alexa

Thu
01
Jun
John Lister's picture

Amazon Hit By $30 Million Privacy Penalty

Amazon has agreed to pay a total of $30 million in penalties for privacy violations related to its Ring and Alexa devices, according to an announcement by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The penalties consist of $25 million for allegedly ... retaining children's data without deletion and $5.8 million for failing to limit employee and contractor access to Ring security videos. (Source: cnet.com ) The settlements do not require Amazon to make any admission of legal wrongdoing. (Source: theguardian.com ) Amazon Accused of Retaining Kid's Data The FTC accused Amazon of preventing parents from ... (view more)

Wed
19
Oct
John Lister's picture

Study: Smart Assistants May Hamper Development

Two researchers say voice controlled "assistant" devices could harm children's development. The claims are more of a warning than proven results at this stage. The claims come from Ananya Arora and Anmol Arora, both of the School of Clinical ... Medicine at the University of Cambridge. They were writing in the publication Archives of Diseases in Childhood. (Source: bmj.com ) The pair say they have three main fears about the uses of devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, along with Apple's Siri. In all three cases, the researchers say it appears some parents may have mistaken ... (view more)

Thu
30
Dec
John Lister's picture

Alexa Tells Child to Play With Power Outlet

Amazon has apologized after its digital assistant Alexa told a 10-year old to connect a coin to a power socket. While there's a simple explanation, it raises even more questions. The girl's mother said she had previously been watching YouTube videos ... with a variety of safe physical challenges, then used voice control to ask an Alexa-enabled device for a "challenge to do." To the mother's shock, the device replied "The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs." Fortunately the mother heard the reply, though she says ... (view more)

Thu
12
Apr
John Lister's picture

Amazon Patent Eavesdrops, Targets User Ads

Amazon has patented a system for listening to devices in order to better target advertising to users. But it says it doesn't use the feature in its gadgets. The patent dates back to an initial application in 2011, but the most recent version was not ... approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office until last November and has only recently been made public. The basis of the patent is 'sniffer' technology, though that's used as an analogy to reflect the idea that the devices wouldn't permanently capture and store what people were saying. Instead they would use trigger words. Saying 'Like' Would ... (view more)

Thu
04
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

Torrent Site Traffic Rankings Revealed by New Study

A new study shows that, despite facing a constant barrage of legal challenges, The Pirate Bay is now the world's most popular torrent site. The traffic report comes from torrent industry tracking blog TorrentFreak. After using "several traffic ... comparison and analytic tools," including Alexa and Compete, TorrentFreak put together a list of the most popular torrent sites on the web. The Pirate Bay Withstands Legal Onslaught Sitting in first place: Sweden-based The Pirate Bay. According to TorrentFreak, the site's Alexa rank is 75. (Alexa ranks site traffic by using information gleaned from ... (view more)

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