Amazon, Google Take Privacy Seriously, They Reply to CW Report on Smart-Home 'Surveillance'
​Amazon and Google take privacy seriously, they responded to Consumer Watchdog's report Wednesday (see 1712130023) that patent applications show possibilities for "surveillance" by those companies' smart home devices. "All devices that come with the Google Assistant, including Google Home, are…
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designed with user privacy in mind," said a spokeswoman for that company, calling CW's claims "unfounded." Google Home stores only "voice queries after a physical trigger or after recognizing a hotword trigger," she said Friday. Amazon takes "privacy seriously and [has] built multiple layers of privacy into Echo devices," said the company Wednesday. "We do not use customer’s voice recordings for targeted advertising. Like many companies, we file a number of forward-looking patent applications that explore the full possibilities of new technology. Patents take multiple years to receive and do not necessarily reflect current developments to products and services."