There are several applications to home technology that can help with music, temperature settings, internet access, etc. However, with these many applications, there is a strong concern regarding privacy for how much control is given to the home technology.

For example, the Amazon Echo product is designed to record audio from various types of triggers that do not involve saying “Alexa” [2]. Amazon justifies doing this as a way to improve the Artificial Intelligence behind the Echo so that it may do a better job of serving their customers [2]. At the same time, these audio recordings are not deleted unless specifically requested or unless the customer searches through the audio recording history of the Echo [2]. This opens up an area where data is potentially every word spoken in a household which would most definitely be interpreted as a violation of privacy. So now an issue arises that asks where is the line between the acquisition of data and violations of privacy. This question does not have an official answer from government legislature, so an abundance of data is now in the hands of Amazon where they can use it any way they want [2].

Public Perception

The public perception of smart speakers is significantly influenced by privacy concerns. In a 2018 study around half of the interviewed people who were not using a smart speaker were doing so out of privacy related concerns[1]. Even among users of the technology over 60% of those surveyed believed that they were trading their privacy for the convince of using the speaker[1]. The same study also found that despite the high quantity of users who felt they were sacrificing privacy users tended not to make use of the privacy enhancing features, such as privacy controls and a mute button, found on the device[1]. This would seem to indicate that while privacy is a major concern in a users choice to purchase a device, once a device has been purchased privacy concerns have very little effect on how the user interacts with the device.

Sources

  1. Lau, Josephine, et al. “Alexa, Are You Listening?” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 2, no. CSCW, Jan. 2018, pp. 1–31., doi:10.1145/3274371.
  2. Fowler, Geoffrey A. “Alexa has been eavesdropping on you this whole time” The Washington Post, 5/6/2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/05/06/alexa-has-been-eavesdropping-you-this-whole-time/