Security News > 2021 > June > PrivacyMic looks to keep your home smart without Google, Alexa, Siri and pals listening in

They've found a means of using a voice-activated smart speaker system without it having to listen to everything you say - and no, it's not "Pressing a button."

"There are a lot of situations where we want our home automation system or our smart speaker to understand what's going on in our home, but we don't necessarily want it listening to our conversations," said the aptly named Alanson Sample, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan.

Smart speakers and other voice-activated assistant systems listening in without due cause isn't a theoretical problem.

A year later, a botched update saw Google Home speakers begin recording without authorisation as part of a supposedly opt-in feature designed to warn of smoke alarm triggers or glass breaking.

Sample and his team claimed that implementing a PrivacyMic system in a smart speaker would require "Only minor modifications" at a very low cost, but that such a commercialisation of the technology - which is in the process of being patented by the University of Michigan's Office of Technology Transfer - was "Likely several years off."

"Smart speakers take notes of everything we ask them to do or search for. And that is how we create a portrait of ourselves for companies that manufacture those devices," said NordVPN's Daniel Markuson of the risks posed by smart speaker systems.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/06/09/privacymic_smart_home/