversation and shipping it out, supposedly on their behalf.

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Last year, a North Carolina man said the same thing had happened to him: His Echo recorded 20 seconds of his conversation and sent it to his insurance agent without his knowledge.

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Amazon's Echo uses seven microphones and noise-canceling tech to listen out for its wake word," Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler explains.

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Doing so, it records about a second of ambient sound on the device, which it constantly discards and replaces. But once it thinks it hears its wake word, the Echo's blue light ring activates and it begins sending a recording of what it hears to Amazon's computers."

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There was the time an Echo ordered a $170 dollhouse for a 6-year-old who asked Alexa for one.

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And the time Burger King ran an ad that said, "OK Google, what is the Whopper burger?"

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NPR's own reporting has spurred voice-activated snafus: Morning Edition ran a story in 2016 about the Echo, which included the phrases "Alexa, give me a news bulletin" and "Alexa, turn on CNN. Set the temperature to 70 degrees." Some Echos at home complied — by playing an NPR newscast and resetting a listener's thermostat.

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https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/may/31/ro-khanna/your-amazon-alexa-spying-you/

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https://www.consumerwatchdog.org/privacy-technology/how-google-and-amazon-are-spying-you

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https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/25/614470096/amazon-echo-recorded-and-sent-couples-conversation-all-without-their-knowledge