By Julia Balli, Copy Editor
Alexa, Siri, and Cortana – some of the most popular internet assistants in the world of technology, and they’re all at the source of your very own fingertips. Any of these digital assistants can come in handy, ready to listen and carry out all of your commands, like play some music or set a reminder for you. But what if they’re doing more than just simply listening to what you ask of them? What if they’re listening and recording everything you say and do?
For years many people have been worried about big brand companies snooping and tracking your internet history. They do this to profit from it of course, looking at your internet history for the sole purpose of displaying ads that might catch your attention.
For example, whenever I go on a shopping spree online, I always tend to see ads pop up on Facebook, or any site really, for “cute new shirts” available at some generic looking site.
Now with Amazon Echo or Google Home, the snooping can be taken to a whole new level. People could be recording and listening to every conversation you have whether you say the words to trigger the devices (“Alexa,” or, “OK Google,”) or not. What is the purpose of this though? Amazon and Google both claim they are not listening to your conversations unless you ask them to do something. Although, hackers can listen in and record to sell your information to third parties.
It’s not just hackers though. All this technology makes it all too easy for our own government to constantly keep an eye on what we are doing.
In 2015, a man was suspected of the murder of Victor Collins. The Arkansas Police Department demanded Amazon give them recordings that the Amazon Echo picked up at the time for evidence. Amazon refused, saying it violated people’s privacy and the First Amendment.
Although Amazon made it clear that they want to protect their customers’ privacy, why do they have all of our data in the first place? Is it all just sitting in their servers? Amazon has stated that they will not send out your information, but Google is a different story.
Google’s policy states, “Google will share your information with companies, organizations, and individuals outside of Google if Google has a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to meet applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable government request.”
These digital assistants can be helpful, but not many think about the possibility of someone or something always listening to them. Even though it’s cool to keep up with the new, modern technology trends – people need to be aware of the intrusion these devices may bring upon them.
