Echo

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I don’t own an Echo, and Alexa is not listening to all of the conversations in my home. If that were the case, I would have no credibility in writing weekly Privacy Tips.

Echo has evolved, and now I am told and have read that the newest craze is the Echo Show. (Shocker–I don’t have an Echo Show either.) I am told that an Echo Show does everything Echo did, but now it has a camera and can and is recording video of you and your family whenever you use it. (I have tape over the camera of my laptop and smartphone, so that just wouldn’t work for me.)

If you are into the latest crazes and you have purchased an Echo Show, be aware that it is recording video of you and your family every time it is on, whether you are using it or not.
Continue Reading Privacy Tip #95 – Echo Show ‘Drop In’ Feature Could Catch You with Your Pants Down

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a six-step compliance plan to assist businesses with compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It provides clarity on who is covered by and must comply with COPPA and how companies can get parental consent. It also outlines a six-step compliance plan.

New companies…

By now, it’s pretty common knowledge that Alexa has been on a dollhouse shopping spree, and is also helping to solve a murder. Clearly, Alexa cannot be trusted and that’s why she has only limited trigger words, including options such as “Alexa,” “Amazon,” “computer,” and “Echo.” When you speak those words, or other “wake words”…

Police in Bentonville, Arkansas, are seeking records from an Amazon Echo device (for the second time) which may contain records in connection with a murder investigation in the home of James Andrew Bates where Victor Collins was found dead in Bates’ hot tub last year. Echo is an always-on digital assistant that can answer questions,…