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Alexa, Will Voice Device Risks Outweigh Potential Benefits?

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Voice activation technology is gaining popularity with retailers and consumers. While these technologies have strong growth potential, they issues related to privacy, glitches and who within the household gets to control access. For example, there have been instances where children interact with the devices, and accidentally order items on them.

The RTP team discusses whether these problems will be significant hurdles to voice tech adoption, as well as what retailers’ responsibility would be in terms of getting out ahead of any potential problems.

Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief: This test disaster will definitely be a setback for these voice-activated devices. If this had happened after greater market saturation, when consumers were happy with all the great information and recommendations they were getting, it might be a different story. But now most of us will be very wary of activating this type of technology in the privacy of our homes. It’s one thing to have EZ-Pass track our driving activity, but it’s yet another thing to have an AI tool record every word and sound within our homes. This makes me think of The Circle movie…when your every thought, feeling and heartbeat is being tracked at every moment, disaster will strike. Maybe that’s a bit overly dramatic, but it rings true to some degree in this case.

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Adam Blair, Executive Editor: While the Google Mini Home fiasco is disturbing, I believe this is the kind of technical glitch that will be fixed in later iterations of the technology. What bothers me more are the questions raised in the New York Times “Co-Parenting With Alexa” essay. Once these devices proliferate, it will be way too easy to forget that commercial concerns are their essential driving force. Oh sure, they offer convenience and eliminate tedious tasks, but the imperative of selling us stuff — particularly the stuff made by those companies that have paid to rise high in search results — will always be part of the deal. Henry Ford famously said that customers could have their Model T in any color they wanted, as long as they wanted it black. I worry that these voice assistants will give us an illusion of greater choice while still steering us down a predetermined path.

Marie Griffin, Managing Editor: My main concern when it comes to privacy, aside from the possibility of being hacked, is the guarantee that I would be bombarded with a greater volume of personally targeted advertising, which could be delivered through the in-home voice assistant as well as the increasingly interconnected media ecosystem. But there is a point at which I might make a tradeoff: I’ll let the voice device market to me, or perhaps make my online purchases, if it gives me something I really want. So far, Amazon’s Echo and Google Home isn’t enticing me with any critical functionality I can’t get through another means, but I’m sure Amazon, Google, Apple and a ton of aspiring entrepreneurs are working to come up with a killer app that I — among a huge number of consumers — will be unable to resist. And, in the final analysis, I wouldn’t bet against them.

Klaudia Tirico, Features Editor: Voice-activated devices are “nice to have;” they are by no means necessary and forced on the consumer. With that said, if anyone is worried about the risks and security implications, they simply should not buy a voice-activated device. The stories of voice-activated devices acting up, in my opinion, are just your typical hiccups that I’m sure will be fixed/updated as time goes on. However, I do believe they require some form of parental control if there are young children in the household. (This also relates beyond voice-activated tech, as some children can even sneakily order toys on Amazon by using a sleeping parent’s thumbprint.) To my surprise, Amazon Echo and Alexa currently don’t have any parental controls. However, consumers can “child-proof” their devices by adding PINs so no one makes any unapproved purchases. Amazon also announced kid skills in the U.S., which will require them to receive permission from an adult before adding them.

Glenn Taylor, Senior Editor: I’ll be honest, I don’t see myself purchasing one, but retailers absolutely have a responsibility to ensure that the tech isn’t abused. Although I’m not aware of the extent to which they can actually control the tech capabilities, retailers need to show some form of influence over the developers in how they build out voice activation. Maybe that means have multiple confirmations in a row, or a lock on which specific voice is allowed to use the retail apps. They’ll figure it out in the long run. These are very solvable issues, and I don’t think they are that different from any other technologies that experience hurdles. But for the time being, retailers must continue to focus on the personalization aspects to drive more shoppers to the service.

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