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Big Tech listens to your private discussions, calls for lawsuits. Should we be worried?
A federal judge has given the green light to a class action lawsuit claiming Apple’s voice assistant Siri violates user privacy.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said plaintiffs would be allowed to proceed with lawsuits to prove that Siri was routinely recording their private conversations due to “accidental activations” and that ‘Apple had provided the conversations to advertisers, according to Reuters. The plaintiffs allege that Apple violated federal wiretapping law and California’s privacy law, among others.
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Separate lawsuits against Google and Amazon are making similar claims about voice assistants. One of the most common claims cited in lawsuits is that the conversations were recorded without the user’s consent and then used by advertisers to target complainants.
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This is happening against the backdrop of a surge in sales of smart speakers.
In June 2021, the installed base of smart speakers in the United States reached 126 million units, up from 20 million units in June 2017, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).
Amazon has the largest share of the installed base, with 69% in June of this year.
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“The installed base of smart speakers has grown significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding more than 25 million units in the past year,” said Josh Lowitz, partner and co-founder of CIRP in a communicated.
Should we be worried? How to protect yourself
Amazon, Apple, and Google all offer smart speakers that use variations of voice assistant technology that activates when users say keywords such as “Hey Siri” for Apple devices or “OK Google” for Google products or “Alexa” for Amazon smart devices.
Amazon devices store this data when they are activated with a keyword or activation word. “No sound is stored or sent to the cloud unless the device detects the wake word (or Alexa is activated with the push of a button),” an Amazon spokesperson told FOX Business in an email.
“Customers have several options for managing their recordings, including the ability not to save their recordings at all and the ability to automatically delete recordings on a rolling three or 18 month basis,” the spokesperson added.
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If you do not want to be registered by Alexa, in the Alexa application go to the “Confidentiality” menu. Then go to “Manage your Alexa data” then “Choose the recording backup time”. Then select “Do not save recordings”.
Amazon collects and uses voice recordings to provide and improve the services, according to the company. This includes helping Alexa better understand different accents and dialects and providing the correct response to requests.
Amazon also said it “manually” examines the data but does not sell it to third parties.
“To help improve Alexa, we manually review and annotate a small fraction of one percent of Alexa requests. Access to human review tools is only granted to employees who need it to improve service,” Amazon spokesperson said.
“Our annotation process does not associate voice recordings with any identifiable customer information. Customers can opt out of having their voice recordings included in the one percent fraction of voice recordings that are reviewed,” the spokesperson said. word.
By default, Google doesn’t keep your audio recordings, Google spokesperson José Castañeda told Fox Business. “We dispute the allegations in this case and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” Castañeda said in a statement.
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However, if you want to confirm that the Google setting is off, go to your Google account, then “Data & Privacy” then “Web & app activity” and make sure the box next to “Include records audio ”is unchecked. The default setting is not checked.
Apple no longer keeps Siri recordings without user permission, according to a statement from Apple in 2019. Siri will only keep your data if you choose to enroll through Apple device settings.
Amazon declined to comment on the lawsuit, and Apple has yet to respond to a request for comment.
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