How reliable are voice assistants?

Many of you may have used Siri, a voice assistant of US tech company Apple. You only have to say “hey Siri” and it will answer to your command. However, we may be sacrificing our privacy to enjoy this convenience.
许多人或许都用过美国科技公司苹果所开发的语音助手Siri。只需呼唤一声“嘿，Siri”，它便会听从你的指示。但我们在享受这一便利的同时，或许正牺牲着个人隐私。

According to a recent report by the Guardian, Siri can be accidentally triggered and start recording private conversations, such as discussions between doctors and patients. Some of these recordings are then given to workers outside the company to review.
《卫报》近期的一篇报道称，Siri能被偶然触发，并开始记录私人对话，如医患之间的讨论等。其中的一些录音还会被提供给苹果公司以外的员工进行分析。

Apple claimed the data was used to help Siri improve, but users were not informed of this measure in the first place.
苹果公司称这些数据是用于改进Siri，但用户一开始对这一举措并不知情。

Apple’s Siri is not the only voice assistant to come under fire.
而遭到批评的语音助手并非只有苹果的Siri。

In 2018, Alexa, a voice assistant developed by US tech company Amazon, recorded a private conversation between a couple and sent it to a stranger without their permission.
2018年，美国科技公司亚马逊所开发的语音助手Alexa记录下了一对夫妇的私人对话，并在未经夫妻俩允许的情况下，将这段对话发给了一个陌生人。

These issues deepened concerns that tech companies are infringing users’ rights of privacy.
这些问题都加剧了公众对于科技公司侵犯用户隐私权的担忧。

Many people have long feared that tech companies are listening and collecting data from private conversations, reported Forbes. Using this data, third party companies could then paint an accurate picture of users’ habits and preferences in order to serve them more targeted advertisements, or even worse, sell this private data.
据《福布斯》杂志报道，一直以来许多人都很担心科技公司正在窃听私人对话，并从中收集数据。通过使用这些数据，第三方公司能够精确地掌握用户的习惯与偏好，为他们提供更有针对性的广告，甚至售卖这些私人数据。

Despite this risk, the popularity of voice assistant seems to be unstoppable. According to a report by Ovum, a London-based research firm, there will be almost as many voice assistants on the planet as people by 2021.
尽管存在这一风险，但语音助手的流行趋势却似乎不可阻挡。据伦敦调查公司Ovum发布的一项报告显示，到2021年，地球上语音助手的设备数量将接近全球人口总数。

“In the near future, everything from your lighting to your air-conditioning to your refrigerator, your coffee maker, and even your toilet could be wired to a system controlled by voice,” commented The Atlantic.
“在不远的未来，从灯光、空调、冰箱、咖啡机乃至洗手间，一切都会被接入一个语音控制系统，”《大西洋月刊》评论道。

Colin Horgan wrote on the blog site Medium that he believed people’s daily lives will soon become a source of data.
科林·霍根在博客网站Medium上写道，他认为人们的日常生活很快将变为一项数据来源。

“The sounds of our homes, the symphony of life – laughing, crying, talking, shouting, sitting in silence – will no longer be considered memories, but data,” he wrote.
“我们家园的声音，生活中的交响乐 —— 笑声、哭声、说话声、叫喊声、沉默地静坐 —— 这些都将不再被视为回忆，而是成为了数据，”他写道。

To deal with the issue, Blake Morgan, reporter for The Atlantic, believed that the answer is transparency.
《大西洋月刊》记者布莱克·摩根认为，解决这一问题的答案在于透明化。

“All companies need to have messaging ready to explain to customers what they do with private data,” she wrote on The Atlantic.
“所有的公司都要准备好向顾客解释私人数据用途的信息，”她在《大西洋月刊》上如此写道。

Daniel Blair, CEO of a virtual reality startup in Canada, told CBC News that people can change settings and limit how often the device is active in your home, and do some research before buying a device.
加拿大一家虚拟现实初创公司的总裁丹尼尔·布莱尔在接受加拿大广播公司新闻频道采访时表示，人们可以修改设置，限制设备在家中的活跃频率，并在购买设备之前进行一番调查。

“Even when we trust a company to protect our privacy... we should consider what’s being done behind the scenes and ask those holding the keys to help us understand it better,” commented iMore, a Canada tech website.
“就算我们相信某家公司能够保护我们的个人隐私……我们也应该考虑到背后所发生的事情，并让掌握关键信息的人士帮助我们更好地理解这一切，”加拿大科技网站iMore评论道。

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高三686期