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July 1, 2020 10:02 pm

Uncovered: 1,000 Phrases That Incorrectly Trigger Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: As Alexa, Google Home, Siri, and other voice assistants have become fixtures in millions of homes, privacy advocates have grown concerned that their near-constant listening to nearby conversations could pose more risk than benefit to users. New research suggests the privacy threat may be greater than previously thought. The findings demonstrate how common it is for dialog in TV shows and other sources to produce false triggers that cause the devices to turn on, sometimes sending nearby sounds to Amazon, Apple, Google, or other manufacturers. In all, researchers uncovered more than 1,000 word sequences -- including those from Game of Thrones, Modern Family, House of Cards, and news broadcasts -- that incorrectly trigger the devices. "The devices are intentionally programmed in a somewhat forgiving manner, because they are supposed to be able to understand their humans," one of the researchers, Dorothea Kolossa, said. "Therefore, they are more likely to start up once too often rather than not at all." When devices wake, the researchers said, they record a portion of what's said and transmit it to the manufacturer. The audio may then be transcribed and checked by employees in an attempt to improve word recognition. The result: fragments of potentially private conversations can end up in the company logs. The research paper, titled "Unacceptable, where is my privacy?," hasn't yet been published, although a brief write-up of the findings can be found here.

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