Tech giants admit employees listen to some digital assistant recordings

Recently, Google has admitted it gives workers access to snippets of Google Assistant users audio.

If you're buying any devices with microphones or capabilities to interact with, expect more privacy lapses to continue.

Furthermore, it should not be a surprise that devices built to interact with you, or carry out tasks for you are listening to you and the companies that make them are using that data for research.

Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology Executive Director Parham Eftekhari said security is an afterthought for most consumers, when it should be a priority and requisite during manufacturing.

"Until there is a combination of responsible regulation—we don't want to over regulate, but we need to have some—and then also, I think most impactful, will be consumers starting to say, 'look, I'm not going to buy this technology until it's more secure'," said Eftekhari.

He said consumers are not demanding security upfront, they are first driven by functionality, then design and cost.

"And then after the fact when there's a breach, or when there's an incident, or when something creepy happens, then people all the sudden start saying, 'well, what about security?'," said Eftekhari.

He said the reality is consumers will always compromise their privacy until the laws catch up with technology.

Eftekhari added manufacturers know exactly what to do to design more secure products, it's just very expensive and timely.


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