Along with all the skills that Alexa offers as standard, one of its great virtues are the rest of the skills that you can obtain to enhance other types of use. The problem is that, as happens in the end on any platform, everything will depend on the developer of the same. That is why it is important to pay attention to it and from time to time review what skills you are using on your speaker with Alexa.
Alexa skills and privacy
One of the great challenges of virtual assistants, although it is extrapolated to any current platform, application or service, is that of Privacy. Guaranteeing the security of the user and their data is very important. Because we have already seen in the past what happens when our information is accessed with other intentions than those initially stated.
A study has now been published on the privacy vulnerabilities suffered by the Alexa ecosystem. Be careful, not the assistant himself but his skills. In case you haven't been interested in the subject yet and you don't know how the Amazon assistant works, these are a set of plugins that add new features and create a powerful ecosystem.
As we explained when we talked about the process of installing and removing skills for AlexaThanks to these numerous manufacturers, they can offer a better user experience with their connected devices through different voice commands. The problem is that there are many other abilities that are created for other purposes and that if we forget to install them at the time, they could cause problems.
That is what this report explains, which, by way of summary, comes to say the following:
- Activation of wrong skills. If you have used Alexa, you will know that there are times when it invites you to activate a certain skill based on the command or question that you have asked. This is a useful thing that started working in 2017 when Amazon introduced this capability to its assistant. The problem is that there are very general commands that use many skills and you lose control of what has been installed or a wrong kill is installed
- Verified developers. Amazon asks the developers of a skill for information when they are going to publish it, but it seems that it is easy to fool them. Therefore, the authorship of said skill could be falsified so that the unsuspecting user ends up installing it
- Skill codes that change. If you've created any skills for Alexa, you'll know that a verification process is followed to verify that the code is and does what it says. The problem is that it seems that later it can be updated and then the level of verification is reduced. This could cause you to change after your authorization regarding what you will finally do
These three points that this study reveals, the first on a large scale, are not really anything new and are problems that we have already seen on other platforms, operating systems, stores, etc. But together they make it clear that Amazon should invest more in the security of its voice control platform if it wants to continue to grow.
Right now Alexa is possibly the quintessential voice assistant, ahead of Google Assistant and Siri, but it could change if they don't do what they should. Increasing the requirements when publishing a new skill, improving processes, and further ensuring the management of resources and data that is collected seems logical.
How to improve your privacy when using Alexa skills
At this point it is logical to consider what can be done to improve privacy when using Alexa now. The answer is simple for some: not to use it. But there is no need to be so tremendous, because put to that directly we would not use the internet.
However, privacy can be improved or guaranteed when using Alexa skills with something so simple. How to check which skills are installed. And that is something you can do from different sites:
- You can check installed skills by accessing the Alexa mobile app
- You can also view installed skills by accessing the website alexa.amazon.com
From either of these two options you can verify each and every one of the skills that you have activated on your devices with Alexa. If you see one that you don't use or that you don't remember why you installed it, delete it by clicking on the deactivate option.
In the end, as on other occasions, logic and common sense are essential to guarantee privacy with Alexa. Install only those skills from known developers. If you have any doubts, look on the official website of the same if they have integration with Alexa. This way you will avoid problems in the future.
Because stopping using the Amazon assistant would be a nuisance for many, if only for the basic and essential uses of Alexa. Because so many things can be done that it is a true virtual assistant nowadays.