TikTok star is shocked to discover Amazon has more than 3,000 recordings of her

A TikTok star was left shocked, after discovering Amazon had more than 3,000 recordings of her voice from an Echo speaker, including her location and contacts.

The data privacy campaigner, who goes by the username @my.data.not.yours, asked Amazon to send all data it has on her, including from smart speakers.

Within her home she has two echo dots and an echo show, as well as smart bulbs – all of which gathers data on her life as she interacts with Alexa.

Amazon sent her a large file containing multiple folders, including one with over 3,500 short audio clips, including of her turning on the lights.

One of the more disturbing discoveries in the data was a set of contacts for friends, family and colleagues taken from her phone she ‘doesn’t remember syncing’. 

The data privacy campaigner, who goes by the username @my.data.not.yours, asked Amazon to send all data it has on her, including from smart speakers.

TYPES OF DATA AMAZON HELD ON TIKTOK USER 

Short audio recordings of every time she spoke to Alexa. 

This includes times she asked Alexa to turn on her smart bulbs.

Contact information taken from her phone, despite no memory of syncing her phone with Amazon.

The exact latitude and longitude location of the Alexa devices, including an echo, in her house.

Personal information such as her name and voice profile. 

The privacy TikToker didn’t know what to expect when she put in a request, and was surprised to find they had so much information on her.

She said in the short video she was ‘not totally comfortable’ with her findings, especially discovering one file with the exact latitude and longitude of her house.

To request your information from Amazon you visit the Amazon help pages where you can request data by service, or for every area of Amazon. 

It can take up to a month to get your data from Amazon, but @my.data.not.yours said it ‘can happen much quicker.’ 

Users can also request specific data about Alexa devices, including any recordings Amazon holds of your voice, within the Alexa app.

The data privacy TikToker said you can also restrict the type of content Amazon can gather on you through Alexa devices within the app. 

‘They told me it would take a month, it only ended up taking about a week and I got all of the information,’ she said in another video, adding ‘I thought it was amazing I was able to see everything they had on me.’ 

She had the ability to ask for ‘all data’ but decided to restrict it to data gathered via the Amazon Alexa devices in her home – consisting of ‘two dots and an echo’. 

Folders included ‘Alerts’, ‘Answers’, ‘Audio and Transition’, ‘Lists’, ‘Routines’, ‘Shopping’, ‘Skills’, and ‘Video’.

So far the video, which includes the hashtags #privacy #bigdata and #privacyrevolution has 2.6 million views, over 6,000 comments and 186,000 likes.

The user has also reviewed the privacy policies of various firms and requested data on herself from Facebook and Google Maps.

The TikToker also had praise for the Amazon privacy policy, which she rated eight out of ten, marking them down for the month it takes to get data stored on her.

The TikToker was sent a file full of folders

One folder contained more than 3,000 audio recordings

Among the files sent by Amazon was a folder containing more than 3,000 audio recordings of her voice

One of the more disturbing discoveries in the data was a set of contacts for friends, family and colleagues taken from her phone she 'doesn't remember syncing'

One of the more disturbing discoveries in the data was a set of contacts for friends, family and colleagues taken from her phone she ‘doesn’t remember syncing’

‘I think you are probably doing something sketchy somewhere else, but in your privacy policy I think it is pretty straight forward,’ she said of the privacy policy.

Information from Facebook, which she has been using since 2008, filled a 2GB file, including a list of advertisers that had her contact information.

‘This list is pretty extensive with so many companies. What it tells me is my information has been shared with a lot of third party companies.’ 

One example of a surprising discovery was a car dealership in Florida, when she had ‘never stepped foot in Florida’. 

Google Maps including a list of reviews she had posted publicly on the website, and that was it. The location data file was empty as she had disabled the share location data feature previously. 

Children aged six to 11 in Britain speak to their Alexa, Siri or Google Nest more than their grandparents, new poll finds

It is a battle waged by many modern grandparents: Fighting for attention when a child is glued to a screen.

And it is not just phones or tablets older relatives should be wary of – as they’re also playing second fiddle to smart speakers.

For children aged six to 11 speak more to Alexa, Siri or Google Nest than they do to their own grandparents, according to a YouGov poll.

The survey, of 1,200 children, found that a quarter spoke to voice assistants every day – compared with just one in ten who spoke daily to their grandmother or grandfather. 

Nearly three quarters – 73 per cent – admitted they didn’t say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ when speaking to their smart speakers. 

And, in a slight to parental wisdom, over a third (34 per cent) asked the likes of Siri and Alexa for answers rather than their mother or father.

The findings came as the UK introduced sweeping new regulations this week to protect children’s privacy online.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk