The smart speaker. A wireless speaker with voice control built into them able to receive voice commands and turn the demands into action. The speakers equipped with artificial intelligence from Amazon, Apple, Google or Microsoft, in other words a voice-controlled personal assistant. Sounds like the ultimate device to install in your home to make your life much easier doesn’t it? Not everyone sees it this way. The graph below presents that 40% of the participants in this research does not trust the device to be secure. This blog will examine the privacy and security of the smart speaker.
As the smart speaker is able to react to your voice you would probably wonder if your conversations you have in a private space are not recorded. The smart speaker device is always listening, but only starts recording when you say their ‘name’. Interestingly, the smart speaker advertisements cover most technical aspects of the device including the capabilities and features, however little is mentioned on the security and privacy protocols of the device.
Encryption offers the possibility for your recordings to be secure. Apple HomePod, Amazon Echo and Google Home all claim to encrypt the voice recordings that are sent to their servers. The encryption goes to the same extend as the level of encryption of Siri and HomeKit. All three devices encrypt the data in transit where after the data is ‘securely stored’ on the servers. Meaning that in transit from the device to the server the data is unlikely to be stolen or spied on. Nevertheless, the companies do have your personal data stored on their server. What would happen if the government demands the data to investigate a crime? How secure and private is your data really?
Currently, law enforcement is allowed to obtain a search warrant demanding a third party to turn over the recorded data by the smart speaker if the company can control or has access to the data. The latter is of significance importance as not every smart speaker manufacturer stores the data the same way. Both Google and Amazon store the data tied to your personal account. If a government agency requests data from Google or Amazon from a smart speaker, they can detect the account and the data tied to the account. Whereas Apple’s speaker is anonymized, there is no account attached to the voice recordings, therefore the Apple is simply not able to provide the personal data as this is randomly stored amongst millions of random numbers. The policy of Amazon entails that they will not release any data unless there is “valid and binding legal demand”, nevertheless the law is the law…
Two days ago the news came out that the Google Home Mini smart speaker device recorded nearly every sound it detected and send it to Google’s servers. This was the result of a hardware flaw. Mistakes happen. The modern and future devices can and will make day-to-day lives much easier, but be careful and know what you bring into your home…
https://www.cnet.com/news/homepod-echo-google-home-how-secure-are-your-speakers/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-home-mini-flaw-left-smart-speaker-recording-everything/
Know the risks of Amazon Alexa and Google Home
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/how-smart-devices-could-violate-your-privacy-w492823
http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-home-mini-flaw-left-smart-speaker-recording-everything/
http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5979ec1db50ab17c178b45d1-700/drawbacks%20of%20smart%20home%20speakers.png
I am glad to read one of these blogs as it covers on of my favorite topics: smart houses. (I wrote a blog on philips’ hue lights if you would like to have a look at it). Firstly, I strongly believe that smart speakers are facing very huge problems in regards to privacy concerns. You brought up a very interesting point that I had not known about untill now: Law enforcement having the ability to obtain a warrant that requires a third party to turn over the recorded data by smart speakers. However, I believe it is more about where the consumers are willing to draw a line. As we know from our information strategy course, consumers (including myself) are willing to give up a lot of personal information to third parties in return for services (e.g. network effects). This could be very similar to this phenomenon. However, for companies such as Amazon and Google to be successful with their respective smart-speakers Alexa and Google Home, it will require them to address these privacy concerns. Perhaps this data should no longer be stored, or the data should become untraceable. Untill this point is reached, I am sure they are losing a lot of potential. Luckily for us (or perhaps unluckily) smart speaker services are extremely limited in the Netherlands, this is due to compatibility with the play store and licensing issues. This is also one of the main reasons I use my old phone as a smart speaker to address this issue. In conclusion, I believe the adoption of such technologies depend entirely on the person. Nearly everyone sells their personal information by using Facebook, and other social media platforms. In the end, I believe these technologies will be adopted with open-arms with no regard to privacy-concerns.
Hello Nicole! Thank you for your article, I found it really interesting!
Actually, I’ve been thinking about this topic quite often lately, because the privacy issue is the first thing that come into my mind when talking about IoT.
We are so craving to buy the latest smart device, but we don’t care about the fact that making use of such devices means giving up part our privacy. I believe that most of us know which is the possible downside of the adoption of these technologies. However, we are more concerned about how we can improve and make easier our daily life than keeping private our data. If monitoring the information that we involuntary give helps to deliver a product that accurately match our need, well that’s fine!
According to a research conducted by the Helsinki Privacy Experiment in 2012, many people can easily get used to the absence of privacy. Something that at the beginning was a source of anxiety and worries, slowly turns out to be acceptable, and this is what I believe is happening with the large use of technologies such as Google Home. People probably know that everything they say will be stored, but they also know that in this way next time will be easier for them to find the restaurant that best fits with their tastes.
To conclude, I recognise that bringing home these kind of devices should be of relevant concern for their users, however I don’t think this would influence so much the customer’s purchasing choice toward them.
Scutti, S. 2017. The psychology of privacy in the era of the Internet of Things. [Online]
Available at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/22/health/psychology-privacy-wikileaks-internet-of-things/index.html
Interesting post! The smart speakers didn’t really catch my attention, until I saw some people actually using it on YouTube. Also the trend of smart homes is something that I like. However, so far I do not own any of these products myself yet. The only reason for this is that in my opinion it is a little bit expensive and at the moment I can use my money in a better way, but I am sure I will buy it in the future. Concerning the privacy issues, I am not that worried. Most products have microphones in it, and even iPhones listen in the same way to what you are saying in order to activate Siri when you say “Hey Siri”. Also, I think most of the companies are doing everything they can in order to keep your data safe, as it will just harm their reputation if they leak it. However, I think the risk is never 100% eliminated and when you are buying a product with this functionalities, you need to decide if the advantages of the product outweigh the risk. Most people probably do not even think about it.
Recently, there was the news about a smart camera that was hacked and someone talked to the owner in a different language. This was the result of poor encryption of the camera that was bought for a low price at Action. I am wondering if these events with low-quality products scare people and thus, have a big impact on the success of Apple’s and Google’s products. if this effect will grow once more people have similar products in their house and as a result of this, feel more affected with this news.