• An Amazon Echo device sits on a balcony outside an Amazon office as the Space Needle is reflected in windows behind it following a program announcing several new Amazon products by the company, in Seattle last year. Amazon says an 'unlikely' string of events prompted its Echo personal assistant device to record a Portland, Oregon, family's private conversation and then send the recording to an acquaintance in Seattle. | AP
    An Amazon Echo device sits on a balcony outside an Amazon office as the Space Needle is reflected in windows behind it following a program announcing several new Amazon products by the company, in Seattle last year. Amazon says an "unlikely" string of events prompted its Echo personal assistant device to record a Portland, Oregon, family's private conversation and then send the recording to an acquaintance in Seattle. | AP

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SEATTLE – A couple’s private conversation was mysteriously recorded by their Amazon Echo device and sent to one of their contacts, igniting privacy concerns about the voice-activated gadgets the online retailer wants to make as commonplace in homes as televisions.

The two found about it when they received a phone call two weeks ago from one of the husband’s employees telling them to “Unplug your Alexa devices right now. You’re being hacked,” news station KIRO 7 reported. Amazon.com Inc. said in a statement to the station that it was an “extremely rare occurrence.”

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