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Ahmed Mohamed
Ahmed Mohamed

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Alexa, are you invading my privacy?

We find ourselves in an age where the label "smart" has become ubiquitous – from smartphones and smartwatches to smart homes and smart cars. It's so ingrained in our daily lives that we've almost taken it for granted, moreover, normalized it. As a tech enthusiast, this raises concerns, not just because our smartphones already track us extensively, but now, we've essentially become mobile data sources for numerous companies.

Consider the fact that there are over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices in our homes. While these devices may initially seem like convenient time-savers, it's essential for us to reassess our perspectives. See Alexa devices are more than just voice-activated assistants. They are listening, learning, and accumulating data on our preferences, habits, and even conversations within our homes. The sheer volume of data collected can be staggering, leading to questions about the extent of our privacy in this interconnected world.

For those skeptical of these concerns,do you know that amazon was charged with Violating Children’s Privacy Law by Keeping Kids’ Alexa Voice Recordings Forever and Undermining Parents’ Deletion Requests?

According to a complaint filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, Amazon prevented parents from exercising their deletion rights under the COPPA Rule, kept sensitive voice and geolocation data for years, and used it for its own purposes, while putting data at risk of harm from unnecessary access.

I personally own an amazon echo dot. I love how efficient it makes some of my daily mundane tasks as simple as saying "Alexa, set an alarm for 7:30 am". However, is this efficiency worth the invasion of my privacy rights?

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