Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
How to keep the smart speaker you got for the holidays and still keep some of your privacy, too
What you can do to minimize what Amazon and Google hear.
www.vox.com
Smart speakers — Amazon’s Echo, Google’s Nest, Apple’s HomePod, and the like — are in approximately one-third of American homes, a number that’s sure to increase once all the cyber Monday deals have been shipped and Christmas presents have been unwrapped. But the people receiving (or giving) these digital personal assistants may not realize all the potential privacy pitfalls that come with them — or know what they can do to protect themselves from always-on listening and data collection devices.
Smart speakers and their virtual assistants are nice to have, but they collect a ton of data about their users by design. They listen for your commands, record your requests, and those recordings may be stored and accessed by other human ears. They can be used to build or contribute to a more comprehensive profile of their users, and their manufacturers are constantly coming up with new and unforeseen ways to use the data they collect. That doesn’t mean they don’t make for good and useful gifts, just that you should fully consider your privacy options before you decide to open your (or your Uncle Fred’s) home to one.