People who are concerned their electronics are eavesdropping on them should complain to the companies that make them, say privacy experts. As voice recognition technology becomes cheaper, more and more electronic devices incorporate them and microphones that are sensitive enough to hear more than simple commands can hear conversations. Software can record what the consumer says and relay it back to the company. In the same way, other “smart” devices in the home can record consumer habits. These include dishwashers, fridges, washers, dryers, light and heat control.
Who could be using your information
Companies can collect and use this information to improve their product, or sell it to another interested party, for example to other retailers or insurance companies. Or hackers may get access to it.
“If you’re not that worried yet, then you should be worried about government access to all this information,” says Prof. Avner Levin, director of the Privacy and Cyber Crime Institute at Ryerson University in Toronto.
“Government traditionally requires a warrant to come inside your house and conduct a search. But if all the information is now transmitted outside of the house and is sitting in some other data base owned by a company, can the government go to that data base and just request the information in it without requiring a warrant?”
ListenConsumers rarely read terms of service
Samsung drew attention to this issue when it updated its terms of service document for its smart TVs to say “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.”
Back when Apple introduced its voice recognition system called Siri, it said that recordings of the consumer’s voice could be shared with subsidiaries and agents. The problem says Levin, is that few people actually read these terms of service contracts and are aware of such clauses.
Software changes not enough, says privacy advocate
Companies should do more to make these terms easier for consumers to understand when they buy the product, says Levin. He also thinks they should start designing the products to make it easy for consumers to stop the transmission of their information if they so choose.
“I would like to see a microphone that I can control either with an on or off switch that I can just physically turn off, or perhaps I can even detach it,” says Levin. “That way I, as a customer, have peace of mind that it’s not functioning. I don’t have to rely on software and all of its vulnerabilities.”
Consumers can pressure companies
Concerned consumers should demand this kind of feature from the companies that make the products, says Levin. They could also complain to Canada’s privacy commissioner, although he points out that she has no power to force companies to change their products. However, he says the commissioner can raise awareness about the privacy issues.
As for government action, Levin thinks there is no indication governments in Canada will grapple with this issue anytime soon so consumers are better off asking companies to make changes to their products so that they can protect their own privacy.
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