Stop Smart Speaker Subversion- DTNS WEEKLY TECH UPDATE 04/13/2017
Added 2017-04-13 17:38:17 +0000 UTCHey all, thanks for reading! This is the weekly newsletter companion to Daily Tech News Show at http://dailytechnewsshow.com/
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Yes your privacy did not decrease when the US Congress decided to block FCC rules on ISP data collection. That's only because there were no rules before. So lots of you very reasonably are looking into using a VPN. Today I'll discuss what a VPN is and is not good for and how you should go about picking one. And after that the hot news of the week!
CLOSER LOOK -
This week Burger King took advantage of one of the main weaknesses in smart speakers. That is the fact that anybody can trigger them. In fact not just anybody, any voice, even a recorded one. I've taken to avoiding ever saying the word Alexa on a show so I don't incur the wrath of folks who are listening on Amazon Echo or even near one.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/business/burger-king-tv-ad-google-home.html
Of course we've had several funny incidents with Xbox and Google commercials setting off their own devices. This has been a known issue since voice-activation came to game consoles and cell phones a few years back. Why is still an issue? Well, it's hard, and it's not a danger-- yet.
WORKING ON IT
The ideal solution would be to have each device trained to only respond to an authorized user. This is partly to aid security, but mostly just to prevent unintended side effects, or in the case of Burger King, intended ones that the device owner didn't approve.
This is just my opinion, but part of the slow rollout of a tech fix may be the same bit of human nature that led to router makers using default passwords in consumer models for years. The number of actual incidents was so low, that the makers just didn't feel it was worth the trouble. Until it became a problem.
So far, smart speaker incidents are even 'safer.' Yes somebody could order some Amazon products without your approval on an Echo, but Amazon will refund those, let you cancel, and even has a measure to force a pin to be spoken. It's mostly just inconvenience.
A product manager is going to err on making sure the smart speaker responds to your voice vs. preventing it from responding to someone else. It's a calculated risk that the outrage will be more for it not working than for it working in the wrong moments, although Burger King may have changed that calculation a bit.
That doesn't mean the companies aren't working on it at all. Google allows for users to train the Google Assistant on the Pixel phone to recognize individual voices. Amazon is allegedly working on something called Voice ID that would let users set up profiles for authorized users recognized by voice. These would not only address accidental activations, but also allow for more personalized assistance since the speakers would know who is talking to them.
WHAT TO DO FOR NOW
For now, we have to wait for these solutions to be rolled out by the companies to the device we use. So what do you do in the meantime?
Well there's a few things you can try. None of them are silver bullets though.
1. Train your assistant on your voice. Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple are among the companies that let you train the assistant. It's not as good as what Google does on the Pixel, but the more you've refined it to respond to you, the less often it may respond to others.
2. Change the wake word. Not every assistant lets you do this and even those that do only have limited options. But if Alexa is setting off your Echo all the time, changing it to Echo might reduce the number of times.
3. Turn off the mic. This is the extreme option. But smart speakers have a button to shut off the mic and it will definitely make sure your device doesn't accidentally respond to something. Granted it also means you have to turn the mic back on every time you want to talk to the device, which significantly reduces its convenience.
There may be a few other tricks you can try, and if you know of one, please share it in the comments for this post on patreon.com/dtns!
NEWS RECAP
The Windows 10 Creators update has started rolling out to everyone over the next few months. If you don’t want to wait, you can trigger an update by downloading the Update Assistant from Microsoft. Pay close attention to the privacy options, as using the Update Assistant does not preserve your privacy settings. Tuesday also marks the end of support for Windows Vista. https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2017/04/11/windows-10-creators-update-begins-rollout-take-forever-get/#.tnw_9zdz4Qsc
Qualcomm has countersued Apple claiming breach of contract, including misrepresenting performance comparisons between iPhones using Qualomm chips and those that did not. Qualcomm also claims Apple threatened it not to make any public comparisons of its own. Qualcomm also claimed Apple misled government regulators about Qualcomm’s business practices. Apple sued Qualcomm in January for a billion dollars claiming Qualcomm charged royalties on tech it had nothing to do with, and filed two antitrust lawsuits in China. Apple began using Intel modems in some iPhones in 2016. https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/10/qualcomm-countersues-apple-over-iphone-and-ipad-royalties/
Qualcomm has agreed in arbitration to pay BlackBerry $814.9 million to settle a royalty dispute. The arbitrator determined that Qualcomm’s royalty cap program should have applied to payments made by BlackBerry under a licensing deal and that therefore BlackBerry had overpaid royalty fees between 2010 and 2015. Qualcomm is fighting a similar battle over licensing fees with Apple. https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/12/blackberry-wins-815-million-in-dispute-with-qualcomm/
NVIDIA posted the macOS drivers for its GeForce 10-series cards (AKA Pascal architecture) ranging from the GTX 1050 all the way up to Titan Xp. https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/11/nvidia-posts-mac-drivers-for-pascal-graphics-cards/
Microsoft sent out invites for an event May 2 in New York City with the title “Learn what’s next. #MicrosoftEDU.” So if it is a hardware launch as rumored, it seems like it will be centered around education. Microsoft also sent out invites for its E3 briefing on the Xbox Sunday, June 11 at 2 PM and confirmed that it will focus on Project Scorpio, as expected. http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-surface-event-may-surface-pro-5-phone-2017-4
LeEco announced it will not proceed with its $2 billion acquisition of Vizio "due to regulatory headwinds." The two companies will instead put the LeEco app on some Vizio products and partner on selling Vizio TVs in China. https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/10/15246058/leeco-vizio-acquisition-cancelled
Facebook reports its Messenger app now has 1.2 billion monthly active users, up from 1 billion in July. https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/12/messenger/
Walt Mossberg announced he will retire this June, 47 years after beginning his career as a national journalist with the Wall Street Journal. Mossberg started writing a tech column in 1991 which has run continuously in a variety of places including the Wall Street Journal, Recode and the Verge. http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/7/15217980/walt-mossberg-retiring-in-june
Facebook added the ability to send and receive money between Messenger Groups if you’re using Android or a desktop computer. You tap the plus sign to get more features then choose the dollar sign when in a group and then decide whether you’re sending or requesting money and who in the group it applies to. Then you enter the amount, either per person, or just put in the total and it will divide it evenly for you. Label it for what it’s for. Messages will show up in group chat as people pay. https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-adding-group-payments-to-messenger/
A court in Italy ruled Uber was engaged in unfair competition with Taxis and said Uber may not use its Black, Lux, Suv, X , XL, Select and Van phone applications in the country, nor may it advertise its services. Uber intends to appeal. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-uber-idUSKBN1792IS
Deepmind’s AlphaGo AI will take on the world number 1 Go player, 19-year-old Ke Jie of China in a three game match at the Future of Go Summit May 23-May 27 in Wuzhen, China. AlphaGo will also play against and as a teammate of some of the world’s other top Go players. ‘Pair Go’ will have two humans face off, both of who will alternate their moves with an AlphaGo teammate. And ‘Team Go” will put AlphaGo against a combined team of five top pros. https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2017/04/10/google-ai-alpha-go-pro/#.tnw_imX449af
Google has a new web-based drawing tool called AutoDraw that uses machine learning to suggest professionally-drawn art to replace what you draw. Say you start doodling a dog, autodraw will put drawings of dogs up at the top for you to choose and insert into your drawing. You can try it out on any device at autodraw.com. https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/google-autodraw-ai-does-it-understand-modern-art/
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