Prominent Tech Investor Believes Our Smart Speakers Are Spying On Us

Smart speakers seem like the perfect gadget for the modern era, where we can use our voice to control all manner of devices like our door locks, lights, TV, and it can also help us search for things, make appointments, order food, and so on. However, it is possible that with these speakers always listening for a command word, are we perhaps giving away too much of ourselves?

While companies that make these devices insist that they do not spy on you, prominent tech investor John Borthwick seems to think otherwise. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Borthwick claims that he believes that smart speakers made by the likes of Google and Amazon are using their speakers to conduct surveillance on their customers.

If there was ever reason to give Borthwick’s claim any cause for concern, it is recent reports where it has been revealed that companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have actually been analyzing the recordings that you make when you use their speakers. Some of these companies have even relied on third-party contractors to do the analysis.

According to Borthwick, “I personally believe that you, as a user and as somebody who likes technology, who wants to use technology, that you should have far more rights about your data usage than we have today.” Whether or not his belief is correct remains to be seen, but perhaps it might give some users pause the next time they want to pick up a smart speaker of their own.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Audio, Gadgets, General
Tags: Amazon, Google, Privacy, Speakers