KW: Your Digital Assistant Is Spying on You and Is Ready to Call the Cops
The video in this story tells you plainly just how you are being spied on. Convenience is not always a benefit; sometimes you pay a very high price for it without even knowing. So-called “digital assistants” such as Amazon’s “Alexa” and Google Home are all the rage. Using voice recognition, they can play your favorite tunes, give you a weather forecast, order pizza and much more.
You don’t have to lift a finger; just give the device your orders and your wish is their command. But is that all they do? Turns out the answer is no. They listen to what’s going on in your home continually.
These devices use sophisticated artificial intelligence and big data to “evaluate” your home behavior and decide if it’s morally correct in accordance with the definitions and standards of software developers crowded into Silicon Valley or Seattle. Here’s how the devices could be spying on you, your family and friends today – and are even on standby to call the cops.
Academics at the University of Bergen, Norway, touted the idea at the ACM conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society in Hawaii, last month.