Amazon ‘evaluating options’ after woman reports device shared private conversation

Amazon is “evaluating options” in response to reports that a woman’s Alexa smart speaker shared a private conversation with one of her contacts. 

An unnamed Portland woman reportedly received word from one of her husband’s employees in Seattle that he had received a text message containing an audio recording of a private conversation they shared. 

A spokesperson for Amazon told Buzzfeed News on Thursday that the device, which is capable of sending messages and making voice calls to the user’s phone contacts, likely interpreted something in the couple’s conversation as a cue to record and send a message. 

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“As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely,” an Amazon spokesperson told Buzzfeed.

Seattle’s KIRO 7 radio station first reported on the woman’s story. Amazon told KIRO that it “takes privacy very seriously” and is investigating what it called an “extremely rare occurrence.” 

The woman is reportedly now seeking a full refund from the company for her smart speaker devices.

“I felt invaded,” she told KIRO. “A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, ‘I’m never plugging that device in again, because I can’t trust it.'”