A privacy researcher told me my smart speaker was a surveillance device and I finally unplugged it

3 comments

3 Comments

Just unplugged mine last week after doing the same research. Made a point of covering the camera on my laptop too, feels a little paranoid but honestly don't care anymore.

kim.nina9d ago

You said "feels a little paranoid but honestly don't care anymore" and yep that pretty much sums it up perfectly. But I gotta ask you something, what made you finally pull the plug? Like was there a specific thing you read or watched that pushed you over the edge? For me it was that one episode of the Netflix documentary where they showed how much audio data these things actually collect even when you're not talking to them. I just sat there staring at my Google Home for like ten minutes after that. Made the whole thing feel way less like a convenience and way more like having a stranger just hanging out in your kitchen all day.

king.eric9d ago

Yeah I did the same thing with my laptop camera after I unplugged the smart speaker. I just put a piece of painter's tape over it so it doesn't leave a sticky mess. It feels kind of silly but at the same time it's such an easy thing to do that there's really no reason not to. For me the peace of mind is totally worth looking a little weird on Zoom calls. Plus I got used to the tape after like two days and now I barely notice it.