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The Amazon Echo made waves about a year ago as an always-listening virtual assistant. For some, however, “always-listening” can bring up some concerns. Dubbed Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant helps automate everyday activities. You can ask for the news, call for an Uber, play music, turn off your home’s lights, and more.
After hearing the wake word “Alexa”, your Echo starts listening to what you want to do. If you’ve seen any of the commercials, the possibilities are nearly endless, and they are constantly integrating new apps and abilities into the Echo.
Originally, the main difference between Alexa and Apple’s Siri was massive. Siri lives in your pocket, while Alexa has made a home in your home. Siri’s niche is Apple apps iMessage, Apple Music, Maps, and whatever else you might need on the go. Alexa works better with third-party apps like Uber and even Dominoes Pizza, and you can, of course, purchase things on Amazon without pressing a single button.
With in-home microphones that are always on, however, it is quite easy to have concerns about your privacy. In recent years, we’ve sacrificed our privacy for the latest technologies and conveniences, like social media and free apps. What Amazon – or any virtual assistant – does with our data is usually tough to say.
The Echo uses speech recognition to start recording when it hears the word “Alexa” and then transmits the recording of your request to the cloud. In the cloud, it is processed and sent back. Because answers become more personalized with more use, it’s assumed that recordings are pinned to you as a user. Amazon doesn’t specify other reasons to use that data, so it’s mostly for research and marketing purposes.
For example, if you order ranch dressing and frozen pizzas from Amazon after using the Dominoes app, that says you’re probably a pizza fanatic. Based on this information, you’ll see advertisements tailored to your interests.
This sort of usage of our data has become pretty normal. Facebook is notorious for their amount of data collection at this point. By logging your keystrokes, Facebook knows what ads to show on your timeline. Instagram has also been known to take advantage of your microphone, even when you’re scrolling through your feed. Again, this is to know what you like and, more importantly, what you’ll buy.
With the somewhat new field of machine learning, the interaction between you and Alexa also helps it better understand your speech patterns. Somewhere in the cloud, your user information includes your way of speaking.
Like with most web-connected things, with Amazon Echo comes the threat of hacking. Amazon will, of course, do their best to push out security updates, but there is a possibility of a third-party hacker listening in on and recording your voice. Like with any device that records and connects to the internet, it becomes the company’s goal to keep consumers safe.
Just remember to be aware of that digital cloud above your head.
By Ryan MacMorris
