CNN By Jordan Valinsky 4/11/2019
Not only is Alexa listening when you speak to an Echo smart speaker, an Amazon employee is potentially listening, too.
Amazon (AMZN) employs a global team that transcribes the voice commands captured after the wake word is detected and feeds them back into the software to help improve Alexa's grasp of human speech so it can respond more efficiently in the future, Bloomberg reports.
Amazon reportedly employs thousands of full-time workers and contractors in several countries, including the United States, Costa Rica and Romania, to listen to as many as 1,000 audio clips in shifts that last up to nine hours. The audio clips they listen to were described as "mundane" and even sometimes "possibly criminal," including listening to a potential sexual assault.
In a response to the story, Amazon confirmed to CNN Business that it hires people to listen to what customers say to Alexa. But Amazon said it takes "security and privacy of our customers' personal information seriously."
More:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/11/tech/amazon-alexa-listening/index.html
