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Sacrificing Privacy over Technology.

  • By Manish Manocha
  • Date Apr 21, 2020
  • Quotes15

Sacrificing Privacy over Technology. Are Indian Privacy laws keeping pace with Technology? “Off-Facebook Activity” is next after “Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google Home"

Sacrificing Privacy over Technology. Are Indian Privacy laws keeping pace with Technology? “Off-Facebook Activity” is next after “Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google Home” Welcoming 2020, Facebook announced another new feature called Off-Facebook activity. This lets user “see and control the data that other apps and websites share with Facebook”. Off-Facebook Activity provides a review of the third-party websites and apps that share user’s visit history with Facebook. This feature comes with issues, such as giving little information about how advertisers collect user’s personal data. Earlier, Amazon Echo and Alexa voice assistant were exposed, concerning issues with privacy. While Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Google Assistant, promise improving quality of life, they also endanger users to privacy risks by continuously listening for voice data, further, transmitting it to third parties. Characteristically, voice assistants only send voice data to servers once they hear the wake word, typically "Alexa" or "Hey, Google", but device must always be in listen mode, so it can detect the wake word. Seeing the peril, there are now slide covers for cameras or a mute function on many smart speakers. User can always turn the mic off / mute, avoiding the device listening all the times for the wake word. Coming Personal Data Privacy Bill in India very soon, these devices may stop speaking and refuse to listen commands. There are obvious privacy issues associated with the use of voice assistants. The main obligation of protecting user’s privacy lies on companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple etc. that provide the voice assistant software. But at the same time user’s discretion is required by taking a conscious decision after analysing the exposure of Data Privacy before adopting such technologies/features. Adv. Manish Manocha Elite CIO.