What Project Alias tells us about our need for privacy

Project Alias probably won’t gain much traction, but it’s an interesting idea that raises a number of pertinent questions: an open source concept based on Raspberry Pi designed by Denmark’s Bj?rn Karmann, it’s a plastic cover for devices such as Google Home or Amazon Echo under which white noise is played to prevent them from listening in on conversations which stops when the user utters a code word, instead of the usual “Alexa”, “Hey Siri” or “OK Google” and who is then able to engage with the home assistant.

Domestic assistants hear what’s going on around them only when they are woken up by an activation word or when they think they hear it, at which point their microphones try to pick up a user’s request. Nevertheless, there are people who believe that home assistants can be controlled by their manufacturers to eavesdrop on their owners’ conversations to learn about their habits so as to better segment them for advertisers, even though it’s not necessary to go to such lengths to find out such things. Either way, by putting a lid on a device that makes it impossible to listen in, should put our minds at rest.

There’s an interesting biological parallel here: a strategy of parasitism that uses the capabilities of the device but takes control of it from the manufacturer to give it to the user. The upside is that it gives users the advantages of a smart home without having to deliver an important part of its control to a third party. The downside is a likely loss of sensitivity: devices such as Google Home or Amazon Echo have a large number of directional microphones that allow them to be able to hear commands from virtually any part of a room or even from other parts of a property, something that would be very difficult to replicate with a device of this type. On the other hand, the matter of form: the designs so far are for two devices, one of which, in fact, has already seen its design vary (Amazon’s current Echo and Echo Plus are no longer similar to the original device and are instead metallic, taller and narrower). One of the most common issues that arise when you start a digital home is the step from a simple “digital room” with a device to filling the house with other devices, from light bulbs and plugs to assistants, as well as other smaller types with images, such as the Echo Spot or the smaller Echo Dot or Google Home Mini, which don’t readily lend themselves to having anything placed over them.

If nothing else, Project Alias should at least make us think a bit harder about the repercussions of our growing use of voice-activated devices, which while they may come with their own rules, doesn’t mean we can’t consider changing.

(En espa?ol, aquí)

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