“Friendly countries spy on each other – as well as accidents happening.”
That statement over there may be the most British quote you will have ever have heard in your life – even if you’ve spent most or just a significant portion of your life among the British. Therefore, take it into account, or even cherish it.
A gem is a gem, after all.
But what had led to this obvious and laconic conclusion was the newspaper finding out that British parliament members (MPs) may or may not be looking into removing-Alexa-style smart-speakers from their offices.
Those include – but are not limited to – such internet of things (IoT) devices, like “smart” Amazon (“Alexa”) speakers.
Good – or bad news – may be what the article terms as Amazon denying it was spying on its users. All right.
Daily Mail said that a senior parliament source said the authorities had experts “looking into what advice to give” – while the article stated it was simply “not clear how many MPs are using voice assistants.”
But what Amazon said was regular system maintenance in the past managed to produce “content” such as “moments such as a woman singing badly in the shower, bank details being read out and, in two harrowing instances, overheard what sounded like a sexual assault – which workers were allegedly told to do nothing about,” the British tabloid reported of the incidents caught on Amazon speakers.
A senior British Parliamentary source is quoted as saying that the authorities’ experts were “looking into what advice to give.”
And while the article references “a huge cyber attack two years ago” – and appropriately unidentified defense ring “dramatically stepped up” at the same time in the wake of this “huge cyber attack” – the authorities are looking at whether smart speakers such as Alexa pose a threat to security.
You and I know it’s not a good idea in our own home – the hardware is hardly ever upgraded for security patches, and otherwise, it records everything, all the time – and how exactly does that help any of us live our lives any better?
But let’s see how the British parliamentarians are getting “woke” to all this potential trouble.
“There is also the concern that almost all these hi-tech companies are based overseas,” technology expert Graham Cluley told Daily Mail.
“The chances are that any recordings or any data that it picks up are being sent to servers over in the US,” said the expert.
