TELLY TALE
Snooping smart TVS & Alexa can spot love cheats
SMART TVS and voice activated assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa can tell if someone is cheating on their partner, scientists have warned.
Taped conversations and location data can be analysed to work out relationships, a former US government data adviser said.
The threat to privacy from homes increasingly reliant on “smart” tech was outlined at the world’s biggest science conference.
Prof Ashwin Machanavajjhala said: “Smart meters can tell you whether an individual is at home and what appliances are used.
“Smart light bulbs and wifi access points can reveal occupancy. Social relationships between building occupants can be inferred by analysing sensor logs.
“Smart TVS and voice assistants can pick up living room chatter, some of which may be shared with third parties.”
Scientists debated the data risks at the Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC. Little is known about what tech firms do with data from household gadgets, which can be sold to third parties or used to target advertising.
Prof Macha- navajjhala said he refused to have smart devices in his home because of his fears about privacy.
He said: “I’m waiting for privacy protections to come in. We need to know what is being collected about us, whether or not we have anything to hide.”
He said the biggest problem was that users did not know what happened to their data.
He said: “Smart devices move data to the cloud so they can be analysed using sophisticated algorithms.
“Once data is on the cloud, users lose control over it. There is little transparency about who it is shared with.”