On September 28, 2017, Amazon announced their second generation of Echo products. Some are an upgrade of their previous products, such as the Echo 2, but Amazon also introduced new products. One of those is the Amazon Echo Spot. The basic premise of the Spot is that it serves as a ‘smart alarm clock’ that can sit in your bedroom. It comes with features such as Alexa, access to Spotify or Pandora, and many of the other features that come in a basic Amazon Echo, just in compact form. Some of those additional features? Voice recognition and a built-in camera.
The New Amazon Echo Spot Source:https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/557521-amazon-echo-spot.jpg?thumb=y&width=740&height=417
Now don’t get me wrong, these are great features to have on an in-home smart device, especially the voice recognition. At any given instant, you can ask Alexa the simplest of questions, like what the weather will be for the day, in order to better equip you for life as you move throughout your morning. It can serve as a great device for your office desk space with the multitude of built-in features. The front facing camera can provide a great means of communication with people, no matter where you are in the house.
Here’s my problem though: this is what we have talked about as the redefinition of security in our lives. Many times I think of an alarm clock and I am putting in on my bedside table. This is where my concern grows for the Spot. It having voice recognition capability means that the device is constantly listening for its cues to perk up. This means that it is listening 24/7 and can if say it’s in the bedroom also can hear some potentially more intimate or private conversations. You know, things that are only for a select few people. The camera is the same way. While most likely it doesn’t and isn’t something that we should be concerned for, that camera could easily turn on when it wants. If (and this is entirely an if) it were to ever be hacked, all that data could be taken and the every minute of our lives at home could be recorded.
That right there for me is the redefinition of my privacy and security. A small tableside device is constantly listening to our conversations and always has a camera focused where ever it is placed, and for many a device like this may end up in a bedroom. I’m one that turned off the ‘okay, google’ feature on my phone when I realized it was constantly listening for me, so this makes me more uncomfortable. The internet of things may seem like a great idea, but if you’re anyway thinking the same way I do, some things need to stay out of the light and the new Amazon products are limiting the ability to do so.
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I am totally agree with you on the concern of privacy. The technology is literary everywhere in our lives, to be more extreme, people especially those under 40, are looking for wifi and internet almost all the time, it seems like we cannot live without internet. But meanwhile, people just ignored how technology has invaded our privacy when we are getting so used to the kind of things like, amazon will recommend the products that we want by checking our search history, facebook will recommend the possible friends for us when we logged in, iPhone or echo spot will respond to us whenever we talk to them. If you think carefully about these, don’t you feel that you are being tracked and watched all the time? If someone want to have your personal information illegally, it will be so easy for them to do that since they can get all of your information by just hacking in one of your many accounts. They can even hacked in the device you have in home and know almost everything you said and everything you did. According to the Pew results, as of May 2013, 91% of American adults own some sort of cell phone and 31% own a table. This really makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Most of people do not have enough knowledge on how to prevent themselves from being monitored, so it is almost impossible for everyone to have the ability to fight against the professional hackers. Even in movies and TV series, monitoring others form their personal device at home are very common. It has become a severe problem about how to protect ourselves from these technology while taking advantage about the convenient these technology brings us.
Source: http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-automation/technology-is-invading-our-privacy/article/307471/
Hey there,
I agree with everything you have stated in this post. We are now living in a technology driven world, and as the world progress technology will progress. While I do think the advancement of technology is cool (such as Amazon Echo), it seems as technology progresses our privacy becomes more limited.
Cef5361 made a good point regarding the release of the Xbox one. When the Xbox one originally released it came package with the Kinect. A Kinect is a camera that recognized your voice,face and body movements. People were concerned about the lack of privacy that they will have having a Kinect and it ultimately affected sales. I have purchased a Xbox one and did not plug in the kinect for those exact reasons.
It seems people are now more accepting to giving up their privacy for further advancement of technology. I simply want to know what has changed? Why are we allowing companies (such as Amazon) to take a look into our personal lives? I fear the future of technology because a limit can not be reached. People are willing to give up their privacy for simplicity in the world. Is it really worth it?
I believe that question will be answered but it will be to late.
Link Supporting the Xbox argument: http://www.businessinsider.com/xbox-one-kinect-privacy-issues-2013-5
Links supporting the privacy argument:
http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-automation/technology-is-invading-our-privacy/article/307471/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/aug/21/facebook-places-google
http://www.businessinsider.com/internet-of-things-security-privacy-2016-8
To begin, I genuinely agree with the statement you are making regarding the lack of privacy with this new device. Having a camera in my bedroom is not something that sits well with me at all. Think back to when we discussed the smart cars in class that can drive themselves. What happens if a hacker intrudes? They have full control over life or death of anyone in the car. Now, think about this situation. If there were to be a hacker on this new Amazon Echo Spot product they could be listening and watching every move you make in your own bedroom. Settling? Not at all. Yet, society as a whole is thriving off of these new technology developments.
Moreover, people didn’t always commonly accept this type of technology. Just four years ago when Microsoft released its Xbox One many were worried for the same reasons as you and me. It seems like in just four years we have transformed from the majority mindset to the minority mindset. People are now becoming far more accepting of these new products. On the contrary, it was reported in a story back in June of 2016 that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tapes up his laptop camera in fear of hackers gaining control. If someone as technologically brilliant as Zuckerberg fears the same thing as us then maybe for the rest of society ignorance is bliss.
Just 20 years ago the idea of sharing your location and personal images on something called “Facebook” with 1,000 “friends” was abstract. Today, people do it every second without holding back. The camera on our phone typically faces the ceiling when we sleep, but the Echo Spot’s camera can potentially glare right at us during our sleep. The Verge reported that in Amazon’s press release and product page pertaining to this new product the word privacy does not appear once. Amazon believes people will purchase several of the Echo Spots for their homes spread throughout rooms. That goes to show how confident they are in people fully accepting this product. Imagine if that was their goal in 2013 when society questioned a product with a camera in it just like this one. Overall, this goes to show that just as quickly as hardware is evolving society’s acceptance of the Internet of Things is growing too.
Sources:
Lecher, Colin. “Mark Zuckerberg Tapes up His Webcam.” The Verge. The Verge, 21 June 2016. Web.
Warren, Tom. “Amazon’s Echo Spot Is a Sneaky Way to Get a Camera into Your Bedroom.” The Verge. The Verge, 28 Sept. 2017. Web.
I found this very interesting because I have never really been too worried about being hacked or having someone else virtually spying on me but this article made me start to wonder how possible it is for someone to do something like this. This made me decide to google if it is possible for devices like this to be hacked, and what I discovered was quite uncomfortable. To access a camera locally a hacker would just need to the wireless network. Camera devices are not always encrypted or password protected because typically the wireless network security is considered enough. To me this is pretty scary because if you are in a place without a Wi-Fi password, or someone guesses your password, they can possibly have access to your camera and see you at all times. Is the next new device worth that risk?
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-prevent-your-security-camera-from-being-hacked/