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Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by sulam on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:10AM (#18734185)
FTA: “At no time were any internal Amazon systems or customer identifiable data impacted,” [the company] said.

Hey Amazon, chat transcripts are personally identifiable information. Stripping them of user ids and declaring yourself in compliance will not hold up when you have people already being identified by accidentally leaked recordings.

Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by hopler on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:25AM (#18734327)
Did I read that right? Amazon handed control of Alexa to a group of students running a non secured server on the Internet?

That's OK if users explicitly opted in, but I doubt Amazon warned users about that.

Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by brianlweiner on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:34AM (#18734382)
The email introducing the feature (May 2017) described it as follows:

`Get an inside peek at the Amazon-sponsored university competition to advance AI. The Alexa Prize "socialbots" are in early development and understandably rough around the edges. Help students develop more engaging AI by striking up a conversation and providing feedback. To get started, just ask: Alexa what's a socialbot? Alexa let's chat`

The only interactions students would have access to was interactions that occurred via the chatbot

Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by behringer on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:45AM (#18734498)
So wait, should I be outraged or not? I'm so confused.
Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by Maken on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:49AM (#18734524)
Ask Alexa.
Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by dwighttk on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:40AM (#18734453)
Users had to say “Alexa let’s chat” to interact with the chatbots.
Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by muzani on Saturday December 22, 2018 @05:09AM (#18739947)
It's sort of like those videos where they blur out eyes of the suspects. Friends and relatives can still recognize everything else.
Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by SilasX on Friday December 21, 2018 @11:51AM (#18734545)
Really? I'm pretty sure it's common to consider a conversation transcript anonymous as long as the names are stripped.

I don't think you're necessarily wrong, but that seems like a stricter standard than currently exists for removing PII from transcripts.

Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by tlrobinson on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:01PM (#18734606)
Uh no. I can't find it now, but there was a famous incident a long time ago (~2005?) where a major chat service (AIM?) released "anonymized" logs for research purposes and people were able to deanonymize some of them.

Consider how easily people get doxed based on tiny shreds of information they post.

Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by SilasX on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:06PM (#18734641)
That's an argument for why the OP is right that it's not anonymous enough, not that it's become the common practice not to regard these as anonymous.
Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by jkaptur on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:32PM (#18734828)
Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by tlrobinson on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:38PM (#18734892)
Ah right, it was search logs, not chat logs. I think chat logs would be even harder to fully anonymize.
Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by reaperducer on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:59PM (#18735078)
Really? I'm pretty sure it's common to consider a conversation transcript anonymous as long as the names are stripped.

There was a story on HN in the last few days where just one side of chats with a home assistant device was enough to identify the person, his S.O., and their friends.

Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by obenn on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:01PM (#18734610)
Think of the simple counter example of a user mentioning another user's name within one of the messages.
Re:Amazon's Alexa talks murder, sex in AI experiment by SilasX on Friday December 21, 2018 @12:05PM (#18734632)
>> as long as the names are stripped.

Including usernames that could de-anonymize.