In the News
Smart speakers are developing new skills that continue to add function and ease to daily life. In Alexa can now arm your home security system — including Amazon’s Ring Alarm, Sean Hollister at The Verge discusses new and upcoming ways for your Alexa speaker to communicate with and improve your home smart security systems. Hollister explains that new skills available on Alexa will allow users to use voice commands to arm and disarm their Ring security devices once set up.
Our Take
Smart security systems have increased the affordability and ease of protecting your home just as smart speakers have added increase ease to daily tasks and responsibilities. However, by increasing your reliance upon Cloud-based and IoT systems, security risks for your data and privacy arise. Communicating with your home speaker about your location entering and exiting your home creates a data trail that could potentially be used to track your location patterns and risk your physical safety. Additionally, the simple reality of sharing more and more of your lives with the internet decreases the caution that individuals may have regarding the privacy of their lives and personal matters. As smart speaker to home security system communication continues to expand to more and more devices and programs, the importance of doing your research before purchasing these systems to make sure that they are the most secure for not just your physical safety, but also for the safety of your digital profile and content.
Recommendations
How can you protect your personal information and security when using smart devices?
- Understand the risks of putting your personal information into the world, and only share what you have to
- Know your rights when it comes to data use and storage
- Whenever possible, arm your smart security devices or unlock accounts manually to reduce the possibility of oversharing sensitive and compromising information
- Enable privacy settings and tools when available
- Stay up to date on recent data breaches and exposures to see if you have been impacted