A number of people will have received smart speakers this Christmas with Amazon Echo and Alexa being the most popular devices.
These speakers act as virtual assistants and can help with setting reminders, alarms, giving weather updates, and playing music. However, experts have warned against placing these devices in certain rooms of the house.
It is claimed that these smart speakers may be listening to conversations. University College London Associate Professor, Dr Hannah Fry said these devices should be treated the same as other guests in your home and kept out of private areas such as the bedroom and bathroom.
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Dr Fry said: "I think there are some spaces in your home, like the bedroom and bathroom, which should remain completely private. This technology is activated by a trigger word but it keeps recording for a short period afterwards. People accept that, but we should all spend more time thinking about what it means for us."
She asked tech firms for the data they had collected on her and she said she found recordings of conversations taken from within her home, the Irish Mirror reports. She added that "very senior" people in the tech industry don't take a smartphone into their bedroom.
Dr Fry, who is a mathematician and expert on tech company algorithms, warned consumers to be wary of cheap technology with microphones linked to the internet. Amazon previously admitted that staff listened to customer conversations through Alexa.
They said that the recordings were used to improve Echo device’s understanding of human speech. A report by news site Bloomberg suggested many users are unaware humans are listening in, with staff each able to review up to 1,000 audio clips a day.
Experts on Forbs tech panel also shared tips about voice-activated tech that users should be aware of.
EPSoft Technologies spokeswoman Carolyn Jenkins said: "Voice-activated tech is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used well or badly. Start by understanding the privacy and security settings available in the voice tech you are using, as well as the data retention policies of the company supplying the tech. Presume everything you say is being listened to and recorded, and adjust the settings you can from there until you are comfortable."
Prophecy International spokesman Brad Thomas said: "These technologies are great time-savers and make life easier, but they also make it easy to inadvertently share private information without thinking. These devices are always on, collecting data about you and your habits to better provide services - but there is no filter, and they simply collect it all. This makes it too easy to share private data with big tech that you did not intend to share."
A spokesperson for Amazon said: "Echo devices are designed to record audio only after the device detects your chosen wake word (Alexa, Amazon, Echo, Ziggy or Computer). Customers will always know when Alexa is sending your request to the cloud because a blue light indicator will appear on your Echo device.
"We manually review only a small fraction of one percent of Alexa requests to help improve Alexa. Access to these review tools is only granted to a limited number of employees who require them to improve the service. Our review process does not associate voice recordings with any customer identifiable information.
"Customers can also easily opt-out of having their voice recordings included in the fraction of one percent of voice recordings that get reviewed. For more information related to Alexa and Privacy please see here."
To delete Alexa conversations, visit the Alexa app, go to Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Your Alexa Data. From here, select Choose How Long to Save Recordings > Don't Save Recordings > Confirm. Next, scroll down to Help Improve Alexa, and switch the Use of Voice Recordings to off.
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