Smart Home Devices Are Spying On Us, Amazon & Google Top The 'Data-Hungry Charts': Report

The presence of the names of tech giants like Amazon and Google in the list of companies that monitor our data to such an extent is concerning.

Be cautious while using these devices as you might trade a lot more than expected for little comfort.

Source : Unsplash/@Brandon Romanchuk

There has been an increase in the past few years in the adoption of smart home devices. Along with that increase, another uptick has been noticed regarding privacy concerns. Many of us did have our suspicions that the device was eavesdropping on our conversations and that it had too much information on us. These concerns have been neverending and with time, they've only gotten stronger. Now, according to a new report, tech giants like Amazon and Alexa are allegedly spying on us with their smart home devices.

According to Surfshark, Google and Amazon stand at the top of the 'data-hungry charts'. Surfshark tested around 290 applications that were connected to over 400 smart home devices. The devices even include smart vacuum cleaners and security cameras. After conducting all the tests, Surfshark observed that Amazon's Alexa was at the top when it came to sourcing data through the said devices. Alexa was collecting 28 out of 32 data points which is quite worrisome. The data that Alexa records ranges from details of the owner, their location and even their health.

Google was not behind either. According to the report, it stood in the second position and was gathering 22 points out of the possible 32 data points. One of the biggest concerns with Google was that all the data that it collected could be linked back to individuals leaving them exposed to attacks in the future.

Amazon & Google Are Using These Data To Train Their AI Models?

The presence of the names of tech giants like Amazon and Google in the list of companies that monitor our data to such an extent is concerning. We know that both companies are trying to ride on the AI wagons as fast as possible to capture the market. It is widely known that these companies need a lot of data to train their AI models.

Them acquiring such information through their smart home devices does raise a question whether they will use it to train their AI model or not. The bigger issue here is that they will use these data without obtaining our consent. 

People do have a hint of what they are compromising for having the comfort of these smart home devices. We will advise them to be cautious in future as they might know how their data is being collected and how it might be used.