For my blog this week, I’ve decided to talk about Alexa again. I don’t like her. Not only does she always think I say her name and creepily reply to me, but also I’m pretty sure she’s stalking us. I’d even compare Alexa to the telescreens in 1984. You never know when or if she’s listening, but you know she could be listening. That’s all you need think to develop a healthy paranoia around Alexa. Amazon has even admitted to employing thousand a of people to listen to your conversations. Well technically, they only listen to things said once you use the “wake word”, but sometimes Alexa “wakes” without you saying the word on accident (or is it an accident?). They claim they are using the information in your conversations with Alexa to better her AI speaking capabilities, and they keep your information private. But has anyone actually proven that? Do we actually trust Amazon?

Even if we do trust Alexa, check out this article about how easily she can be hacked and turned into a listening device. Basically, researchers were able to create a program that loops Alexa’s coding so that she remains listening after you have given her a command. That information is then transcribed to an outside party, so they can read whatever was said. While this loophole has technically been fixed by now, it still raises concerns. The article emphasizes how easily this was done, so a more experienced hacker could probably easily find another way to similarly hack the device.

Regardless of who is listening or how they do it, current technology has made it possible for us to be listened to at all times. If the government really wanted to, they could probably pay off some tech companies to get some of their data. Whether this could happen or not, the paranoia around the whole situation easily parallels Orwell’s 1984 world. Technically, there’s no evidence that anyone is watching, but it creates a panopticon scenario. If someone could be listening/watching, you’re probably going to want to obey.