The Internet of Things or IoT for short, pretty much describes all of the smart devices we use daily whether it is our smart phones or smart speakers in our homes. Over 10 years ago, smart phones took the world by storm as these devices were able to connect people to the internet whenever and practically wherever they wanted. Fast forward to today’s age, we have endless smart devices such as smart watches, smart headphones, smart speakers and even smart refrigerators, it’s quite astonishing really.
The main selling point of these smart devices is that they are compatible with other smart devices. For instance, you can set up your smart watch to be synced with your smart phone and then have the ability to receive text messages on your watch or even change the music playing on your phone through your watch. Having all of these devices makes people feel organised and in control as they can access whatever they need from multiple devices.
There are obviously some draw backs with smart devices, just like any product. The one device I will be focusing on is Amazon’s ‘Alexa’. Alexa is a home smart speaker and has a wide range of functions. The speaker is voice activated so you don’t even need a smart to operate it. However, Alexa saves and stores everything you have said to it on an Amazon server. An article written by Adam Clark Estes from Gizmodo (https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/04/the-terrible-truth-about-alexa/), states that Alexa and other home devices may be spying on us and while that may or may not be true, there is some evidence to prove that it is true. For one, everything you say to Alexa is stored on a server and almost builds a personal file for Amazon. Secondly, while Alexa is programmed to only respond and wake when you call on it. The microphone is always on and picks up everything you say while near it, even if that dialogue doesn’t actually wake Alexa. These privacy concerns with smart devices leads me into my next topic, Big Data.
Big Data is essentially large quantities of data analysed by computers to identify any patterns or trends associated with one person or a group people. I’m sure many of you have experienced Big Data at one point in your life and an example that comes to mind quickly is specifically tailored ads to individual people based off of previous google searches or even your ‘likes’ on Facebook. Back in March of 2018, Facebook came under serious fire for saving and storing the personal data of over 50 million users that didn’t even consent to such activity for political campaigning reasons (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/18/data-scandal-is-huge-blow-for-facebook-and-efforts-to-study-its-impact-on-society). The worst part is that all of this data was available to purchase form Facebook by other companies. It is quite scary that these companies, just not Facebook, have all of this information on us and can then tailor certain ads or sites based on our internet usage on separate websites.
I personally think these smart devices are great in terms of their intended purpose however, the fact that these devices and websites are able to keep an extensive history on us on their company servers is quite unnerving.
How do you feel about companies essentially keeping a history of your searches and such? Do you think it is too invasive or not at all?
Ian's Digital Marketing Blog 
Hey Ian, a well-written and interesting post! The fact our devices are able to listen to our every word is somewhat concerning for sure; just like your example of Alexa, I find our phones are doing an even better job of this, seeing as though we carry them everywhere we go! My iPhone’s “Hey Siri” feature, I find, allows my phone to listen to me at all times, as it has to wait for me to speak those words – “Hey Siri” – to activate the feature. I think this command has normalised the reality that our phones are able to hear us regardless of what we’re doing, and if that doesn’t worry you a bit, I don’t know what will. I have since disabled this feature on my phone out of concerns for my own privacy!
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Thanks for the comment Jarryd! Yeah I was definitely aware that our phones and such were always listening for the command to wake them but had no idea that the things we might say in general might be recorded and stored. It is a scary time and while I haven’t personally seen anything necessarily bad happen because of these recordings, it is only a matter of time.
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Hey Ian,
I can assure you that Alexa and other similar devices are definitely spying on you. My dad actually works in big data and it’s made me turn off Siri for good. Every little bit of information you give (which you may not even realise) is being stored in huge cloud like storages. I personally think it is very invasive, however it can be useful. This info can be used for good, like tracking patterns of fraudulent activity or terrorist searches.
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Hey Natalie, thanks for the comment! I always had a suspicion that the things we say might have been stored but wasn’t 100% sure. It is definitely very invasive, especially when you aren’t even talking to these devices. It is great though how this data can be used for good and is probably very useful.
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Hi Ian, great post! As reading this I was going to say the same as Jarryd and Natalie. As I have recently brought this up with my friends! I have been using siri more frequently have ben thinking that is she’s listening out for me to say “Hey Siri” then clearly she’s listening the whole time… to everything I say? Is there any privacy? I’d be interested to know more now hearing that Natalie has turned hers off because it has crossed my mind in the past few days!
I do think it is all too invasive and find it very overwhelming. However am trying to be more positive and take it as a great thing that the world is evolving so quickly around us and what an exciting time is it! It does always come back to that question as to whats next, when all these ‘smart’ devices just keep getting smarter!
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Hey Steph, thanks for the comment! Personally, I don’t use the “Hey Siri” function at all as I just forget about it or don’t need to use it. I think the idea is great how these smart devices can help you out if your hands are full and they mean well. Although, with them storing everything being recorded I think it is a huge turn off!
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