After reading the article "Smart talking: are our devices threatening our privacy?" I came to the realization that our smartphones and devices such as the Amazon Alexa are always listening. Smart devices such as these are always looking for keywords to render when someone is making a command, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that these devices are constantly recording us. Companies who produce these devices have been listening in for awhile, such as Apple when they added in the "Hey Siri" feature into the iPhones so all you say are those key words and Siri responds back. Now that people know this information, will they do anything to act on it?
Our smartphones even tell us that certain apps may record what we are doing, or have access to the camera such as social media apps do. Although, we shouldn't be concerned with the companies being able to access this information, it's the hackers we should worry about. If hackers get a hold of this information they can do some pretty scary things, possibly identity theft. That's why I believe that we shouldn't have too many of these devices like the Amazon Alexa monitoring our home life 24/7. What do you guys think about this? Should we get rid of all these smart devices?
-Sonny Montalvo
Hackers are definitely a huge concern because companies do have all this information about us. Trying to prevent all hackers is impossible, so having devices that monitor everything may not be the best thing to keep in your house. I would say that getting rid of these devices probably will not help too much though as all other apps have information on what you have done so removing this will just add a small layer of protection against private leaks. It seems that most companies do not try to leak the information so there is probably not anything to worry about except hackers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point. These smart devises like the Amazon Echo or the Google Home have to constantly be listening in order to be able to respond to our command. However I don't think they are cable to record audio. I could be wrong but I think these devises are only cable of listening to be able to respond to our commands. Besides we only use theses devices for simple tasks like to play music or turn the lights on. I don't think that removing smart home devises will solve anything since there are so many other ways we can be monitored. There are apps that have access to all our personal information or our laptops can also be hacked and they could access the camera to see us. I also agree with your point that hackers could use the information they have on you for identity theft. Identity theft is not a joke. Millions of families suffer every year. If we took a bit of extra time to read the Terms and Conditions, it might help us think twice about using an app and lowers our chance for a hacker to access our information.
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