Amazon just launched a new robot that roams around your home, SPYING on you and uploading audio and video to company servers
Friday, October 15, 2021 by: JD Heyes
Tags: Amazon, Amazon Echo, Astro, AWS, Congress, Constitution, cyber war, Fourth Amendment, Glitch, Justice Department, listening device, Marketing, Orwellian, privacy, privacy invasion, robot, robotics, robots, surveillance
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(Natural News) Most internet users aren’t aware of this, but practically everywhere
they go online they are taken to destination sites that use Amazon Web Services (AWS).
While most people focus on
the awesome, and outsized, economic power of the multibillion dollar
e-tailer, Amazon’s influence is largely unknown; after all, the vast majority
of internet users don’t care who is hosting a website’s domain or what
interconnectivity path they take to get to their online destination.
In addition, AWS provides
an incredible amount of cloud computing services as well; the company’s storage
capacity and computing power is almost immeasurable. Consider that, for a time,
the Pentagon was considering Amazon Web Services, as well as Microsoft, to host
its JEDI cloud project. (Update: Both companies will likely make out.) So the
point is, Amazon, besides being the world’s most dominant e-tailer, is also one
of the world’s most dominant internet cloud players.
Which brings us to
why that is a problem for Mr. and Mrs. Ordinary Citizen.
In addition to being all of
this, Amazon also markets ‘home convenience’ products that present major problems for personal privacy, but which the company gets away with because its products are bought and
brought into homes voluntarily (who cares if you didn’t know that your data was
being collected — for ‘marketing purposes’?).
CNBC reports on a new ‘home
robot’ the tech and e-tail giant is now marketing:
Amazon announced a home
robot called Astro.
Astro is equipped with a
rotating screen that’s mounted onto a base with wheels. Amazon designed the
robot to appear animated and friendly, with eyes and expressive body movements
that respond to user interaction.
The robot can move on its
own from room to room and is capable of navigating around objects on the floor
or braking to avoid colliding with obstacles such as a pet that moves into its
path. A periscope camera attached to the base of the device can be raised or
lowered to view objects that are high up.
“I’ve had this robot in my
home for about a year, and it does wonderful things,” says Amazon Senior Vice
President David Limp.
Okay, cool, right? Not so fast.
“Astro is equipped with
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. It can set and deliver reminders, serve up
entertainment such as TV shows or podcasts and control smart home devices,
among other tasks. The robot also responds to commands; so if users say,
‘Astro, beatbox,’ the robot will make musical noises,” CNBC reported.
Astro’s
‘voice commands’ mean that the robot is always listening (otherwise
how can it respond?). That’s a problem because the device is also WiFi-enabled
(which is how it can call up information, songs, entertainment you ‘request’
with a voice command).
We already know from
the testimony of industry insiders and experts that these companies like Amazon
and Google are information sponges; they absorb every ounce of data on every
person possible in order to market to us. That requires constant input of
data and storage of that data for later recall, which is a gigantic privacy invasion Congress should have dealt with years
ago. Or the Justice Department.
And speaking of Congress
and the Justice Department, in exchange for the government being able to access
that vast amount of personal data on a whim, Amazon and other big tech
companies ‘provide’ the access in exchange for being left alone by pesky government regulators. This is the ultimate “1984” scenario
about which author George Orwell prophesied in his dystopian classic novel.
Around the time Donald
Trump was about to become president, Amazon introduced another ‘home
convenience device’ that is always listening: Amazon Echo. And we warned then, as well, that getting one was a huge voluntary risk of your privacy.
Sources
include:
What Data About You
Can the Government Get From Big Tech?
4 months ago (today 16/10/2021)
The revelations of a leak investigation started
in the Trump administration are a reminder that Big Tech companies often hand
over information about their users.
June 14, 2021, 6:57 p.m. ET
The Justice Department, starting in the
early days of the Trump administration, secretly sought data from some of the
biggest tech companies about journalists, Democratic
lawmakers and White
House officials as part of
wide-ranging investigations into leaks and other matters, The New York Times
reported last week.
The revelations, which put the companies
in the middle of a clash over the Trump administration’s efforts to find the
sources of news coverage, raised questions about what sorts of data tech
companies collect on their users, and how much of it is accessible to law enforcement authorities.
Here’s a rundown:
What data do the big tech companies
collect and store about their users?
All sorts. Beyond basic data like users’
names, addresses and contact information, tech companies like Google, Apple,
Microsoft and Facebook also often have access to the contents of their users’
emails, text messages, call logs, photos, videos, documents, contact lists and
calendars.
Is all of that data available to
law enforcement?
Most of it is. But which data law
enforcement can get depends on the sort of request they make.
Perhaps the most common and basic
request is a subpoena. U.S. government agencies and prosecutors can often issue
subpoenas without approval from a judge, and lawyers can issue them as part of
open court cases. Subpoenas are often used to cast a wide net for basic
information that can help build a case and provide evidence needed to issue
more powerful requests.
With subpoenas, the authorities
typically can get basic user data from tech companies, such as when an account
was opened; the account holder’s name, address, email address and billing
information; and a user’s internet-protocol or IP address. That can show their
approximate location when the address was recorded.
The Justice Department subpoenas
sought phone records. What about that sort of data?
Investigators often also seek logs of
calls, text messages and emails. Such logs include details on who sent and
received a call or message and when. Obtaining such data sometimes requires a
higher-level request, such as a court order, which is issued by a judge.
The Justice Department used a court order to seek email logs from Google for
four New York Times reporters as part of its investigation into leaks of
classified information several years ago. The Times successfully resisted the
order after Google informed it of the request.
In late 2017 and early 2018, the Justice
Department also requested call records, as well as other basic information,
from Apple and Microsoft related to people who work in Congress.
Apple and Microsoft complied with those
subpoenas in part, but the companies did not send any call records to the
Justice Department, according to two people familiar with the companies’
responses.
Apple said that it turned over call
records only when the authorities have a warrant and that in 2019 it stopped
collecting call logs.
Law enforcement officials are more
likely to obtain call logs from telecommunications companies like Verizon and
AT&T.
What can the authorities get with a
warrant?
A warrant is a much more powerful
investigative tool and can yield all sorts of sensitive, private data about
tech companies’ users.
Investigators can get a warrant by
submitting an application to a judge that lays out evidence suggesting the
subject of the warrant committed a crime. The judge can then issue the warrant
for specific information.
With a warrant, officials can get access
to far more data than with a subpoena, including the contents of emails, text
messages, photos, documents, calendars and contact lists.
Apple, Google and Microsoft store such
data on their servers as part of their cloud services for consumers. Those
cloud services are frequently used by customers to retrieve information if a
phone needs to be replaced.
Facebook also turns over similar private
information to authorities with warrants, including messages, photos, videos,
posts and location data, it said.
Law enforcement authorities can also use
warrants in other ways. Police
have issued warrants to Google for any devices that were near where a crime was committed.
The companies say they sometimes work with law
enforcement officials to narrow their requests so the companies turn over only information that is relevant to a
case.
How often do the authorities obtain
such data from the tech companies?
Apple said that in the first half of
2020, the latest period available, it received more than 5,850 requests from
U.S. authorities for data related to 18,600 accounts. It turned over basic data
in 43 percent of those requests and actual content data, such as emails or
photos, in 44 percent of requests.
Microsoft said that it received 5,500
requests from U.S. law enforcement over the same period, covering 17,700
accounts, and that it turned over basic data to 54 percent of requests and
content to 15 percent of requests.
Google said that it received 39,500
requests in the United States over that period, covering nearly 84,700
accounts, and that it turned over some data in 83 percent of the cases. Google
did not break down the percentage of requests in which it turned over basic
data versus content, but it said that 39 percent of the requests were subpoenas
while half were search warrants.
Facebook said that it received 61,500
requests in the United States over the period, covering 106,100 accounts, and
that it turned over some data to 88 percent of the requests. The company said
it received 38,850 warrants and complied with 89 percent of them over the
period, and 10,250 subpoenas and complied with 85 percent.
In these cases, U.S. authorities include
any federal, state or local law enforcement office.
Do the companies ever resist these
requests?
Yes. The companies say they sometimes
push back on subpoenas, court orders and warrants if they believe the officials
lack appropriate legal authority or if the requests are too broad.
In response to requests from U.S.
authorities in the first half of 2020, Apple said it challenged 4 percent of
requests and Microsoft said it rejected 15 percent. Google and Facebook did not
disclose how often they challenged requests.
Is any data off-limits?
Yes. Tech companies — and law
enforcement officials — can’t access data that is end-to-end encrypted. Such
encryption means that only the account owner, or the sender and receiver of a
message, can see the contents of the information.
For Apple, iMessages, which are text
messages sent between two iPhones, as well as FaceTime calls are end-to-end
encrypted. Still, if a user backs up their text messages to Apple’s iCloud
service, iMessages then become accessible to Apple and can be turned over to
the authorities with a warrant.
Apple’s iPhones and some Android
smartphones are also encrypted, which has at times led to fights with the F.B.I. over access to criminals’ devices. But law enforcement authorities
across the country also regularly
use tools that can effectively hack into phones and extract their data.
