Do you own an Amazon Echo?

Amazon Echo is an "always-listening" voice-activated smart home speaker that is designed to play music, set alarms, answer questions via the Alexa voice assistant, and control connected smart home devices like WeMo, Hive and Nest.  There have been several reports about whether an Amazon Echo hack could allow a hacker to turn your smart speaker into a covert listening device, but you shouldn't  worry too much because the hack is not simple, it requires physical access to the device, and does not work on all but some older devices, as well.  There are a lot of devices out there like the Amazon Echo which uses "always listening" technology, although the "always listening" part is something of a misnomer.  What the device actually does is sample the ambient sound in a room for about two seconds and records it, then compares it to the next recording a couple of seconds later to see if its command Phrase like "Hello Alexa" was said.  If not, it erases that sound recording and does it again ..... over and over until it "hears" the command phrase.  Once it does, Alexa records your question and sends that voice recording to Amazon's servers where it reads the query and sends back an answer which is played back over Alexa's built-in speaker. If you want to manage what the Alexa Echo has recorded, you can do it through the Alexa app and see the queries you've made.  If you don't want to keep them on Amazon's servers, you can tap the "Delete Voice Recordings" button and they are gone from the server.

This same technology is being include in lots of new consumer products as part of the smart home revolution which includes Apple iHome, Google Home and Nest thermostats.  Whirlpool is even adding Alexa voice control to many of its products like their refrigerators, washing machines and stoves - and more and more manufacturers are  doing the same.

A recent murder in Arkansas found police taking the Alexa devices in a home where the crime had been committed in an effort to see if there was any recording of a murder.  However, as they found, Alexa does not record anything other than the questions it hears after the command phrase.  But, even if Amazon or the government wanted to listen to your conversations, that would be illegal  under our laws.  Our current laws prohibit listening to private conversations and using the information against a person.  That is known as illegal wiretapping and even if others could hear what you say via a device - it would not be admissable into court against you.  (Just for closure, the police arrested a friend of the victim based on physical evidence at the crime scene.)

If you want to mute Alexa from listening at all, you can always push the microphone button till it turns red to mute it from listening. Still, let's face it, neither Amazon, Apple or Google would sell many of these type of devices if they were glorified wiretaps.   So, you can get a smart voice assistant device to make life easier without a lot of concern you will be exposed for how many times you ask about the ingredients for a martini.