5 ms·

The entire point is that you're trusting the manufacturer that the device implement the behavior the manufacturer says it does. If you have a smart speaker, yo

The entire point is that you're trusting the manufacturer that the device implement the behavior the manufacturer says it does. If you have a smart speaker, you're trusting they don't upload all speech. With a cell phone, it is actually tougher, because you're also trusting the manufacturer that their security model is such that 3rd party software can't violate the privacy policy you're expecting. Many, many free phone apps today collect data you don't want them to.

danShumway 6y ago
> If you have a smart speaker, you're trusting they don't upload all speech. Well, you shouldn't be doing that because we've known for a while that smart speakers have a false-positive problem. That's the advantage of a physical gesture; the AI won't get it wrong. A physical action like holding down your home button is much less likely to trigger on accident. Not to mention, you can also full-on disable the voice assistant on your smartphone, in which case, there's practically zero risk of a false positive. > With a cell phone, it is actually tougher, because you're also trusting the manufacturer that their security model is such that 3rd party software can't violate the privacy policy you're expecting. Stealing my contacts is bad, getting access to my microphone is worse. If the argument is, "my phone might get malware, so having an always-on-microphone is exactly the same", that just seems really fatalistic to me. These are different risks that belong in different categories.
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Sure, but without the phone OS source code, you can't know whether "disabling the smart assistant" just displays "disabled" and then keeps recording. Without a hardware switch, it could just lie to you.
  - danShumway 6y ago
    The risk of my phone OS being theoretically compromised to spy on me is different than the risk posed by a device that I know is listening to me, and that I know regularly misinterprets wakewords. It's fatalistic to say, "I can't see the source code, so I might as well install another microphone in my bedroom."
    - renewiltord 6y ago
      Yep, you're right on this front. It's not a binary thing. That is, you are concerned at inadvertent data leakage that could be used against you. For what it's worth, there's a hardware switch on Echos by the way.
  - nitrogen 6y ago
    Are there any custom ROMs for home assistant microphones?
    - renewiltord 6y ago
      I don't believe so.

danShumway 6y ago

> If you have a smart speaker, you're trusting they don't upload all speech. Well, you shouldn't be doing that because we've known for a while that smart speakers have a false-positive problem. That's the advantage of a physical gesture; the AI won't get it wrong. A physical action like holding down your home button is much less likely to trigger on accident. Not to mention, you can also full-on disable the voice assistant on your smartphone, in which case, there's practically zero risk of a false positive. > With a cell phone, it is actually tougher, because you're also trusting the manufacturer that their security model is such that 3rd party software can't violate the privacy policy you're expecting. Stealing my contacts is bad, getting access to my microphone is worse. If the argument is, "my phone might get malware, so having an always-on-microphone is exactly the same", that just seems really fatalistic to me. These are different risks that belong in different categories.

renewiltord 6y ago
Sure, but without the phone OS source code, you can't know whether "disabling the smart assistant" just displays "disabled" and then keeps recording. Without a hardware switch, it could just lie to you.
- danShumway 6y ago
  The risk of my phone OS being theoretically compromised to spy on me is different than the risk posed by a device that I know is listening to me, and that I know regularly misinterprets wakewords. It's fatalistic to say, "I can't see the source code, so I might as well install another microphone in my bedroom."
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Yep, you're right on this front. It's not a binary thing. That is, you are concerned at inadvertent data leakage that could be used against you. For what it's worth, there's a hardware switch on Echos by the way.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  Are there any custom ROMs for home assistant microphones?
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    I don't believe so.