Alexa, what are my security concerns?

 TL;DR- my daughter doesn't trust Alexa because she didn't program it.

First, I need to give you a little context... my daughter is a world champion in robotics at 18 years old. No, seriously. She was on her high school robotics team and they won several notable competitions. One is called "Night at the Museum" where they were playing at the Smithsonian museum and literally practiced directly under the space shuttle. The second notable competition was the year before when she was a junior. Her team went to World's competition. Her team won the Design award at both, which is one of the highest awards given out. It means that they have an exceptional log, can thoroughly explain things in interviews with the judges, and in general, display a high degree of excellence. She was the logger on her team, so she recorded literally everything in a notebook for the judges to review.

At my house, I've started converting all light switches and outlets to smart switches and smart outlets. It's a small thing of beauty because I can walk into my living room and say, "Alexa, turn on living room lights," and the whole room becomes much brighter. In the kitchen, not only can I listen to my favorite music while I'm loading the dishwasher, but if my hands are full or messy, I just say, "Alexa, turn on kitchen lights" and suddenly I have all the task lighting I need. 

But my daughter refuses to speak to it. She'll say, "can you tell it to turn on the lights?" with disdain in her voice as if it is a contemptuous necessity. Sometimes I will tease her and say, "no, but you can" and she will continue to sit in the dark or use the light switch the old fashioned way. The only time she has used it is that she accidentally triggered it one time with something that was in no way the dreaded "A-word" and it started playing a Justin Bieber song; and one time when she asked for the "gummi bear song", which is an abomination of music that should not exist or ever be played. I asked her why she wouldn't use it. She answered: "because I didn't program it".

I can't say she's fully wrong. She is smart enough to program one and she has programmed one before. It's low level, but I certainly couldn't manage it! And it is a little disturbing that it listens to everything (although according to Amazon it almost instantly deletes it if it does not hear its wake-up word). Can I guarantee that's happening? No, not really. My boyfriend told me of a vulnerability whereby someone could take it over if they had sight of it (it is supposed to be fixed now). As I considered my home, I couldn't think of where I would place it that was within reach of an outlet but not within sight of a window. Combine this with the fact that I have several throughout my home to create a wide net where I can exit the living room and head for the stairs to my room, announcing lazily, "Alexa, turn off living room lights... Alexa, turn on bedroom lights" without breaking my stride. Plus, it's concerning that I'm in my last semester of a cybersecurity degree, know all of the risks, use it as more or less a lightswitch, and still shrug off all of the security concerns. But turning on my own lightswitch with my fingers?? Do I look like a Neanderthal?! 

It's very convenient to simply announce, "Alexa, turn off my bedroom lights" instead of getting out from under the very cozy blankets at night. But I understand my daughter's concerns. She's a tech whiz Luddite who enjoys technology very much, but doesn't trust the brains behind it. Her robots were fine because she programmed them to follow her commands from her controller. And maybe that's something where I could learn a lesson. She's done her own analysis, decided she does not trust Amazon, and therefore she will not give it directions. She knows she cannot stop me from using it, but she's not going to actively participate in it because she doesn't want a hand in training something for a company she distrusts. 

"I don't trust it because I didn't program it." For a lot of people, that would be a funny line to toss off, but for her, it's a fully considered, philosophical, principled stance. I may never become swayed enough by it to give up the convenience, but I support young people understanding technology AND I support them taking stands for what they believe in. 

But I swear to god... the Gummi Bears song?! Truly torture!

*This has been Blog 1 of my Current Trends in Cybersecurity class. If you have something to say, let me know in the comments!