“Bloomberg Businessweek” (BBW) reports on the unintended consequences of Smart Speaker use.
Maybe you are already being assisted with Alexa (100,000,000 Amazon users and counting), Siri (Apple), Google Assistant (Alphabet), Cortana (Microsoft) or Facebook’s “Portal” but haven’t worried or heard about privacy leaks. As an example, (BBW) reports that Amazon contracted $12/hour “data associates” (DA) for listening and transcribing home-derived voice clips. Being a DA meant hearing “…often, intense, awkward, or intensely awkward” intimate dialog from adults and children! Amazon reportedly hoped these records, when used to train Alexa’s Artificial Intelligence (AI), would improve Alexa’s understanding and response to user’s voice-activated commands (VAC). VAC and even always-on mics (AOM), (an option of Apple/Siri devices), are essentially creeping into our “kitchens and bedrooms” via “phones, TVs, fridges, SUVs” and Thermostats. The scope-creep currently is estimated at “0.2%” or “360 million” recordings per year. These recordings ideally are anonymous, separated from user ID, when processed by AI but with humans annotating. Some argue that AI makes it “much easier to approximate ages, genders, emotions and even locations and interests”. Google reportedly is “pausing human transcription” until “privacy controls” are improved. Read the full article at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/app-name/id421216878?ls=1&mt=8