Is Your Phone Spying on You? Microsoft’s New Always Listening Assistant Will Shock You!
Technology has come a long way, and with every advancement, we become more dependent. One of the latest advancements is the always listening assistant, which some people argue has become a necessity to our daily life. However, these assistants have sparked concerns as to how much privacy we are willing to relinquish. Recently, Microsoft has launched their latest always listening assistant, and it comes with a lot of scrutiny. So, the question is, is your phone spying on you?
As technology continues to make our lives easier, it is becoming more integrated into our lives. The always listening assistant is an example of this integration. The assistant is designed to respond to voice commands and allow us to perform various tasks hands-free, such as making phone calls, sending text messages, setting alarms, and even controlling our home appliances. This technology has become so popular that most of us can’t imagine our daily lives without it.
However, privacy experts have been quick to raise alarms, claiming that these assistants are listening to us all the time, even when we are not actively using the device. Microsoft’s recent release of their new always listening assistant has only intensified these concerns. The assistant, named ‘Cortana,’ is similar to other assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. It is designed to be always listening, waiting for its wake word, ‘Hey Cortana.’
The main concern is that these always listening devices are gathering data, even when we are not using them actively. Data such as our voice recordings, conversations, and location are all being collected, stored, and analyzed by the tech companies who manufacture them. With this data, the companies can create personalized profiles of us and sell the information to advertisers, or even use it themselves for targeted advertising.
Microsoft claims that their new assistant has several privacy features that can be adjusted to suit the user’s privacy preferences. These features include the ability to disable the listening feature and delete your voice recordings. However, these settings are not enabled by default. Users must take the initiative to adjust them.
In conclusion, our phones are constantly listening to us, and the technology behind it is only going to get more advanced. While the always listening assistant is undoubtedly convenient, it raises the issue of privacy. It is up to us, as the users, to decide how much we are willing to compromise our privacy for this convenience. Microsoft’s new always listening assistant, Cortana, has several features that can be adjusted to suit our privacy preferences. However, these settings are not enabled by default, so it is up to us to make the necessary changes. The question remains, is your phone spying on you? The answer is yes, to some extent, but it is up to us to decide how much access we are willing to grant.
IFA 2014– Lumia phone users get ready, Lumia Denim, the next firmware update for your phone, will introduce “hey Cortana” passive voice activation command. Basically, your Windows Phone now will always be listening, similar to what you find today in Android handsets with “OK Google” voice activation command and on Xbox with Kinect using the “Xbox On” command.
Lumia Denim is arriving this fall with other improvements, including a faster speeds to launch the camera app and taking pictures, and there is also an update for the Lumia Camera app to bring support for 4K recording.
The new “hey Cortana” hands-free feature will be compatible for phones running the Snapdragon 80x processors, such as the Lumia 1520, Lumia 930, and Lumia Icon.
Hopefully, Microsoft won’t limit the new voice activation feature to the Lumia flagship of phones. For example, the HTC One M8 for Windows has the necessary hardware to support the new extension, but carriers will have to release a firmware update.
