Alexa, Friend or Foe?

 The majority of consumers (69%) in the US now own at least one smart home device according to a recent study by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) MediaPost.  Specifically for smart speakers such as Alexa or Google Home, 2 in 5 Americans  now own one in their homes (Insider Radio).

I happen to be one such customer, although I've been a reluctant adopter. I received the Echo Dot as a gift and have slowly integrated it into my daily life for basic queries like 'what's the temperature", 'set a timer' or 'what's 250 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit?'.  My boyfriend's daughter talks to Alexa more adeptly and gets a kick out of asking Alexa for jokes, animal noises or even the occasional fart noise.  In general though, anything more complex and she gets tripped up, and we get the 'Sorry, I don't know that' response.

Recently however, Alexa has taken to oversharing or making unprompted suggestions, and frankly unwelcome, suggestions relating to my Amazon shopping habits.   She has spoiled a couple surprise gifts with her announcements of deliveries.  She has also recently been piping up about products that have been delivered through Amazon to see if I'd like to share a review.  Emphatic no thank you!

Apparently Amazon is now taking steps to integrate Alexa even further into our daily lives (Wired).  When Alexa encounters an unfamiliar request, she will now ask for clarification.  At first, this feature will only be applicable to requests relating to smart home devices. Alexa will use algorithms and machine learning to then improve on her ability to execute as expected.   This could be a great benefit to improve Alexa functionality but it also could get super annoying if it's happening too often.  For 2021, the Alexa team are even looking to introduce a 'join my conversation' feature based on tonal cues.  I'm glad to hear it's opt in, as that sounds like the last thing I want is a corporate robot giving me their input randomly to try to influence purchase decisions!

Also included in the list of recent updates was the expansion of Amazon's security network. According to Mashable, Amazon is working to expand Sidewalk, its connected neighborhood program, a low bandwidth, long distance wireless protocol.  According to Mashable 'Many existing Amazon devices will automatically provide bandwidth for Amazon's private network unless owners actively prevent them from doing so.'

To me, despite some of the added convenience of these home devices, the use of existing devices' capabilities on a silent opt out basis is a step too far. This raises even more questions on privacy and on the updates companies can make or information they can gather without you realizing, an issue highlighted last year in relation to the practice smart devices take with recording your conversations (Consumer Watchdog).  I guess I need to be more careful about the fine print in the registration processes!