Amazon: Modern Body of Orwell’s Big Brother
Written by Robin Ahn, Research Assistant in Cornell’s Social Media Lab and Information Science Major
Amazon is watching its customers in a plethora of dumbfounding ways. The Alexa-powered smart speaker is one of the most apparent, prominent modes they succeed in doing so. According to Business Insider, researchers from the University of Washington discovered that Amazon exchanged Alexa-generated data with up to 41 advertising partners. This is a clear deviation from its privacy policy.
Alexa is normally summoned by users to play music, answer questions, purchase products, and control other Amazon gadgets. However, it can branch out of its normal functionalities and double as Amazon’s private agent by logging home activities and recognizing the presence of individuals in the room with its always-on microphone. It can even detect coughs, snores, and other miscellaneous sounds that reveal the most intimate details of its beholder. Did your dog just bark in front of your Alexa? And did Alexa just hear your kettle boil? Be prepared to be overwhelmed by an overload of dog food and tea bag recommendations the next time you open the Amazon app.
One important thing to note about Alexa is that it permanently saves voice recordings when it hears any word it recognizes (whether by mistake or not) as its “wake word.” As a result, there have been numerous instances where it has recorded private conversations users would never have wanted others to overhear and sent them out to acquaintances by error.
Despite these spooky problems generated by the Echo, the speaker comes packed with a bundle of cool perks such as allowing oneself to control their home settings(door locks, appliances, switches), obtain cool recipes, play music, and entertain their kids on end. Here are some privacy settings to enable if you do decide to make use of the numerous great features offered by Alexa:
- Manage and delete voice recordings on your Amazon Echo by going to Settings > Alexa Privacy > Review Voice History > All History > Delete All My Recordings
- Opt out of Amazon’s voice recording feature used to help improve the voice assistant
- Ensure no voice recording apps are activated on your Alexa. These malicious apps will leave your speaker listening in on you, waiting for you to speak the wake word.
This device allows you to wear privacy invasion: The Halo
How would you feel if there were a microphone attached to your wrist listening to you speak all day? Apparently, the Amazon Halo, a healthcare wristband created to emulate and enhance the functionalities of the Apple Watch, aspires to become your artificial intelligence doctor by recording every aspect of your day.
I discovered this peculiar device when it was showcased during INFO 4240, a Cornell class intended to teach designing technology for social impact. Our daily attendance is marked off upon the completion of an in-class activity, and one day we were shown a picture of the Amazon Halo and prompted to deliberate why it would fail when released into the market.
I remember being confused by the lack of a screen (unlike the Apple Watch which conveys all its information through a thick, fat chip of glass) and was quick to point out that it did not interact with the user through any sounds, vibrations, or on-screen UI. This made the Halo feel plain and lacking in terms of design innovation, which, in my opinion, would prompt it to flop.
However, underneath its innocent cover, the Halo is designed to garner the most intimate secrets we’ve seen from a consumer health device. Unlike companies in traditional healthcare bound by HIPAA laws, consumer devices such as fitness trackers are unregulated. In essence, this device can be significantly more effective at assisting Amazon in collecting your data than it is at promoting your well-being. It retains sensors that monitor physical activity, heart rate, sleep patterns, food consumption, and skin temperature. It even records one’s voice 24/7 to detect hidden emotions and cautions its user when they sound too “aggressive” or “demeaning.”
Body Scan
Surprise, surprise, the Halo can create a 3D rendering of your near-naked body and help diagram how you would look with more or less fat on your body. Amazon considers Body Fat Percentage to be more accurate than BMI, the standard measurement of health used by most doctors. The Halo estimates your fat percentage by having you pose in front of your phone camera for a 360-degree photo shoot and then upload the images to their cloud for analysis. While this feature exists to “represent a step forward for physicians to make use of health data that patients generate on their own,” I couldn’t help but feel a bit wary about releasing my naked body photos into their system.
Before gifting someone a Halo for Christmas, it’s important to be mindful of the effects this device might bring on the beholder’s body image. Especially if you’re planning on gifting it to a teenager. According to Refinery29, teenage girls spend an average of 5 hours a day on social media and 80% of them have distorted their appearance upon feeling self-conscious about their bodies. 54% of teenage girls frequently worry about the negative comments they may receive on unedited body pictures. We must acknowledge that the Halo’s (often inaccurate) 3D body scans may trigger self-image issues for younger, more sensitive users with body dysmorphia and anorexia, potentially impairing one’s self-esteem.
Tone Analysis
The Halo attempts to be a protector of the user’s relationships by pointing out whenever they sound too emotional. It analyzes the words and tone of their user and the people around them without asking for formal consent. Numerous users have pointed out the good and the bad of this feature, with the good aspects being that it has allowed them to make a conscious effort to sound more upbeat and retain their calm during job interviews.
Users can train the device to recognize their voice by reading a couple of sentences suggested by the Halo. The gadget will then stretch its ears wide open to detect conversational snippets that deviate from the user’s typical tone and remind them to speak softly.
The problem with this feature is twofold; one is that it opens the gateway for Amazon to listen in on your everyday conversations and profit from this data to tailor its health and product suggestion algorithms. Another is that it has invented yet another personal behavior for humans to feel self-conscious about. On top of people feeling unnecessarily shameful about their perfectly acceptable bodies and facial appearance, the Halo takes things further to reprimand their users for the way they naturally sound. It promotes a dangerous degree of dependence on AI for some of the most fundamental and primary human aptitudes, such as introspection and . The era of letting wearable gadgets police if our voice is “politely” conveying our thoughts has officially begun.
Do wearables even help?
A fun fact about these gadgets is that wearable technology hasn’t done much to slow the rising obesity rate in the United States. Fitbits, Apple Watches, and Halos aren’t quite adept at transforming heaps of private user health data into readily applicable, personalized suggestions to better our health. In fact, according to Fierce Healthcare, data generated from consumer wearables can be inaccurate, which could cause worry in healthy patients and push them to pursue unwarranted treatment. Constantly tracking one’s health data can also increase consumer anxiety and lead to compulsive behaviors. This is made worse if the wearable isn’t generating reliable data in the first place, either due to a design error or improper wear on the part of the user.
Consumer wearables may also be targeted by hackers who steal data by sending false warnings to said devices. Researchers found an unsecured online database containing more than 61 million records from Apple and Fitbit wearables in September 2021. These records included first and last names, dates of birth, geolocation, and other sensitive information that would place their user at immense risk upon disclosure.
In my personal opinion, a machine that records an excess of intimate bodily data yet fails to generate personalized feedback on how to better my current health routine fails to qualify as a meaningful investment. I would not sacrifice myself to serve as a living, breathing human experiment for big tech corporations.
Better be safe than sorry!
On the flip side though- wearable technology comes with numerous benefits; such as setting goals to monitor one’s fitness levels, estimating user location with GPS, and viewing text messages or listening to music while being hands-free. Wearables serve as a huge motivator to users by providing hard numerics on one’s physical activity throughout the day and rewarding them with badges or celebratory graphics.
Here are some safety measures to note in case one does decide to purchase the Halo:
- Delete Halo Health Data in the Halo app
- Opt to manually turn off the microphones on the Halo Band
Home devices: Ring Doorbell
Moving on to home devices. Ever heard of the Amazon Ring? Ring doorbells are tiny cameras that let you live-stream, record, and interact with whoever is at your doorstep even when you’re not home. This doorbell has become quite the hot potato upon Amazon repeatedly handing over Ring footage to the police without obtaining the owner’s consent. They reserve the right to respond to emergency police requests concerning matters of life and death. Amazon has agreements with police stations all across the nation to supply them with footage upon demand.
Amazon employees are watching your videos
The Ring doorbell has sparked numerous privacy concerns with the ongoing debate concerning the ethics of recording one’s neighbors without formally asking for permission. Recently, Ring fired four Amazon employees for watching live customer video footage beyond what they were allowed to. After this incident made international headlines in 2020, Ring has now revised its limits to “allow such data access to a smaller, more trusted crew of employees.” In the announcement, they also acknowledged that Research and Development employees in Ukraine were given “virtually unfettered access” to videos from Ring cameras around the world in 2016. The Intercept claims that the files supplied to the Ukraine team were not encrypted. Additionally, a source informed the publication that Ring had given executives in the United States “very privileged access” that allowed for round-the-clock live footage from select cameras, a claim that Ring refuted fervently.
Hackers will yell slurs at your children
Users have voiced distress about hackers breaking into their cameras. There have been several instances where hackers accessed the accounts of Ring users and harassed them. Numerous people are suing Ring for “horrific” privacy violations after receiving death threats, racial slurs, and blackmail upon having hackers crack into their in-home smart cameras, according to The Guardian. The Guardian claims that over 30 people from 15 families have united to form a suit against Ring, only to be met with a sour response from the company blaming victims, providing inadequate answers, and offering fictitious roundabout excuses. The suit displays how hackers have yelled profanities, demanded ransom payments, and threatened to kill and sexually assault Ring users upon taking over their cameras. One victim claims while he was watching TV late at night, a voice coming from his camera asked him what he was watching and attempted to make conversation. Another victim alleges that an unidentified hacker spoke to his children through Ring, commenting on their basketball performance and enticing them to approach the camera.
Ring has repeatedly blamed its victims for using weak passwords instead of taking accountability. In an effort to combat such allegations from resurfacing, the company has finally enabled two-factor authentication on account access for newly purchased Ring devices. Users will be required to input a code sent to their phone as part of the two-factor authentication in order to verify that they are the true account holders before obtaining access to recorded video files. However, this solution falls short in that it fails to take care of devices purchased prior to this new feature implementation.
Wait. It’s just a doorbell. Would it even collect that much data?
What’s most alarming about the Amazon Ring is not necessarily the amount of data collected but the patterns and insights that can be drawn. It’s possible to determine whether someone is at home by keeping track of how frequently and for how long your doorbell is rung. If nobody has ever rang your doorbell, that would probably reveal juicy details about your lackluster social life. It can also track the gender, age, personality, and characteristics of those that visit you the most and combine all this information to help Amazon determine which products to sell you.
Okay, I’m spooked. But now what?
Just like all other Amazon devices, the Ring is an extremely cost-effective gadget with more perks than downfalls when used safely. It can greatly boost the user’s sense of protection and reassurance by screening visitors, storing accurate video footage of evidence(which can help tremendously with insurance payouts), and serving as a digital signal post for your home’s safety. The Ring can help weed out potential burglars who will drop everything and run once they discover the home is fully armed with a meticulous security system that far surpasses their capability to sneak around the bush.
Here are some safety settings to implement if you’ve decided to purchase the Ring:
- Turn on Two-factor authentication
- Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization)
- Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J52T748MOI0
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/ring-fired-four-employees-for-watching-customer-video-feeds.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/29/op-ed-amazon-halo-privacy-considerations.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/10/amazon-halo-band-review/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI7EDUEVarE
https://www.govinfosecurity.com/healthcare-workers-allege-amazon-alexa-violates-privacy-a-17002
https://www.osano.com/newsletter/more-alexa-eavesdropping-allegations
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/the-selfie-talk-social-media-self-esteem
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/23/amazon-ring-camera-hack-lawsuit-threats
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/ring-video-doorbell/
