PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY AT HOME

Should you be allowing even more cameras and microphones into your home?

The spotlight is on Google and Amazon (and the rest of the big tech giants) in terms of user privacy right now, and you’d be forgiven for being a little wary about allowing yet more microphones and cameras into your home. Indeed, it puts some people off these devices completely – which we understand.

The latest smart screens on the market, including the Google Nest Hub Max and the Amazon Echo Show 8, come with physical buttons and shutters for disabling the integrated cameras and microphones when you don’t want to be disturbed, listened to, or watched. The Google Nest Hub doesn’t have a camera on it at all, so there’s no way you can be watched (and there’s no way you can make video calls either).

Besides disabling different sensors and features on your smart screen, you should also familiarise yourself with companies’ user privacy and data collection policies – primarily Amazon and Google, but also the companies who make kit that connects to your smart screen, or apps that run on top of it.

These policies are often couched in ambiguous and vague language, but you should be able to spot any obvious red flags. Look not just at what data is being collected by the companies you’re dealing with, but also how that data is being used.

Both Google and Amazon keep records of your voice commands and searches – so they can improve the accuracy and relevance of their services, they say – but if you’re not happy with this, you can delete the logs inside the accompanying mobile apps or on the web. In your Amazon account on the web, look for the Review Voice History option under the Alexa Privacy tab on the Manage Your Content and Devices page; in your Google account on the web, follow the Data & personalisation, then Activity controls.

In both cases you can review the data that’s been logged, and wipe some or all of it from the record.