We had a vendor send us a gift recently at the office. It includes an Alexa/Google Nest thing.
I don’t care to have one at home, but thought about using it at the office mainly as a free bluetooth speaker.
Anyway, since these voice activated things have to listen and do record what is said somehow in some server somewhere (or so I have read), and we talk about stuff at work that requires protection of a kind (personal health data, for example), would such a thing in the workplace be a problem? What about phones with voice activation?
Is this just tinfoil hat stuff, or would the office’s data privacy officer take issue?
Nest is the Google system of home connectivity. The thermostat is one. One I have seen is like a small alexa. You can tell it to change temp and the small speaker blob will communicate w the thermostat it is connected to.
Wfh employees def have these things. Not sure if that the compelled wfh 18 months would generate some forgiveness or not (if forgiveness was needed) from the legal system if they are deemed unsecure at a bad level.
My company has specific rules in place that do not allow us to use Alexa like devices near our home office setups or in the office. Their position is that this is a real security threat. My brother is a security admin guy and he has several of these devices in his house. Personally, I’d rather be safe than on the receiving end of a HIPPA violation.
