What’s the hottest gift this holiday season? If you’re like many, you’ve placed Amazon Echo, Google Home, or some equivalent at the top of your wish list.
Voice activated, internet connected personal assistants are fun to play with. They help you do things a little faster, and they automate chores that used to take more time to do. Why stop and turn on your lights when a simple command from any room can do it for you?
But like any piece of technology, it has its pros and cons. Along with the benefits come many risks.
The biggest risk comes from the degree to which these smart home devices are listening. They obviously listen for your voice and pick up commands. But what about all of the other conversations you have? Can you trigger it by saying commands similar to what it expects to activate it? Does it listen even when you don’t know?
Technology isn’t going away. As Internet of Things continues to grow, so will automation. But how will personal assistants like Echo or Home play into the things we do every day? How will they affect our security both to strangers walking in, or to people hacking in no matter where they are in the world?
Only time will tell.
But there are defensive measures we can take right now.
With any form of technology around you, you can’t and shouldn’t expect 100 percent privacy. That means with an Echo or Home, or even with your smartphone. They have the ability to listen; it’s what they do.
If you’re not currently using Echo and want to increase your privacy, use the mute button right on top of the device. The “always listening” microphone will shut off until you’re ready to turn it back on.
Stop connecting your most sensitive accounts to a personal assistant. Continue to use those only on phones and tablets where you can have more security.
Erase old recordings. Simply login to your Amazon account and look under the “manage my device” section. You’ll find a dashboard that allows you to delete individual queries or entire histories.
You can also tighten up your Google settings. Google allows you to mute/unmute conversations, and has a setting page online where you can add and subtract various permissions.
How secure is your home after introducing new technologies into it?
