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Amazon's 'Echo Show' Can Now Watch Your House For You (cnet.com) 57

Posted by EditorDavid from the showing-a-house dept.
There's something new in Amazon's video-enabled Echo Show smart speakers. "If you have the version with a built-in camera, you can now turn your Show into a security device..." writes Kim Komando. "Once the monitoring has been set up, you can remotely view the feed from the Alexa app.

CNET reports on Alexa's new "Home Monitoring" setting, "found deep within your Amazon Echo Show's device settings." It doesn't record video and you can only put it where you'd otherwise put a smart display... But still, it's useful for checking in on things, like kids, pets or your house while you're away... it might just replace that security camera you were thinking of buying. Plus, if you have the latest Echo Show 10, you can not only view the camera feed, but you can pan the room left to right (although, unfortunately, not up and down)...

At first, only the new Echo Show 10 could pull it off, but a recent update seems to have changed all that and now the first-gen Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8 have a Home Monitoring setting (presumably, so will the updated Show 5 and 8 when the arrive June 9)... Setting up your Amazon Echo Show smart display to appear as a security camera in the Alexa app is a bit trickier than enabling most features — for security reasons, you have to set it up on the device itself, not from within the app.
Their article also notes two caveats:
  • You can't record the video.
  • There's no quick and easy way to set up motion-alert notifications.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Amazon's 'Echo Show' Can Now Watch Your House For You More

Amazon's 'Echo Show' Can Now Watch Your House For You

Comments Filter:

  • Nope (Score:5, Insightful)

    by theshowmecanuck ( 703852 ) on Saturday May 29, 2021 @05:38PM (#61435208) Journal
    Nope no nope nope nope.

  • ... the address of Kim Komando's home Echo camera?

    Purely for science, of course.

  • The funny thing is that my Amazon Prime monthly subscription seems to pop up and turn on by itself once in a while even after I had turned it off ... You can get the money back of course from your credit card company but I am sure there are more than a few customers who didn't notice or won't bother.

  • You can't record the video (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday May 29, 2021 @06:11PM (#61435276)

    Don't worry, Amazon does it for you. And the cops. And the Russian hacker creeps who want to watch your kids.

    • And the Russian hacker creeps who want to watch your kids.

      Good, that means I don't need to hire a nanny anymore since that stupid Russian hacker creep is doing the job for free!

  • Can 'now' watch your home? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drainbramage ( 588291 ) on Saturday May 29, 2021 @06:13PM (#61435282) Homepage

    Wouldn't it be closer to the truth to say that a customer can now access a small part of what amazon has already been monitoring via just one of the devices it sells?

    • prolly ... big nono though, id rather have the chinese army on my wall, at least i know they wont be coming here lol

  • Up next, at Amazon Prime Video (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Unpopular Opinions ( 6836218 ) on Saturday May 29, 2021 @06:14PM (#61435290)

    Meet Echo. A new reality TV program from Amazon, brought to you by the movie experts from MGM (an Amazon company). Have a peak from a stranger home. What would you see? What will others see from you? Watch it live, or stream now.

  • lol (Score:5, Informative)

    by Riceballsan ( 816702 ) on Saturday May 29, 2021 @06:25PM (#61435312)
    yeah... why the heck is this posted as a good thing. Sounds off the bat like an extreme security risk if someone does hack it... amazon itself isn't exactly top on my list of companies I'd trust with that capability... then of course, they also have a history with ring of giving access to your video feeds to law enforcement if it's requested... I think I can name 100 reasons why I'd be wanting to get my own camera that only communcates with servers I control. Course that's also why I don't have alexa or google devices in my house.

    • yeah... why the heck is this posted as a good thing. Sounds off the bat like an extreme security risk if someone does hack it... amazon itself isn't exactly top on my list of companies I'd trust with that capability... then of course, they also have a history with ring of giving access to your video feeds to law enforcement if it's requested... I think I can name 100 reasons why I'd be wanting to get my own camera that only communcates with servers I control. Course that's also why I don't have alexa or google devices in my house.

      100% THIS.

      Every single bit of it (pun intended).

    • its a free intelligence test

      not sure why intelligence tests havent been sold this way sooner

    • Cameras to monitor the outside of the house, such as the entry doors? Sure.
      Cameras to monitor the inside of the house, where you live? No fucking way.

      • question is what's the point where law enforcement might be able to do it. And yeah I agree on the concept for why it might not be as big of a deal for some people to share the outside of their house. Still I'd rather not have law enforcement coming to my door if say someone visits me, then commits a crime (or worse, someone who happens to look enough like a criminal to trigger some 3rd rate facial recognition software when the police attempt a mass scan on all ring footage in a 20 mile radius of a crime),

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dcw3 ( 649211 )

        Do you (not you DontBeAMoran...the generic you) trust the cameras you have on your cell phone, laptop, tablet, TV, etc., or are they all covered?

        • Laptops have black stickers on their cameras, cellphones too on their front cameras and I always put them face down to block the external/back camera.

        • I wouldn't buy a TV with a camera... I pop my laptops open, and unplug the camera/microphone. (I got a cheap $5 usb webcam for freak cases in which I actually might need a virtual meeting. smartphone I have, but I mostly keep it in a room pretty far away.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      then of course, they also have a history with ring of giving access to your video feeds to law enforcement if it's requested

      Do they actually have a choice legally? I was under the impression they didn't unless they actually wanted to spend their own money to fight it in court.

      • Legally they have to give it if the police come in with a warrant. Google and Apple, generally do the minimum required by law. IE they give exactly what the warrants request, when they get a warrant. Companies like Amazon and Microsoft on the other hand... seem to preffer giving cops the keys to the kingdom and say "You can search when you feel like it". Either way... Google or apple having access to the data is only marginally better than law enforcement having it.

  • You can't record the video. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Are people really this stupid and gullible? You can guarantee that Amazon is recording the video, even if they're not giving *you* access.

    • Are people really this stupid and gullible? You can guarantee that Amazon is recording the video, even if they're not giving *you* access.

      ...and/or pouring it out a big 'ol inter-tube to the Them.

    • Remember how they were trying to hook these up with the police departments in the name of "safety." More people now than ever have door bell cams, let alone some form of alexa, or other device. People dont care because they think they are buying safety and control.

  • Trash Product (Score:3)

    by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Saturday May 29, 2021 @07:00PM (#61435362)

    So many better cameras for sale that don't have any ties to Amazon and also record and have motion sensing. Only idiots would buy this.

    • Agreed; before anyone gets too excited about Amazon's programming abilities with their Echo devices, I strongly recommend you head over to the Echo-8 users' forum: https://www.amazonforum.com/s/... [amazonforum.com] to read (or just to count) the number of complaints about the device since their last firmware update, two long months ago.

      "Thank you for your comment; your comments are important to us; your comment will be passed to our software engineers who will quickly examine the problem. Crickets"

  • " "If you have the version with a built-in camera, you can now turn your Show into a security device..."

    Oooh, so it turns into one. Riiight.

    It's like watching the world's largest DDoS Phishing attack reverberate across the frontal lobe of Mass Ignorance.

    Sponsored by Amazon Basics.

  • People Overreacting Once Again (Score:3, Informative)

    by jetkust ( 596906 ) on Saturday May 29, 2021 @07:32PM (#61435410)
    I don't know why everyone's freaking out. Home security cameras that connect to wifi have been around for years. And a lot of them already integrate with the echo. There's no difference here other than the camera being directly on the echo and that it doesn't record video.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      Not that it matters all that much anyway. Unless you are really into video calls with grandma or want a small TV replacement for the kitchen (and you just LOVE Prime Video or Twitch), the Echo Show is kind of useless.
    • Connecting to wifi is fine. Amazon's cloud is what everyone has an issue with. With Amazon as a middleman, they could be "caring and sharing" with law enforcement without your consent or even retaining footage. Just because YOU can't record doesn't mean THEY can't!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by noodler ( 724788 )

        In fact, for you to see anything, amazon needs to record it. They record it on their servers and you have no ownership of those recordings. They can do with them as they please, even if it hurts you.

  • And do so without asking you first. What else would this thing be good for? Some hackers will be able to do the same, but without having to ask Amazon first.

    In other news, people on the insight-level of early cave-men should not use advanced technology.

  • Poor angle (Score:3)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Saturday May 29, 2021 @09:06PM (#61435556) Journal

    The Echo Show is angled facing upwards, as is the camera. It's designed so if you're standing in front of it and it is on a counter, your upper body and head are what is framed. Thus when I turn mine on to view the camera, all I see is the ceiling of the room. So it's pretty much useless for this kind of security.

  • Ultimately, this is going to boil down to "the small print".

    Companies like Amazon, the big telco's the mobile network operators, all have long-term, multi-year strategies. They know that the public - their market - take time to adjust to new ideas, such that attempts to introduce something too revolutionary may not get traction, or, worse, may get push-back.

    But suppose you're Amazon. You sell stuff. You have spent a large fortune harvesting more and more information about your customer, based on exhau
  • They just show you what happened afterwards. They will not stop a burglar from putting on a mask and breaking in. If you want safety install better doors, windows, and locks. Camera's can be useful for "what's that noise?" situations or "what happened while I was gone?". Don't depend on one to keep your kids or pets safe without someone actually there with them or watching the video and available at a moments notice. The police probably will NOT break into your house for you to take your pet to a vet.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      You're entirely missing the point of the primary reason to have one...deterrence. Most criminals do care about evidence that can be used to ID and prosecute them, and will in turn find some other place to do their dirty work.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rapjr ( 732628 )
        Criminals can just wear a mask. They often wear bulky clothing so they look bigger on camera. They will not even know you have an Alexa security camera until they are inside your house and even then might not notice it. I do not see much of a deterrence effect here. If the Alexa set off a siren then that would be a deterrent. However, it would have to ensure your cat doesn't cause the siren to sound or else people will just turn it off. Better locks are more of a deterrent than adding a camera is. So

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dcw3 ( 649211 )

          Sigh...I don't have an Alexa, I have a different system, and they would know because they'd see my signs and cameras. Sure they can wear masks, but even with that, being videoed they'd leave evidence...race, height, approx weight, their vehicle, etc. Why would anyone with a lick of sense break into a home with a security system when the one next door or down the street has none...unless they're specifically targeting it? The comment about the cat is also strange...virtually every security system around

  • >"Their article also notes two caveats:"

    And they omit the most important one- some huge corporation monitoring YOU and YOUR space outside of YOUR real control. Better read all that fine print that changes constantly, trust that they actually do what it says, and trust that it isn't going to be hacked. No thanks.

  • Translation: now watches you wank and bang.
  • FTFY --- you can now turn your Show into an eavesdropping device...

  • Wow, she's still around? I vaguely remember her Sunday at some dumbass time radio show giving boomers advice on what router to buy and how to reset their AOL passwords

  • What about my TV? I really need a robot to watch that for me. It would save a lot of time and eyestrain.

  • You can ask it if there were non-naked figures in your living-room, the naked ones being yourself?

  • Well I used telephone porn before I got VHS so I'm happy with regular echo right now.

  • Amazon will be watching no mater if you opt in or not.

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