Can we trust a smart speaker

●Hello, and welcome to six-minute English, I'm Den

○And I'm Rod, so Den, what's, sorry, oh it's my wife. hang on

●You didn't answer

○Don't take this personally (不要太在意這個), Den. But I'm not exactly crazy about someone eavesdropping on my phone call. If you eavesdropping on something. you secretly listen to someone's conversation. some things are private you know

●Oh, of course, I totally understand, one quick question for you though, do you have a smart speaker? You know? Like the Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or Apple's Siri

○Oh sure, yes, I've got one! It's great, I can ask it all sorts of questions, it tells me about the news and weather. it plays music when I want, it does all sorts, You just give it a voice command and it does you want.

●so it can hear, can it

○Of course, How else can you give it a voice command? (不然你要怎麼給它語音指令)

●all the time?

○well I assume so, (我想是吧)

●so how do you know it's not eavesdropping on you?

○Well, I... oh... I see... I hadn't thought of that

●That's our topic for this 6 minute English, How safe is your smart speaker. However before that Here is a quiz question.
By what the percentage has the number of smart speakers used in US households(家庭) increased from December 2017 to December 2018
a) around 40% b) around 60% c) around 80%

○I know they're very popular even in my household, so I'm going to go for C, around 80%

●We'll find out if you're right later in the programme, so smart speakers and privacy! Florian Schaub is an assistant professor at the University Michigan School of Information. Here he is speaking on the BBC World Service Programme The Why Factor about smart speakers. What does he say people are introducing into their homes? (他說什麼正在被人們引進他們的家庭呢?)

▲You basically introducing... listening bug in your home, in your most intimate space, while the companies said they're only actively listening to what's going on in your home when they hear the keyword, the microphone is still on the whole time. in order to be able to detect that keyword. We don't know to what extent companies are cooperating with the government or to what extent the government might try to circumvent company security mechanisms in order to then be able to listen to what you are doing.

●So what did he say people are introducing Rod?

○He basically said we're introducing a listening bug, now a bug is the small electronic device used secretly listening conversations. Much like a spy with you. Yes, and he mentioned it was in our most intimate space. Intimate means 'private and personal'.

●well, I can't think of anywhere more intimate than my home.

○Indeed. He also said the small speaker's microphone is on the whole time - even though the companies insist that they're only actively listening when the keyword is said