Name: Aryn

                                                          Presentation Date:  Feb 28/20

Introduce the Topic

Category

Security

Article Title

Alexa is listening to your chat more than you think, study suggests

Background Information

(What does the audience need to know, so that they can follow along?
At least 2-3 sentences)

There have been rumors that Alexa, and other similar products, have been listening to your conversations, when not activated. Alexa is a device similar to SIRI, and the Google Home.

Article Link (URL)

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/smart-speakers-accidental-activations-go-under-microscope/

I am going to read this part of the article

Smart speaker digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa spring into action when you say the wake word. And sometimes when you don’t.

Keen to find out just how susceptible smart speakers are to accidental activations through the mishearing of wake words, a team of researchers from Northeastern University in Massachusetts and Imperial College in London conducted an experiment.

The researchers discovered that unintended activations could occur as many as 19 times a day with regular use, while the longest activations — the amount of time the speaker is alert and recording audio — could last for as long as 43 seconds.

For the study, the researchers used a Google Home Mini first generation speaker (wake word: OK/Hey/Hi Google), an Apple HomePod 1st-gen speaker (wake word: Hey, Siri), a Harman Kardon Invoke (wake word: Cortana), two Amazon Echo Dot 2nd-generation speakers (wake words: Alexa, Amazon, Echo, Computer), and two Amazon Echo Dot 3rd-generation speakers with the same wake words.

Instead of getting people to read from scripts, the experiment set up the speakers to listen to audio from popular TV shows, among them The Office, Big Bang Theory, The West Wing, and Narcos.

While it found no evidence that the smart speakers were in constant recording mode, it did discover that unintended activations occurred “frequently,” with Apple’s HomePod and Cortana devices activating the most, followed by Echo Dot series 2, the Google Home Mini, and Echo Dot series 3.

The team noted that when it repeated the experiment, the erroneous activations wouldn’t always occur with the same words, which it said “could be due to some randomness in the way smart speakers detect wake words, or the smart speakers may learn from previous mistakes and change the way they detect wake words.”

As you’d expect, most of the unintended activations were caused by words that rhyme with the wake word, meaning that if you miss the device’s response, you won’t even realize it’s listening.

“Voice assistants … are becoming increasingly pervasive in our homes, offices, and public spaces,” the research team said. “While convenient, these systems also raise important privacy concerns — namely, what exactly are these systems recording from their surroundings, and does that include sensitive and personal conversations that were never meant to be shared with companies or their contractors?”

Video (Optional. 3 min max)

What should the audience look for as they watch this video?

 

Summary

I think the most important part of this article is…

That these devices accidently activate frequently and can record for up to 43 seconds. The activations usually only happen when the device detects similar words to its wake words.

Choose at least 3 of these prompts, and write at least 3 sentences each:

I want the class to be aware that…

Despite their convenience, they can do more harm than good. If they are recording our conversations then they are unsafe devices to have.

This could affect my life or society …

Because I, and many other people own a form of this device, and if they are listening I would feel unsafe and have a lack of privacy.

I am concerned that…

The companies that created these devices are selling your information or using it without your permission. Companies like Facebook have already been caught doing this.