By Lori-Anne Little [1]
BELLEVILLE – Smart speakers like Amazon Alexa [2] and Google Home [3] are super-convenient, but their cost, as well as privacy issues, are a concern, some Loyalist College students say.
Over 100 million Alexas have been sold globally, Amazon senior vice-president Dave Limp said in an interview [4] with The Verge [5] electronics website this month. Some of those devices are right here in the Quinte region – including in residences at Loyalist.
Students who own them, like Eli Lacarmbe, an aesthetics and spa management student, and Mark McGillivary, who studies business administration, said they think their devices are fantastic because they’re convenient, and they love that they can be used for things like music streaming, checking the weather, and online searches.
And some students who don’t currently own an Alexa or Google Home say they’d like to.
“I think for the most part it’s a neat little device if you don’t want to use your computer and you want to listen to the radio. I know a lot of the local radio stations actually broadcast off of Alexa,” said Dan Willcocks, an animation student. He doesn’t own one yet, but says eventually he’d like to create a smart home by hooking up lights and other devices to a smart speaker.
But other students said they feel having smart speakers in their home is a waste of money and an invasion of privacy.
“I don’t have one, but in my opinion I find it to be a bit of a waste of money,” said culinary student Tayla Genereux. “If you have one and want to use it for the lights and TV, amongst other things, you have to buy the special light bulbs [6] to make it work to begin with.”
An Alexa can cost between $30 and $150, depending on the model, while the Google Home is $179. Light bulbs compatible with smart speakers cost about $40 each on Amazon, and a recent CBC report estimated that an average house needs 45, for a total cost of $1,800 for the bulbs alone.
Genereux also said she’s uncomfortable with the privacy issues that can arise. The devices record sounds and conversations in their vicinity, and this information is stored by Amazon and Google. You can ask to have these audio files sent back to you, and according to another recent story in The Verge, [7] there have been cases where people have been sent recordings from other households.
Even though he’d like to have a smart speaker, Willcocks admitted that the technology is “a bit Big Brother [8]-esque.” But he added that having a smart speaker store your information isn’t necessarily a bad thing: “It can be used to your benefit or detriment … it could be used for good too, like to work as proof in domestic assault or even rape trials if you ever needed it for something like that.”
But Genereux disagreed, saying: “It’s low-key terrifying to have it control your house. I personally keep Siri [9] (the’s iPhone’s smart assistant) turned off. I wouldn’t want to have Alexa or Google Home.”