Alexa Reporting Home Conversations?

[Buck52]

Anyone know about this?

It appears as though a few recently disabled veterans, who had their disability ratings significantly downgraded, have claimed that their home devices reported them to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Inspector General (IG) agents.  The veterans are on record reporting that Alexa, Google Home and Siri, all have been recording their private conversations in their homes.

[brokensoldier244th]

Just because they are' ' on the record' doesn't make it verified. Depends  on whose record they are on. I googled for variations of veterans, OIG, Recorded, reduction, etc and got one specific hit- this post. 

Without a subpoena those conovo clips organizations are under no obligation to divulge anything, and the length of the clips they do record are about 10 sec and random, so not real useful. I have Gifford and Siri and spent two hours one day soaking random phrases at it without the key words trying to trigger it. Out of both, unless I used the keywords I got 2 randomish hits on Google and one on Siri. Hardly scientific, yet, butt I'm working on it. 

There are researchers working on this now but not many yet and not enough to have a good data set. My final paper/project for my Masterd in infosec is due next year and I'm having trouble finding enough for a formal literature review.

 

Short answer- doubtful. The clips have no context and would be inadmissable in court. OIG would either have to get a court order to get the records and to get that they would have to show with reasonable proof that a crime occurred before they could get them, plus they would have to have a defined range. You can't just ask for a subpoenas for  

SELECT * FROM x,y,z database. 

 

 

https://news.northeastern.edu/2020/07/14/are-alexa-siri-and-cortana-recording-your-private-conversations/

[ShrekTheTank]

I am assuming for this to be true, they would need to say in the proposed reduction how they obtained the evidence?  Just like Broken said above they would need some specific times to get any recordings.  

Let's assume they were recorded, what were they saying?  Don't get me wrong, I don't want anyone listening to me, but it seems if they did get a reduction then something was going on.  

Were they lying about their disabilities?  Did they admit they had gotten better, or were never as bad as they said they were?  It make me wondering what they were talking about to cause a reduction.  

I also think there would be some legal problems with listening in on peoples conversations.

[brokensoldier244th]

It would also violate several tenants of the ECPA of 1996 (Electronic Communications Privacy Act). We just talked about this Act in a class the other day....Ill keep googling, but without some source links from Buck its hard to say anything about the veracity of the sources, much less if the veterans were quoted correctly, if at all. It could also be one of those "veterans report./people are saying......" articles where they don't even quote. Those types of background articles are a toss up between somewhat useful and completely worthless, aka, Alex Jones/Art Bell type stuff. Highly entertaining, great bumper music, useless half-sourced (or worse) information. 

 

CAS

Edited June 21, 2021 by brokensoldier244th

[broncovet]

My attorney pointed out they "love" to catch Vets.  If you apply for disability, better not get caught working on your yard or your roof.  The street is public domain and they may take pictures of you boating, working on the roof, etc.  And, they can probably use one of those telephoto lenses.  Google takes pictures of my house, car, yard, etc.  I can see them change over time, so I know they do so frequently.  

If you faked stuff, you have something to worry about.  

This said, if IM worried about my roof leaking, I may get on a ladder and check my roof.  

Its consistent with the disabilities I have applied for.  

Nobody "requires" I be able to hear to get up on a ladder to check my roof.  (I have not been up on my roof, but have been threatening to do so, but wifey has stopped me).   I have not cut my own grass for years.  I dont even own a lawn mower anymore.  

As far as what I know about your health, Buck, I would worry about something more real..llike if you win the lottery, what are you gonna do about taxes?  

A conversation "to Alexa" can be taken out of context..as broken soldier says, I have not heard of a single Veteran reduced based on something he had said to Alexa or his google searches.  

I think its called a terrorism act.  Since 911..if you plotted a terrrorist act, and used the media such as phone, internet, Alexa Google, etc, I think you could have something to worry about.  Yea..they can listen...but there just is no time to prosecute everyone who tears off their do not remove under penalty of law tag.  

If you are really concerned about it, use a VPN for additional security, or stop using Alexa/Google, and start using Brave Browser.  

My mother would not "walk" with a "do not walk" light even at 4:00 am.  I just never lived in fear.  God protects me..there is no way I can protect my self from everything.  

 

Edited June 21, 2021 by broncovet

[brokensoldier244th]

Who is "They/Them"? A federal disability organization cannot set up a sting that has legal standing without reason, so, if that happens to you then someone reported it. The VA does not have disability police- ive seen the payroll categories for every type of employee we have and there are none- we don't even have security- its contracted out to a separate entity, and THEY would have to have a court order granting them authorization to do the same. Same with SSecurity. Insurance companies are a bit different but even they have to have permission first, usually granted to them implicitly in any paperwork you fill out for workmans's comp or STD/LTD. All of that is available during discovery if there is a trial, if not, the judge throws it out. 

 

 

I have total control over my internal computer network at home and routinely monitor packets going through my router to the 'outside', and I have yet to see more than a few at a time burst from Apple/Google/Roku. Granted, I can't decrypt the information packet itself but I can see the packet headers so I know where they are going.

Apple appends a random string of numbers to each voice query so even those from the same house or same person are labeled differently each time they are triggered, plus, you can go into Siri/Apple and delete those, too. 

 

To delete Google activity - myactivity.google.com

Apple - Go to settings app on your iIphone or Ipad,  then go to Privacy/Analytics and Improvements. From there, turn off Improve Siri Diction. To delete recordings go to Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, and go to Siri & Search > Siri & Dictation History and tap the big button with red text that reads Delete Siri & Dictation History.

 

Alexa- https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G68KUKTXN92WY3C3

Edited June 21, 2021 by brokensoldier244th

[pacmanx1]

While this seems a little impossible it is not necessarily impractical. We have seen the VA do a lot of screwed up things in the past. Example: A veteran goes to a regular medical exam and the nurse and or the doctor ask the veteran how he/she is doing, and the veteran’s response is/was “I am OK or good” and the next thing the veteran knows is that they get a letter of proposed reduction. Since the veteran’s symptoms are about the same the veteran is confused why they are getting this letter of proposed reduction and later finds out that it was reported that his/her symptoms are not that severe, and the VA is now trying to reduce their rating percentage. It happens more than you know or would think. 

Depending on the veteran’s disabilities there should be some wiggle room as good days and bad days as to some veterans may be down a day or two but they may have that good day where they could cut the grass but that doesn’t say that after they cut the grass that they are now recovering the next three days just for trying to help out the spouse and or kids. The bottom line is that the VA or whomever would have to prove that your condition/disabilities are better and that is more than one day of feeling good. A veteran always have the right to request a hearing and or appeal any decision. 

Edited June 21, 2021 by pacmanx1