Menu

Topics

Connect

Comments

Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.

Amazon Alexa sent a user’s 1,700 audio files to a stranger due to ‘human error’

FILE -- Amazon Echo Dot. Mike Stewart / AP Photo

A user of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in Germany got access to more than a thousand recordings from another user because of “a human error” by the company.

Story continues below advertisement

The customer had asked to listen back to recordings of his own activities made by Alexa but he was also able to access 1,700 audio files from a stranger when Amazon sent him a link, German trade publication c’t reported.

“This unfortunate case was the result of a human error and an isolated single case,” an Amazon spokesman said on Thursday.

The first customer had initially got no reply when he told Amazon about the access to the other recordings, the report said. The files were then deleted from the link provided by Amazon but he had already downloaded them on to his computer, added the report from c’t, part of German tech publisher Heise.

WATCH: Amazon Alexa owner records ‘creepy’ laugh

“We resolved the issue with the two customers involved and took measures to further optimize our processes. As a precautionary measure we contacted the relevant authorities”, the Amazon spokesman added.

Story continues below advertisement

On the recordings, a man and a female companion could be overheard in his home and the magazine was able to identify and contact him through the recorded information, according to the report.

Advertisement

You are viewing an Accelerated Mobile Webpage.

View Original Article