What do virtual assistants listen to?

What do virtual assistants listen to?

The concern for privacy is triggered after several scandals related to Alexa from Amazon

  Do technological devices listen to us? Smartphones are another element in the desktop with friends and family and the surprise comes when the ads in mobile browsers appear related to the conversation products.

The doubt that assaults is the beginning of this text: Do you hear us? Experts have different opinions: "We can not be sure that any application is really looking at his speech, but it is perfectly possible," explain the experts at Pen Test Partners.

  The workers of this security company were challenged by the BBC to create an app capable of listening to the private conversations of their users. However, there is no need to resort to the creation of a new application, since most of those installed in the latest generation phones have access to the microphone.

Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and, above all, Google; because his virtual assistant wakes up when he says «Ok Google». The accesses and permissions granted to the applications is a pending task of the users, to which now another important problem is added the intelligent loudspeakers.

«Alexa put this song»; «OK Google, where is the doctor ?:« Hey Siri, how are you? They know everything about you, because you have told them, willingly or not.

Last March, several clients contacted Amazon to alert them of Alexa's mysterious laughter without contacting her.

To this was added another scandal with the assistant of the company of Jeff Bezos. An American couple reported that Alexa recorded and shared a private conversation without her permission. Amazon explained that it is "an extremely rare case." But what do they record and where are the conversations stored? Actually, these devices are on alert to detect the keyword and activate, either Alexa, Siri or Google OK.

That is, they are continuously with the microphone activated and capturing the conversation. If that activation word is detected, the device keeps the recording for processing, if this does not happen, the recording is deleted.

However, each product and each manufacturer has a different way of working. In the case of Google Assistant, the device does not constantly record, but instead "listens" at different times to see if they "call" it. Those small fragments are deleted if the activation word is not detected "and none of that information leaves your device until you hear the activation phrase," explains Google.

Big Brother in the cloud
The recorded recordings all (Apple, Amazon, Google or Microsoft) go to the cloud. Amazon explains in its web service «eliminate those recordings can degrade your experience when using the device», so its goal is «to improve the accuracy of the results provided and to improve our services».

The case of Amazon and the sound recordings are particularly important, because, according to the giant of the electronic commerce, the information can in some cases be shared with third parties.

This month, an Amazon user in Germany requested the archiving of his personal data and gained access to 1700 audio recordings unknown to him.

The user exercised his rights under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation by requesting his data from Amazon in August. Two months later, Amazon sent him a downloadable 100Mb zip file. Some of the files were supposedly related to his Amazon searches. But, there were also hundreds of wav files and a PDF that cataloged the transcriptions of the Alexa interpretations of the voice commands. An unusual fact for the user, because no device with Alexa and had never used the service.

"This was an unfortunate case of human error and an isolated incident. We have solved the problem with the two clients involved and we have taken steps to improve our processes. We also contacted the relevant regulatory authorities, "Amazon explained in a statement after hearing about the accident.

In the case of Google, the search giant keeps the information to improve search results and also "offer better and more personalized responses and suggestions." Recordings are saved indefinitely unless manually deleted by the user.

Apple, for its part, also has access to contacts by being on iPhones as a star device. In addition, the collection varies depending on the information requested from Siri. In your case, the company of the bitten apple allows to deactivate the dictation of voice and finish with the recording of audio for Siri.