Hotels are installing Amazon listening devices in every room

MassPrivateI

Hotels like the Wynn Las Vegas and the Marriott are installing Amazon listening devices in every room.

Two years ago, Geek Wire revealed that the Wynn Las Vegas hotel installed Amazon Echo devices in all their rooms.  

You may soon be able to ask that question when traveling to the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, which announced today that it will place Amazon’s Echo device — powered by the voice assistant Alexa — in all 4,748 hotel rooms. Wynn Resorts called it an “industry first.”

According to Amazon, hotel customers love being spied on.

“Customers tell us they love how easy it is to get information, enjoy entertainment, and control connected devices by simply asking Alexa, and we want to offer those experiences everywhere customers want them,” said Daniel Rausch, Vice President, Amazon. 

Amazon says, the Marriott will be installing Alexa’s in their Marriott Hotels, Westin Hotels, St. Regis, Aloft and Autograph Collection Hotels.

Amazon Alexa in every Marriott Hotel

 

Visitors to Marriott hotels will soon be able to use Amazon Alexa to get hotel information, book guest services, play music and manage room controls, like lighting and temperature.

Amazon claims their microphone can be turned off.

“You can push the microphone on/off button built on top of the device. When the microphone on/off button is pressed, the microphones are electrically disconnected, cannot detect the wake word, and cannot stream any audio to the cloud. The light ring will turn red when the microphones are disconnected.” 

Who wouldn’t want to stay in a room full of Amazon’s spying devices?

Last month an article in USA Today revealed that Amazon’s Alexa recorded a family’s private conversations and sent them to a business associate.

“The Oregon family contacted Amazon after a private conversation in their home was recorded by their Amazon Echo — the voice-controlled smart speaker — and the recorded audio was sent to the phone of someone in Seattle who was in the father’s contact list, they told a local TV station.”

Thanks to Amazon’s Rekognition not only will the police know where you went on vacation but now they will be able to subpoena the hotel you stayed in and find out what you watched on TV and what you said in the room!

A Google search for Amazon Alexa spying returned 1.4 million hits and a Google search for Amazon Echo spying returned over half a million hits.

Unfortunately its not just Amazon devices that you have to worry about, hotel and motel staff are also spying on how much you drink and how you dress.

Not only do these devices have a disturbing history of secretly listening to everything but they are easily hacked.

Two months ago, an article in Forbes revealed that Alexa devices can be easily hacked and record everything you say.

“Gaining access to Alexa turned out to be surprisingly easy. Checkmarx attached their malicious code to a seemingly innocuous app. The company used a simple calculator app for demonstration purposes. Checkmarx worked out a way for Alexa to record sentences of almost any length that included any word.” 

So the next time you plan a vacation, you might want to ask the hotel if Amazon is listening.

https://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2018/06/hotels-are-installing-amazon-listening.html

8 thoughts on “Hotels are installing Amazon listening devices in every room”

  1. I’d never stay in a hotel where those Echo things were in the rooms. Or if I absolutely HAD to for some reason, I’d unplug the sucker from the wall before even putting down my bags.

    It’s still hard to believe that Amazon, which once primarily sold books and music, has become a mass surveillance company in bed with tyrannical government. F–k you, Jeff Bezos!

    Reply

  2. That thing would end up out in the hallway unplugged and in a trash can if i found it in my room

    Its bad enough that I’m being watched in public , yet to have this doing it in private ?

    I see this as a criminal offence

    didnt some highschool kid just get in trouble for recording his principal in an office meeting that concerned him?.. and they are pressing charges on this kid…………dual standards are bullshit

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  3. Fyi, you can’t just unplug one device.

    Watch the first video all of these devices, T.V.’s, thermostats, etc., have microphones in them!

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    1. A TV can also be unplugged, if necessary. But if a room is more heavily bugged than that, there’s no way in hell I’ll stay there.

      Meanwhile, no such “smart” devices are allowed into my house.

      Reply

  4. This is like Big Brother’s ancient ancestors rising up to up the game. Two-way mirrors, peep-holes, microphones. What next?:

    “Dear Patrons, in order to assure your absolute safety, every room here is assigned one of our highly trained security guards who will not leave your side 24/7. That’s right folks, you won’t have to worry about being all alone in your room, ever again. Please enjoy your stay.”

    The boot grows ever larger. Currently it’s stomping through North America where it knows it will be stomped back at, full force and relentlessly. Kill the boot.

    .

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    1. My dad, when he was in the former USSR, told me when he was away on “business” for Unisys/Sperry Univac there was a monitor at the end of the hall with a pad and pencil taking notes regarding EVERY persons entry, exit, shared bathroom visits, etc. in detail.

      The US is no better than that today, if not worse. Turns out he was cia for decades that I never knew about, so I guess they weren’t wrong for keeping an eye on him. He was terribly misguided.

      Reply

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