Re:Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out ...
by kec on Thursday May 24, 2018 @12:57PM
(#17145955)
Aside from cell tower location tracking, you’d know because it would absolutely tank the battery life of your pocket computer.
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Re:Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out ...
by mikeash on Thursday May 24, 2018 @01:11PM
(#17146102)
I doubt it. Recording audio is pretty cheap. Lots of smartphones can now do continuous “wake word” listening just like smart speakers while on battery power.
Re:Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out ...
by kec on Thursday May 24, 2018 @01:24PM
(#17146238)
"Pretty cheap" is still likely an order of magnitude or more than actual standby, and using a small ring buffer to identify a pre-established wake word is similarly going to be cheap compared to actually streaming audio to disk.
If you actually care, this would be pretty trivial to verify using an oscilloscope to observe the energy draw from the battery while different things are said around your device.
Re:Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out ...
by mikeash on Thursday May 24, 2018 @02:30PM
(#17146882)
I’ve verified it accidentally by using an intelligent alarm with my phone unplugged. The battery drain for eight hours (which includes analysis that would be unnecessary for just recording) was a few percent.