JimShow – Alexa Heard Me. Then Sent Me Spam…

Like you, I am discovering my private conversations are finding their way into my email.

It happened again the other day. We were talking about a vacation trip we thought about taking. The conversation involved flights, rental car and hotel.

Later that afternoon, it popped up on my social feeds and I got an email on one of the destinations we were talking about. We also talked about rental cars. An email showed up later that day as well.

Note the times. These email are 10 minutes apart.

No doubt - our devices are listening to us. We have three Amazon Alexa's around our house. I use them for timers, music, and weather info. One of our Alexa's sits on our kitchen counter. I wanted to know if she could hear me from across the room. So engaged into a non-scientific experiment to see if she could hear me.

I quietly said, "Hey Alexa, Play 92.9 The Bull"  She played it. Wow, she's got a great ear!

I wanted to put her to the test. What is I covered Alexa with a glass containter? Could she still hear me? Let's find out.

So I pulled out a crystal ice bucket from our cabinet. I placed it over Alexa so that it's properly flat on the counter and with no space around the device. It was sealed inside the bucket, isolated inside the glass. I did it again in a normal voice with the cover in place again bellowing, "Hey Alexa, Play 92.9 The Bull". That familiar blue ring light came up letting me know Alexa heard me. Wow. Scary. She could hear me through an enclosed, thick glass casing.

My Alexa can hear me at low volume under this crystal glass ice bucket!

She can hear me through a barrier. She's got one great ear. One that sends me stuff via email. So from now on, I may consider unplugging her and rethink what I am saying around her - cause, yeah, she's listening...

All My Best,

The JimShow