Visionaries: Episode 21, The Pros and Cons of Virtual Assistants by Susan Gray

If you own a smart phone or a smart speaker, you are familiar with the virtual assistant, driven by artificial intelligence.  They will tell you the weather, give you news updates, help you shop or listen to music or a podcast, contact people by phone or text; there seems no limit to how they are able to assist us in our daily lives. 

Yet, as convenient as virtual assistants are, they come with a cost: privacy.  For those of you that use an IPhone, you may have experienced the virtual assistant, Siri, respond to something you just said, even though you did not ask for its assistance.  Amazon just announced that the ability for users of the Echo device to opt out of their voices being recorded is no longer an option.  This means the Echo smart speaker can always be listening to you and recording what it hears.

There is a practical reason for these devices to listen to us and record what is being said: artificial intelligence learns as it listens, and improves its knowledge base and responses as it is utilized. 

For our blind peers that use Meta glasses, the pictures or videos we take become property of Meta, and although no one is certain they would be used, there is no ability to consent to that use.

Many people still choose to use their smart devices, despite the possibility of privacy breaches.  There are a few ways to decrease the instances of your conversations being overheard or recorded by these devices.  One option is to turn off or mute the microphone on your smart speaker when you are not planning on using it.  Muting or turning off your smart phone when not in use will help, but often this is not ideal. There are devices for sale called audio jammers that range from ten dollars to three hundred dollars, and they will function as a scrambler to any device that is listening in. The device emits a white noise similar to the sound a fan makes, and blocks the device that is listening from hearing conversations in the room.

Protecting your photographs or videos from being shared or used without your permission may be harder to do.  The device taking the picture, be it your smart phone or Meta glasses, and the way you share the picture, either by texting it or posting it, will impact your ability to keep the image secure.  For platforms that have privacy controls, it is best to use them.  Short of that, being mindful that a photograph could be shared with unknown people, never take or share photographs you wouldn’t want the world to see.

For the most part, virtual assistants make our lives easier, and are good devices for peers with low or no vision to use. It is good to be mindful of available privacy protections when you are using smart devices.    It is up to you to decide if the pros outweigh the cons in utilizing these devices.