Careless talk costs privacy [Censorship Digital Assistants]

VOICE-ACTIVATED digital assistants are a fast and easy way to look up information, initiate web-based communications and keep on top of busy schedules. But users may need to start censoring what they say, or face the very real prospect of a digital spy leaking more information than they care to divulge. Samsung's newly acquired Viv artificial intelligence platform is about to join the growing number of voice-activated digital assistants available to consumers - these already include Apple Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa on their smartphones, dedicated Wi-Fi-enabled smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home, and also Microsoft's Xbox One entertainment console. Facebook added similar capabilities to its Messenger platform in 2015 while Google embedded an intelligent agent to its new messaging app chatbot, Allo, this year.