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I downloaded all the data Amazon has on me, and honestly the creepiest thing about it is that they sent me the *actual audio files* of every time I spoke* to Amazon Alexa *years ago when I was young and foolish about surveillance

10:17 AM · Jan 23, 2022Twitter Web App

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@AlinaUtrata

That, and all the spreadsheets on *how* I read (page turns, highlights, reading sessions), my Whole Foods purchases, my contacts lists, my video watching, my Amazon purchases, every time I've entered a physical store, etc etc etc etc

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Alina Utrata

@AlinaUtrata

Jan 23

You can request your own Amazon data here, or read the article about it amazon.com/gp/help/custom

reuters.com

The Amazon lobbyists who kill U.S. consumer privacy protections

Amazon has amassed a vast storehouse of consumer data. Internal documents reveal how it built a lobbying juggernaut that gutted privacy legislation in two dozen states.

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Alina Utrata

@AlinaUtrata

Jan 23

The question I would like to know is if they've saved the audio from all the times I *didn't* say the wake word

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Alina Utrata

@AlinaUtrata

Jan 23

alinautrata.substack.com

The Anti-Dystopians

The Politics Podcast About Tech. Click to read The Anti-Dystopians, by Alina Utrata, a Substack publication. Launched a year ago.

Replying to

Please share bloomers from your Alexa days. Makes me think, would it be possible to have Apple Siri data too?

Lord knows, I have asked all sorts of questions!

Curt Naus

@CurtNaus

Jan 23

Apple says it does not keep Siri data in a way that it relates to your Apple ID, but a random ID, and you can choose to disable that. The goal is to improve Siri Dictation accuracy.

apple.com

Apple Legal - Legal - Data & Privacy - Apple

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If you want more content about how Big Tech is surveilling you, be sure to check out

@AntiDystopians

podcast

open.spotify.com

The Anti-Dystopians

Listen to The Anti-Dystopians on Spotify. Is social media really destroying democracy? Should Facebook be considered a public utility? How does crytpocurrency affect state sovereignty? And what...

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Audio files stored uncompressed as wav ?! I guess Amazon has no storage capacity issues.

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This is both unsurprising and horrifying

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The nightmare scenario is accidentally playing this at a party

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Well the issue is, Alexa is not the only software can do this - many app and web plug-ins can do this too and they are not yet disclose what they have listened and stored~and who can access to those data and why~

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Moi

@moi_o_see

Jan 23

And they can share this data between them, geolocated.

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and

May I suggest opening up the Wav files in a binary viewer... There's meta data in the headers which can be customized by whoever made the files.

Ken Porter

@KensAudioBoston

Jan 24

To clarify, the meta data is in text. Since the vast majority of the file is binary, it would likely need a binary viewer. Though if the file is short enough, it might be openable in a simple text editor.

Super Massive Black Hole

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and

Aaaannndddd that's why I will not allow one of those in the house.

Yep

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Scary! How did you get your data? and are there laws in place to request it, or they can decide not to give it to you? Thanks in advance!

The media could not be played.

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Marcel Fröhlich

@FroehlichMarcel

Jan 23

As you are in Berlin (EU), the legal basis that provides a right for you to request such data from any processor is the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

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and

Why is it scary?

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just subbed to your podcast, such a fascinating topic!

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visse essa?

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Se liga nisso. Até quando entrou em lojas físicas.

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and

This is why I do not have one of these devices in my house and have Siri disabled on my phone and other apps.

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Chris

@ChrisWantsSleep

Jan 23

The voice recordings is actually the easiest of these to deal with. You can delete them from the app very easily. The other data is far more prevalent, far more pervasive across apps and sites, and less easily erased.

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It's so scary. When I was in the process of leaving an abusive ex (who knew about this and had once shown me the recordings), I always unplugged Alexa when I was on the phone making plans. I wish more people knew about this.

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E Spenser

@digfilmgal

Jan 23

Why not just get rid of Alexa is the "convenience" worth Amazon having control and data of all of your actions?? Prime is the lure to let Anazon get paid to own the data tracking all of your movement, actions, convos, purchases and more..

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and

I was sent a 500MB single text file by twitter (asking for my data). I can't find an application that will open a single text file of that size, they all just freeze.