Do you love the Amazon Echo but are worried about possible security flaws? Are you concerned about identity theft? Then read below.

If you had a problem with the NSA having complete control over practically everyone's communications, then you will likely have a problem with what the Amazon Echo is doing. The funny thing is that there's not as much outrage about what Amazon is doing when you consider how much outrage there was whenever we found out Windows was practically doing the same thing. Perhaps this is because Amazon does not have as much control over direct digital data as many Windows applications do.

In order for you to use the word Alexa in order to activate the program, or whatever code word you decide to do a setup with for your Amazon Alexa, the device has to constantly be listening in on whatever you're saying so it can be activated based on your commands. If you did not know this, don't feel bad, because you are not the only person who was caught off guard by the fact Amazon Alexa is always listening no matter what you're doing. This means there is a constant stream of whatever you're saying throughout the day running through the wires connected to Amazon Alexa.

A similar feature was found in Samsung TVs, and we all had a hissy fit about it in the news because we didn't want the Samsung TV to just be recording nonstop what we're saying and sending that information to Amazon.

The same thing occurred with the Xbox One when it was first announced. The Xbox One was said to have been announced with the requirement that it needed to be on 24/7 or else something really bad would happen. It was later found out that the Xbox One needed to be online all the time because that was the only way it felt that it could protect the makers of the video games, and it was the only way it could constantly be able to access whatever you needed based on voice. The Xbox One's solution was a bad idea, and we called it out for what it was back then.

The ironic part about it all is that it's actually really easy to protect yourself from this because there's a button on the top of the Amazon Echo that completely blocks all the voices signals coming into the Amazon Echo. That's right, the mute button on top of your device will prevent Amazon from gathering as much data as it likes on you and then claiming it's not using any of it for its own means. This simple and effective tool will protect you from this, but you will be one of few who are aware of this.

• Introduction to Amazon Echo
• The importance of security for the Amazon Echo
• Botnet issues
• Know when you're near feature
• Location history issue
• Identity fraud with friends and family
• Issues with YouTube
• Neighbours can say hi, too
• Amazon Echo Look photo storage
• The reality of IOT
• Conclusion