Tackle privacy concerns

From video conferencing apps to voice assistants, your work conversations may be at risk of being eavesdropped on

With working from home becoming the norm, living spaces have seen an increase in work conversations. Whether you’re sitting at the dining table for a video conference or pacing through the house talking on the phone, you are most often talking about work.

While some professionals don’t need to worry about who hears these conversations, others, such as lawyers, do.

“The balance between the privacy of the employee and the need of the organisations to ensure security of their confidential information is delicate,” says Shweta Reddy, program officer at the Centre for Internet and Society.

She says that workplace surveillance measures have to be drafted carefully, and remote working poses its own challenges. Video conferencing has become key to conduct home meetings, but there have been reports regarding the lack of end to end encryption on these devices, which is a matter of concern.

“While installing any application, individuals should pay close attention to the permissions that the app asks for. Always ensure that the permissions are consistent with the nature and purpose of the application,” she says.

Reading the privacy policy is necessary but for this to be effective, there is a greater onus on the apps and devices to be transparent about their data processing activities, Shweta explains.

Are voice assistants always listening?

A law firm in the UK has instructed that their employees switch off devices like Alexa and Google Home during work hours. Can this be dismissed as just paranoia?

“I think it is a legitimate concern. There have been reports of Amazon employees listening in on recordings from Alexa last year as part of their development process for new services,” says Shweta. The answer to this is based on the trust one has on organizations like this. The more committed the organisations seem to your privacy, the less paranoid one will be.

However, this trust is difficult to cultivate in companies such as Amazon who didn’t reveal at first that conversations were being listened to. They then allowed the recordings to be deleted but still covertly kept transcripts of these. Eventually, the parent company of all voice assistants such as Amazon, Google and Apple included built-in options for their users to stop their devices from recording conversations or allowed them to delete recorded conversations and their transcripts.

While this is a step in the right direction, they have admitted that their devices are always listening. Users have been assured that conversations are only recorded after the ‘wake words’ of Alexa, Ok Google or Siri activate the devices. These recorded conversations are listened to by employees in order to make the ‘customer experience’ smoother.

While this may sound reasonable to some, there have been multiple instances where these devices have been activated with random words. You may have experienced it yourself when the voice assistant on your phone chimes in with a “Sorry I didn’t quite catch that” in the middle of a conversation.

While there is no evidence that these devices are being used to spy on people, this hazy understanding of privacy and general lack of trust surrounding listening devices tends to make many paranoid. “Even with voice assistants, I think the same best practice of app permissions and privacy policy apply,” Shweta says. So perhaps it is best to follow suit and turn off your voice assistants during office hours.

Prevent eavesdropping

To stop Amazon employees from being able to listen to your conversations

* In the Alexa app, open settings.

* Select Alexa Privacy.

* Tap Manage How Your Data Improves Alexa.

* Turn “Help Improve Amazon Services and Develop New Features” off by tapping the switch.

* Confirm your decision.

To delete all previous recordings

* In the Alexa app, open settings.

* Select Alexa Privacy.

* Tap on review voice history.

* You’ll see a list of all the requests you’ve made since setting up your Echo. You can choose the recordings you want to delete or tap Delete All Recordings for Today.

* You can also delete all recordings in the Alexa app by customizing a date range, or by choosing “All History” to delete it all.

How to delete Google voice recordings

* Go to your Google Account

* Choose Data and personalisation from the panel on the left.

* Choose Voice and Audio Activity under Activity Controls

* Click Manage Activity, where you’ll see your voice commands by date

* Choose “Delete Activity by”.

* Under “Delete by date” click on the down arrow to choose the “All Time” option.

* At the bottom, choose Delete.