Amazon listens to MORE of your private stuff

Having started capturing what you say in your home and sending it to the cloud in November, Amazon has decided that its Echo product needs to do more than just read the news.

At launch, Amazon promised that Echo would be “always getting smarter”. It's now delivering on that threat promise.

Agence France Presse says home automation kit like Belkin's WeMo and Philips' Hue lights can now be voice-controlled via Echo.

Amazon's also added connections to Pandora, sports news and traffic reports to the product, identified as new services on the product's page.

Engadget says Echo owners were alerted to the new capabilities in an e-mail. A “discover my appliances” command will set Echo off to automatically pair with Hue and WeMo.

Vulture South can't help but think that the chronic insecurity of home automation products means some enterprising black or white hats are, as we speak, pondering the possibilities.

We also note that Echo's “privacy” link merely takes you to the generic Amazon privacy statement. ®

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