Are smart speakers spying on you? Researcher reveals everything!

When it comes to technology, John Borthwick knows what he is talking about. He is a former director of AOL and Time Warner. He is currently investing in technology at the venture capital firm Betaworks he founded. At the same time, it also has strong opinions about one of the fastest growing technology products in recent times. We talk about smart columns. Global sales of these devices increased 55.4% year on year. This during the second quarter. While many consumers are buying the smart first speaker, others even have packs all over the house.

Are smart speakers spying on you? Researcher reveals!

Smart speakers consist of the speaker itself. This is joined by a digital assistant. Users can stream music, listen to the latest news (weather, stock prices and sports scores), control smart devices, play virtual titles, send texts, make calls and more.

Amazon is one of the very popular manufacturers in this area. Created a line of Echo speakers, equipped with the digital assistant Alexa. Another great player is Google, whose smart speakers feature Google Assistant. Now Borthwick recently told Yahoo Finance that he believes Amazon and Google are using their speakers and their assistants to watch over consumers.

Borthwick says some regulation may be needed.

Their concern is that consumers may not know that manufacturers are listening to recordings that stem from interactions between users and digital assistants. It is undoubtedly a worrying situation.

Meanwhile, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have suspended programs that listen to user interactions with digital assistants without their consent.

In April, a set of information revealed how Amazon transcribes customer recordings asking Alexa to handle certain tasks. Amazon said at the time that it uses these transcripts to help Alexa understand slang, foreign languages ​​and regional expressions.

However, last month, Apple suspended a program that used third-party companies to listen to up to 1,000 snippets of recordings a day from Apple customers talking to Siri .

Good thing they suspended it. It is that Apple never received the consent of its customers for this. In addition, as Siri is sometimes activated by accident, companies analyzing the snippets have listened to Apple device owners engaged in sex or talking to doctors about personal medical issues. However, Apple has stated that contractors cannot determine the identity of the ears in these passages.

Meanwhile Google has also stopped its program. Amazon, on the other hand, allows its users to opt out. Facebook has also suspended a similar program. So employees heard voice commands made by Messenger users.