The policy shift followed rising attention on the privacy of voice AI users - especially in Europe. But that means actual humans are listening to what might be highly sensitive personal data.Įarlier this week Amazon quietly added an option to the settings of the Alexa smartphone app to allow users to opt out of their audio snippets being added to a pool that may be manually reviewed by people doing quality control work for Amazon - having not previously informed Alexa users of its human review program. ![]() These concerns have been dialed up by recent revelations that tech giants - including Amazon, Apple and Google - use human workers to manually review a proportion of audio snippets captured by their voice AIs, typically for quality purposes - such as to try to improve the performance of voice recognition across different accents or environments. In a nutshell, the AI’s inability to distinguish between intentional interactions and stuff they overhear means they are natively prone to eavesdropping - hence the major privacy concerns. A device may be being used in a multi-person household, so there’s always a risk of these devices recording any audio in their vicinity, not just intentional voice queries…Ī messed up Google Home Mini recorded a tech reporter 24/7 However, trigger-word activated voice AIs have been shown to be prone to accidental activation. But I would argue that anyone wanting a $30 bag is not the same audience as folks purchasing a $90 bag, so my guess is the impact will be minimal for their target audience.Amazon’s lead data regulator in Europe, Luxembourg’s National Commission for Data Protection, has raised privacy concerns about its use of manual human reviews of Alexa AI voice assistant recordings.Ī spokesman for the regulator confirmed in an email to TechCrunch it is discussing the matter with Amazon, adding: “At this stage, we cannot comment further about this case as we are bound by the obligation of professional secrecy.” The development was reported earlier by Reuters.Īmazon’s Alexa voice AI, which is embedded in a wide array of hardware - from the company’s own brand Echo smart speaker line to an assortment of third-party devices (such as this talkative refrigerator or this oddball table lamp) - listens pervasively for a trigger word which activates a recording function, enabling it to stream audio data to the cloud for processing and storage. Kudos to Peak Design for poking fun at it and making an entertaining video. “Although it has to be frustrating for brand manufacturers. “As much as people don’t want to admit it, Amazon is not doing anything new, or predatory,” wrote Natalie Walkley, director at Korber & Enspire Commerce OMS. ![]() For those who buy the Amazon knock-off, they likely wouldn’t have been a Peak customer anyway.” Peak Design has done a great job of pointing out the differences, and to Peak’s core customer, those differences will matter. “Any successful seller will have to deal with it. “Amazon isn’t new to the copying game - it’s been going on for many years in retail,” wrote Jeff Weidauer, principal at SSR Retail. Instead you just get a bag designed by the crack team at the AmazonBasics department.”Īnd though the video retort was in part a dig at Amazon’s ethics, for some BrainTrust members it was merely the right move from Peak Design in a game where everyone is playing by the rules. “It looks suspiciously like the Peak Design Everyday Sling, but you don’t have to pay for all those needless bells and whistles like years of research and development, recycled bluesign approved materials, a lifetime warranty, fairly paid factory workers and total carbon neutrality. “This is the Everyday Sling by Peak Design and this is the Everyday Sling by AmazonBasics,” says the video’s narrator. Dering and company to create a pushback video on YouTube. “The pirating of designs needs more attention and stronger regulation.”Īmazon’s bag, which sells at a fraction of Peak’s $90 price, led Mr. “Saying that it has always happened is an insult to every person who has had their livelihood affected by big companies knocking off their hard work,” wrote Georganne Bender, principal at Kizer & Bender Speaking. Makes me want to avoid buying Amazon private label product - ever - under any circumstances. It’s a completely different behavior when Amazon knows sales and returns behavior at the SKU level. ![]() “It’s one thing for a buyer to do competitive research in the open market, trolling stores, malls and websites to see what the competition is doing. “How loudly can I yell FOUL PLAY…?!” wrote Jeff Sward, CEO at Merchandising Metrics. ![]() For others, the line was definitely being crossed.
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