Tracking, Profiling, and Ad Targeting in the Alexa Echo Smart Speaker Ecosystem
arxiv.org
arxiv.org
"RQ2: Is smart speaker interaction data used by either Amazon or third party skills beyond purely functional purposes, such as for targeted advertising?"
An answer:
"Our results indicated that Alexa Echo interactions were tracked by both Amazon and third parties. We also found that Amazon used Alexa Echo interaction data to infer user interests and then used those inferences for ad targeting, which was not clearly stated in Amazon’s policies before our research and public disclosure. In many instances, skills did not clearly disclose their data collection practices in their privacy policies, did not provide any privacy policy, or did not reference the platform’s privacy policy."
A conclusion: not all conspiracy theories are mere theories.
A reader's feedback: do Siri et al. next!