Security News > 2020 > December > Eavesdropping on Phone Taps from Voice Assistants
In Hey Alexa what did I just type? we show that when sitting up to half a meter away, a voice assistant can still hear the taps you make on your phone, even in presence of noise.
Modern voice assistants have two to seven microphones, so they can do directional localisation, just as human ears do, but with greater sensitivity.
We assess the risk and show that a lot more work is needed to understand the privacy implications of the always-on microphones that are increasingly infesting our work spaces and our homes.
Abstract: Voice assistants are now ubiquitous and listen in on our everyday lives.
Using two different smartphones and a tablet we demonstrate that the attacker can extract PIN codes and text messages from recordings collected by a voice assistant located up to half a meter away.