Commentary
Consumers Concerned Their Voice Assistants Are Listening In
- by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, October 1, 2019
Voice assistants are getting plenty of use but many of the consumers using them have concerns.
Nearly half (45%) of consumers globally use voice assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, based on a new study.
However, the majority (69%) of voice assistant users say they find it creepy when they receive ads from voice assistants based on unprompted cues, according the study, comprising a survey of 5,000 consumers in North America and Europe conducted by Selligent.
That’s not the only worry consumers have.
More than half (51%) worry that voice assistants are listening without consent.
Younger consumers are more suspicious that their voice assistants are listening in on them.
More than half (58%) of those 18 to 24 years old are suspicious, higher than those 25 to 35 (57%), 36 to 54 (48%) and 55 to 75 (36%).
Voice assistants walk a fine line on the creepy vs. cool scale.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the AI & IoT Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily Connected Thinking column. He is a NY Times Business bestselling author and his latest book is “Digital Transformation 3.0” (The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of The Internet of Things.) He is CEO of Net Future Institute and a frequent keynote speaker internationally. Follow him on Twitter @chuckmartin and contact him at Chuck@MediaPost.com.
DUH'.........you invite a spy into your house, sponsored and built by a spy company, and you're shocked it is actually spying on you? Have we really become this atupid?
If you read this column on a regular basis, do you not recognize that 80% of the articles are about tech companies that their sole purpose is to get advertising in front of you, on literally every front?
Why is any of this a surprise??
Go back to basics folks, dump rhe "Smart" stuff, because they have Out-Smarted you.