How an Amazon Echo recorded a family's private conversation then sent it to a random person

It started with a chilling phone call: a voice on the other end of the line telling you to unplug your devices and that they are being listened to. Then it became something even more worrying, when you realise that it's true, and the Amazon Echo in your house has been sending your private conversations to random people. The revelation that an Amazon Echo speaker had been quietly recording its owners and then sharing those recordings have shocked and scared many people who own the useful but intimate little cylinders. Amazon has said that such an event is extremely rare – and that it is working to make it even less likely – but the fact that it can happen at all has worried many people who have let Alexa into their home. The bizarre occurrence seems to be the consequence of a relatively innocent sounding feature: a messaging tool that allows people to send voice notes to other people with Echos.