BBC Learnings · Section 10

Can we trust a smart speaker

So Dan, what's... Oh, sorry.

Level: B1 · 123 sentences

Transcript

  1. So Dan, what's...
  2. Oh, sorry.
  3. Oh, it's my wife.
  4. Hang on.
  5. You didn't answer!
  6. Well, don't take this personally, Dan,
  7. but I'm not exactly crazy about someone eavesdropping on my phone call.
  8. If you eavesdrop on something, you secretly listen to someone's conversation.
  9. Something's a private, you know. Oh, of course.
  10. I totally understand.
  11. One quick question for you though.
  12. Do you have a smart speaker?
  13. You know, like Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri?
  14. Sure, yes, I've got one. It's great.
  15. I can ask it all sorts of questions.
  16. It tells me about the news
  17. and whether it plays music when I want.
  18. It does all sorts.
  19. You just give it a voice command
  20. and it does what you want.
  21. So it can hear you, can it?
  22. Of course. How else can you give it a voice command?
  23. All the time? Well, I assume so.
  24. So how do you know it's not eavesdropping on you?
  25. Well, I... oh, I see.
  26. I hadn't thought of that. Well,
  27. that's our topic for this 6 Minute English.
  28. How safe is your smart speaker?
  29. However, before that, here is our quiz question.
  30. By what percentage the number of smart speakers used
  31. in US households increased from December 2017 to December 2018?
  32. Is it a around 40%?
  33. b around 60% or c around 80%?
  34. Oh, well, I know they are very popular even in my household,
  35. so I'm going to go for c around 80%.
  36. Well, we'll find out if you're right later in the programme.
  37. So, smart speakers and privacy. Florian Schaub
  38. is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Information.
  39. Here he is speaking on the BBC World Service
  40. programme The Why Factor about smart speakers.
  41. What does he say people are introducing into their homes?
  42. You're basically introducing listening bug in your home,
  43. in your most intimate space.
  44. While the companies say they only actively listen to what's going
  45. on in your home when they hear the keyword,
  46. the microphone is still on the whole time
  47. in order to be able to detect that keyword.
  48. We don't know to what extent companies are cooperating
  49. with the government or to what extent the government might try to...
  50. circumvent companies' security mechanisms in order to then
  51. be able to listen to what you're doing.
  52. So what did he say people are introducing, Rob?
  53. He basically said we're introducing a listening bug.
  54. Now a bug is a small electronic device
  55. used for secretly listening to conversations,
  56. much like a spy would use.
  57. Yes, and he mentioned it was in our most intimate space.
  58. Intimate means private and personal.
  59. Well, I can't think of anywhere more intimate than my home.
  60. Indeed.
  61. He also said that the smart speaker's microphone is on the whole time,
  62. even though the companies insist that they're only
  63. actively listening when the key word is said.
  64. Yes, he suggested that we can't
  65. know how far a company might be cooperating
  66. with a government to eavesdrop on people.
  67. Or whether a government might be circumventing a smart speaker's security
  68. and listening in anyway without the company or owner's permission.
  69. circumvent means cleverly bypass or go round.
  70. So if all this eavesdropping is possible,
  71. why are smart speakers so popular?
  72. Good question. And here's Florian Schaub again with an answer.
  73. He conducted a study on people's attitudes to privacy
  74. when it came to smart speakers.
  75. How do people feel about having
  76. a smart speaker that could eavesdrop on them?
  77. What we often saw is people
  78. just being resigned to this is the trade-off
  79. they have to make if they want to enjoy
  80. the convenience that a smart speaker provides to them.
  81. He said that people are resigned to the privacy trade-off.
  82. If you're resigned to something, you accept
  83. something unpleasant that can't be changed.
  84. Yes, and a trade-off is a compromise.
  85. You accept something bad to also receive something good.
  86. So people accept that a smart speaker gives them advantages.
  87. even though there could be downsides.
  88. Yes. In the grand scheme of things,
  89. the data that these devices hear
  90. is probably not that significant considering all the data
  91. companies have about us already anyway.
  92. So can I have the answer to the quiz then?
  93. Of course.
  94. Earlier I asked by what percentage the number
  95. of smart speakers used in US households increased
  96. from December 2017 to December 2018.
  97. Was it a around 40%?
  98. B around 60% or C around 80%?
  99. What did you say, Rob? I said C around 80%.
  100. And you are right.
  101. The answer is around 80%.
  102. From 66 million in December 2017
  103. to 118 million in December 2018.
  104. And around 10 million people in the UK now use one too.
  105. I guess they're not worried about eavesdropping.
  106. Nice slide into the vocabulary there, Dan.
  107. If someone eavesdrops on you, it means
  108. they secretly listen to your conversation.
  109. They could be eavesdropping on you through a bug,
  110. which is a small electronic device
  111. used to secretly listen to conversations.
  112. Yes, they may have bugged your most intimate or private and personal spaces.
  113. Next we had circumvent.
  114. If you circumvent something, such as security,
  115. you cleverly bypass it or go around it.
  116. Then we had resigned.
  117. If you are resigned to something,
  118. it means you accept something unpleasant that can't be changed.
  119. And lastly we had trade-off. A trade-off is a compromise.
  120. You get something good, but you also get something bad.
  121. Right, like six minutes English.
  122. A great discussion and vocabulary, but the trade-off
  123. is it only lasts six minutes.