Would you let a stranger eavesdrop in your home and keep the recordings? Bugging our homes is Silicon Valley's next frontier.
"They are giving us false choices. We can have these devices and enjoy their functionality and how they enhance our lives without compromising our privacy," Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, a Republican and the bill's sponsor, told me. "Welcome to the age of surveillance capitalism."
Every kind of appliance now is becoming a data-collection device. My Chamberlain MyQ garage opener lets the company keep - again, indefinitely - a record of every time my door opens or closes. My Sonos speakers, by default, track what albums, playlists or stations I've listened to, and when I press play, pause, skip or pump up the volume. At least they only hold on to my sonic history for six months.
Google Assistant also collects data about the state of connected devices. But the company says it doesn't store the history of these devices, even though there doesn't seem to be much stopping it. "Alexa is always getting smarter, which is only possible by training her with voice recordings to better understand requests, provide more accurate responses, and personalise the customer experience," Beatrice Geoffrin, director of Alexa privacy, said in a statement. The recordings alsodifferent accents and understand queries about recurring events such as the Olympics, she said.
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