BBC Focus - 03.2020

INNOVATIONS

Alexa how often

do you listen in?

Everwonderedhowmanytimes

yoursmartspeakeraccidently

activatesina day?Researchers

fromNortheasternUniversitydid

too, and here’s what they found...

Voiceassistantslike

AmazonAlexa,Google

Assistant,Apple’sSiri

andMicrosoft’sCortana

accidentallywakeup

and start recording

whattheyhearup to

19 timesa day.

Anyonewho’suseda

digitalassistantknows

theyhavea habitof

‘wakingup’– making

a sound or lighting

uptoindicatethey’re

listening– whentheyshouldn’t.The

systemsarelisteningoutforkeyphrases,

or ‘wakewords’like“HeyGoogle”or “Siri”,

beforetheyturnonandstartrecording

inanticipationofa voicequery.Butthese

digitaleagerbeaversoftenjumpthegun

mistaking the word “seriously” for “Siri”,

forexample,asaninvitationtolistenin.

The Mon(IoT)r research group at

NortheasternUniversityinBoston,USA,

arededicatedto investigatingwhatprivacy

risksmightarisefrominvitingmoreand

moreconnecteddevicesintoourhomes.

Theywonderedhowmanytimesa day

thesemisfireshappened.Tofindout,

theyputa bunchofsmarthomespeakers

ina roomtogethertowatch 125 hoursof

dialogue-heavyNetflixcontent,including

GilmoreGirls,Grey’sAnatomyandtheWest

Wing. Somepeoplegetallthegoodjobs.

Theydiscoveredthattheaveragerate

ofactivationsperdevicewasbetween1.5

and 19 timesperday.Nosmartspeaker

wasfoundtobeconsistentlyrecording

conversations,buttheydidwakeupfor

shortintervalsatinconsistenttimes.In

otherwords,whentheexperimentwas

repeated(12times)thesamephrasesdidn’t

alwayswakeupthespeaker.Onceon,the

deviceswouldtypicallyrecordat leastthe

nextsixsecondsofconversation, though

someassistantsrecordmore.

Sothegoodnewsis thattheassistants

seemtobemakinghonestmistakes,but

thebadnewsisthatinsomecasesthey

canberecordingupto 19 timesperday,

withoutmeaningto.Infurtherresearch

theteamwantstoinvestigatehowmuch

ofthisdataisbeingsenttothecloud,

whethertheseaccidentalrecordingsare

reportedaccurately,andwhether there

are any other factors at play.

Smartspeakershave

beenfoundtowakeup

andaccidentallyrecord

up to 19 times per day

“ONCEON,THE

DEVICESWOULD

TYPICALLYRECORD

ATLEASTTHENEXT

SIXSECONDSOF

CONVERSATION”

SWEDENGOES

CASHLESS

Thee-kronais coming.It’s

somethingofa landmark

moment.Sweden’s

Riksbanksaysit’sbegun

testingwhatcouldbecome

theworld’sfirstcentral

bankdigitalcurrency.It will

bea year-longpilotusing

technologyinspiredbythe

blockchainsthatpower

cryptocurrencies.

Swedenis nearlycashless.

If youevervisitthecountry,

thefirstthingyououghtto

dois downloadSwish.It’sa

mobileappthatfacilitates

paymentsbetweenpeople

andvendors,anditswide

adoptionhasleftthe

country’scentralbank

playingcatchup.Theyfear

thatif lefttotheprivate

sector,payment

infrastructuremightnotbe

builtwiththebestinterests

ofthepublicinmind.

Theone-yearpilotwillrun

inan‘isolatedtest

environment’.If successful,

thebankwillfollowupwith

a publicconsultationto

addressanyconcerns

around a cashless future.

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