Security News > 2022 > April > Study: How Amazon uses Echo smart speaker conversations to target ads

To understand how Amazon and Skills developers handle audio data, the boffins created an auditing framework to evaluate how voice data gets collected, used, and shared.

Technically, the auditing framework involved setting up a custom Raspberry Pi router to record the network endpoints contacted by Amazon Echo and emulating an Amazon Echo by setting up Alexa Voice Service SDK, in order to capture unencrypted network traffic.

The researchers say that Echo interaction data is collected both by Amazon and third-parties and that Amazon shares user data with as many as 41 ad partners.

If you ask Alexa to order paper towels or to play a song on Amazon Music, the record of that purchase or song play may inform relevant ads shown on Amazon or other sites where Amazon places ads.

Iqbal countered, with references to the study's paper: "We find evidence of Alexa Skills directly communicating with advertising/tracking services. We also note that Amazon's advertising partners sync their cookies with Amazon and bid higher than non-partner advertisers. A logical explanation for this behavior is that Amazon/Skills share/sell user interest data with their advertising partners. We do not claim that Amazon directly shares voice input/transcripts with advertising networks."

Amazon's statement continues, "Similar to what you'd experience if you made a purchase on Amazon.com or requested a song through Amazon Music, if you ask Alexa to order paper towels or to play a song on Amazon Music, the record of that purchase or song play may inform relevant ads shown on Amazon or other sites where Amazon places ads. Customers can opt out of interest-based ads from Amazon at anytime on our website."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/04/27/amazon_audio_data/