Washington (AFP)

Alexa, Siri, Google and other digital voice assistants accompany a third of Americans in their daily lives, but concerns are growing that these secretive robots are destroying the last walls of privacy.

Several investigations have revealed in recent months in the press that the exchanges with the voice assistants are sometimes listened to by humans, without the knowledge of the users, in order to perfect the machines.

"People think that digital voice assistants will magically improve themselves by doing automated learning on their own," said Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Creative Strategies. "We are only at the beginning of the artificial intelligence, the human intervention remains very important".

"But it requires absolute transparency for users, and they must be able to choose to participate in this machine learning or not," she adds.

Much criticized following the discovery of these plays, the major groups concerned had to react.

Last May, Amazon announced the addition of features to ask Alexa to erase his recordings or blind the camera.

Google suspended tapping throughout the European Union for three months, following a request from a German data protection authority.

This week, Apple also temporarily suspended the analysis by employees or contractors of conversations recorded by his voice assistant Siri, time to "review" his device.

"In addition, during the next update of the software, users will have the opportunity to choose to participate (in this process)," said the firm at the apple.

- Trust -

The information of consumers about their personal data is the heart of the problem posed by these random tapping, especially for a group like Apple, which has made respect for privacy its argument of differentiation vis-à-vis other "GAFA" (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon).

Users need to know that they can be listened to, under what circumstances, by whom and what additional information is transmitted (especially those that identify the person being listened to), says Carolina Milanesi.

"If they are employees who listen, trust goes back, but if they are subcontractors, we want to know what their standards are, and how the data are stored," she says.

Nearly 112 million Americans, or a third of the country's population, will use a voice assistant at least once a month in 2019, according to eMarketer. France had 1.7 million followers by the end of 2018 (Médiamétrie).

Users turn to these robotic voices for research, shopping or listening to music via "smart" speakers, but also a galaxy of connected objects, from smartphones to cars.

Alexa (Amazon) and Google capture more than 60% of the global market, according to research firm Canalys, ahead of Siri, Bixby (Samsung) or Cortana (Microsoft).

"It's a fascinating technology that has the power to improve people's lives (...), but companies do not respond well to the legitimate concerns that it also raises," said Florian Schaub, a university professor. of Michigan and specialist in human-machine interactions.

- Anesthetized -

More than 40 percent of connected homeowners worry about privacy and are worried about the safety of their data, according to a study by Accenture.

Some users even feel that they are being listened to constantly, while the devices do not record anything and do not transmit information unless they are started with a "Hey, Siri" or "Alexa" formula. .

But the risk of involuntary activation exists. Potential slippages, too.

"I worry that these assistants will not only be sounded when we talk to them, but also when they hear broken glass sounds, a baby crying or any other distress signal ... And how little we will be we will not be aware of anything, "warns Ryan Calo, co-director of the University of Washington's Policy and Technology Research Laboratory.

It also evokes the possibility that the speakers can be activated remotely. "If the authorities get a warrant, they could turn your Echo (Amazon speaker) into a snitch, to listen to you constantly," he says.

Perspectives that are not science fiction: American justice increasingly uses the information collected by connected objects.

And Consumer Watchdog, an American consumer association, revealed in 2017 research conducted at Amazon to infer feelings and behaviors from ambient conversations.

Even when nobody was talking to the robot.

© 2019 AFP