I saw this
very interesting video about smart home and how much information the devices
share about you with a manufacturer and some vendors. There were many folks
that posted shocked reactions to it and some were angry about it too. But it
got me thinking about why we are shocked at this. I think somewhere we forget
that when we use technology as “assistants” we are opening up our private lives
for these “assistants” to see.
If we had a
personal assistant/secretary who truly helps us to manage our daily tasks,
would they not know a lot about us? Think about it for a minute, what makes
some a good personal assistant? They know your routine, they understand your
moods, they can predict your requirements, they know when to send flowers/gifts
to your partner/friends, they know how much you like to spend on whom, they
know what you like to read, what music you like, what food you like etc. They
even know how you take your coffee and have it waiting at your desk every
morning! Basically, the more they know you the better they serve you and that
makes you think of them as ‘great assets’ to your life. In fulfilling all your
requirements these assistants choose vendors that they have worked with and
know that you prefer. For example, they send a bouquet of Orchids to your mom
on Mother’s Day on your behalf using a flower shop that you have used for
years. When they call this shop and say you would like to order flowers,
chances are the shop owner knows you, knows what you always order and they
simply confirm that it’s the usual bouquet.
In all these
cases you do not know if your assistant ‘gossips’ about your choices with
others. Do they share your private information tidbits with others? Chances are
high that they do! Some of them may even be ‘selling’ your information to
others, for cash or kind! Let me give you an example, imagine there is someone
who wants to meet you to discuss a proposal to their latest idea. You have been
avoiding them because you don’t really like them. This person goes to your
assistant and offers them tickets to some event that is hard to get into, all
they want to know in exchange is where you are going for lunch and if you are
alone. It’s highly likely in this case that the assistant share this
information because they think it’s no big deal. The interloper shows up and
pretends that it’s a chance meeting. Basically, you get ambushed at lunch and
can’t wait to get out of there but don’t know how the chance meeting came to
be.
So then, how
is a digital assistant any different? And why do we expect it to be? It can
only function intelligently if it collects information about you, analyzes it
and helps predict what you need before you ask for it. To do so it needs to
interact with other systems and send the data to somebody to analyze. Just like
a personal assistant would share your information with their ‘friend’ the
digital assistant shared this information with its manufacturer and preferred
vendors maybe. Just like your assistant would have your coffee ready, if you
drive a Ford car, then Alexa can have your coffee ready at Starbucks for pick
up. Digital assistants do this to serve you better, sure someone is making a
profit out of it but that’s business.
If you are
involved in activities that you classify as private you would avoid sharing
them with your personal assistants and then the same principle should apply to
digital assistants. The bottom line remains the same, if it’s private keep it
to yourself and don’t delegate to personal or digital assistants.
It’s unfair
to develop machines that mimic intelligent human behavior and then be shocked
when they behave the same way.
Today,
machines do not have emotions and they don’t have a conscious and hence you
can’t expect loyalty from them. They won’t protect your information because you
paid for them. They don’t form a personal bond with you. Someday they may, but
for now they don’t and till then their loyalty lies with their creator.
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