Echo Records, Sends Private Conversation

PORTLAND, OR — A Portland couple sitting alone in their home, chatting about hardwood floors this week were surprised when a friend in Seattle, Washington, called to tell them he'd just heard the whole thing — because the couple's Amazon Echo device recorded and sent the conversation by mistake.

And, after Amazon was alerted, the online retailer reached out: “We’re sorry.”

The woman, who has only been identified as Danielle, reportedly told Seattle news station KIRO that she felt invaded and has since unplugged all her Amazon smart home devices, and that she hopes to receive a refund from the company — which she says Amazon has been reluctant to grant.

"They said 'our engineers went through your logs, and they saw exactly what you told us, they saw exactly what you said happened, and we're sorry,'" Danielle told KIRO. "He apologized like 15 times in a matter of 30 minutes and he said we really appreciate you bringing this to our attention, this is something we need to fix!"

The Echo apparently guessed what Danielle and her husband were saying when it sent an innocuous conversation to her husband's employee in Seattle, Washington, she told KIRO.

Amazon on Friday confirmed the incident happened and offered the following statement to Patch:

“Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like 'Alexa.' Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a 'send message' request. At which point, Alexa said out loud 'To whom?' At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer’s contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, '[contact name], right?' Alexa then interpreted background conversation as 'right'.

"As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely."

According to Wired.com, even though that may seem like a great deal of miscommunication for a device that is meant to assist with communicating, "it's not completely implausible … It’s like the Echo equivalent of a butt-dial."

It shouldn't be an explicit reason not to trust Alexa, Wired.com continued, but it certainly is a reminder to be careful and conscientious of the Echo's presence throughout a user's home.

Click here to see Danielle's story on KIRO7.com.

Image via Charles Brutlag/Shutterstock