Question of the day: Do you prefer talking to human or robots?
Are you one of the human being who is talking to non-living things everyday in your life? For example: Hey Siri? Hey Google? Hey Alexa and many other more?
If you are one of them, I would like to share one good news and one bad news with you. The good news is that I would like to congrats you that you are being very tech-savvy and in trend with the latest technology. However, the bad news is that you are being stalked everyday and your information are being exposed to the world.
Smart home is the new trend. Nowadays, you do not even need a switch to control the light, all you need is your voice. Indeed, built-in voice assistant is an impressive innovation that have made the life of human more convenient and comfortable.
However are you aware that privacy is the number one concern for smart home devices?
Google has admitted that its Home speakers recorded users at all times, even when they hadn’t said “wake words” such as “OK Google,” due to a security error earlier this year.
Source: Security Magazine
But why do they keep “spying” at us? The reason is simply, they need information and data that can helps them to better improve their products or services. Otherwise, the information collected can also be sold to relevant companies in return of money.
Small actions can be done to stop your smart home from spying at you. Below are the summarised points that can be taken into action:
- Disable ACR setting when watching TV programmes that are connected to the Internet.
- Get your in-built voice assistant to “delete what I just said or my last conversation”.
You may read the full article from here.
Here is an interesting article from an ex-employee of Amazon, sharing his point of view on in-built voice assistant – Alexa.
But of course, the advantages of smart home security devices might out-weight the disadvantages. You may read up more about the need of smart home security devices at PCMag Asia.
What do you think about the future of built-in voice assistant? Do share with me your opinions in the comments box down below!
WEEKLY CHO-CHO-TRAIN 
I have experience a couple of times that after mentioning verbally about a new product to my friends, the advertisement of the product that I have mentioned will appear in my phone especially on Instagram Story and Facebook Sponsored Post. And that was when I knew that we are being stalked by technology every single moment in our life.
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Like I mentioned in the blog post, one of the main reasons why companies are collecting information of users in their everyday life is so that they are able to share with external party in return of money. But I guess at least they are providing relevant information and sharing with me on products or services that I am interested at.
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I have always wanted to have a smart home with build-in voice assistance to improve the quality of life. But I am not too sure if I will really proceed with this idea due to the privacy and data security involved. Even thought our life and preference are being recorded, but based on these data, they are able to provide me with information that I will be interested in and making my life more conducive.
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Thanks for your sharing Shirlyn, I am well aware of the concern that everyone have when it come to data security and privacy. But I would out-weight the advantage of a smart home to its disadvantage. In my case, I have seen families with elderly that are unable to walk around easily, but with smart home, they are able to reduce their movement at home. This includes voice controlling the lights and television. Most importantly, I feel that smart home might be able to protect us from unwanted guest such as thief with the CCTV and smart door installed.
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Personally, my house is already a smart home and I am really happy with the assistance that I am getting from in-build voice assistance. In my point of view, if they are able to improve the product and service quality for the users, I would be fine with the collect the relevant data. But one conduction will be to have a well secure database system that are strong enough to prevent any potential virus to enter and leak any information.
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Hey minyi, that is a new point of view! If relevant companies are able to develop secured firewall and system and convince users on it, I believe smart home will be adopted by a lot of families.
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