Posted on 10/29/2023 6:37:52 AM PDT by devane617
Smart speakers offer amazing convenience—from playing your favorite tunes to re-ordering toilet paper—with only a simple voice command. But that convenience can come with a steep cost in privacy that many consumers aren't even aware they're paying.
We've all had the uncanny experience of searching for something on the internet and then suddenly ads for that very thing are popping up everywhere we look online. It's no coincidence, said Umar Iqbal, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.
"My collaborators and I uncovered that Amazon uses smart speaker interaction data to infer user interests and then uses those interests to target personalized ads to the user," Iqbal said. "That's something that Amazon was not upfront about before our research."
The team presented its work Oct. 26 at the ACM Internet Measurement Conference in Montreal, where they received the best paper award. They aim to provide visibility into what information is captured by smart speakers, how it is shared with other parties and how it is used by such parties, allowing consumers to better understand the privacy risks of these devices and the impact of data sharing on people's online experiences.
(Excerpt) Read more at techxplore.com ...
“”Alexa may be in therapy for years.””
That’s funny.....there should be some payback!!!!
I don’t have one and never will. Alexa is turned off on my Kindle, as is Siri on my laptop and iPhone. Those are the only devises I own.
We’ve known about this, and much worse, for years.
Cameras are embedded in smart TVs and other electronics.
When the guys came to set up our Sleep Number bed they asked for the password to our wifi so they could connect the bed to the internet. Seriously? We said absolutely not!!
All the routers are made in China. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that the chips in appliances have a back door to routers so they can surreptitiously connect themselves if you don’t do it for them.
Open Office works just fine.
Good chance it’s not, but certainly could be used for that.
E.g., if you’ve got Windows, it’s constantly sending God-knows-what back to the mothership.
Not in my kitchen...:*)
But...it may be fruitless...as there is a “mesh web” being installed everywhere...snd it will record/track everything we do (a neighboring County near us is fighting it). I think it is how China tracks its citizens.
I do need a new fridge...so, I am sure it will be trying to spy.
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