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Comment by davinic | Hacker News Reader

But saying "beyond what smartphones are already capable of" diminishes the fact that they are also always listening, and are also generally near where you are. Siri, by default, is always listening. Most people don't understand or know this. People are then amazed when they put their phone on a table and say "Hey Siri" from across the room.

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It's very different. Smart speakers are much better at invading privacy.

No one has yet to provide an argument as to why "smart speakers are much better at invading privacy".

For example, just this year my always-on, always-near-me iPhone was subject to an attack where anyone could call me on FaceTime and gain access to my microphone. This attack vector does not exist on my Google Home.

So, why are smart speakers much better at invading privacy?

Smart speakers are made to listen by design, that's their sole purpose: to listen and respond to that. Disabling the microphone takes away the core functionality and basically their purpose for being. You're left with a speaker.

For a phone the assistant is an optional side-feature and disabling it takes almost nothing away from the utility of the smartphone. You're still left with a smartphone.

Smart speakers are designed to listen, obviously!

Streaming audio is not seen as suspicious.

Also they aren not phones and not using wifi, not LTE/4G uplinks, making it more easy to stream audio without hitting bandwidth caps or using too much battery.

It's way much easier to notice if a phone streams audio often and unnecessarily.

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