Amazon Alexa, and the Illusion of Away Mode Home Security
Tech companies love to sell us on the idea that our smart home devices double as impenetrable, futuristic security systems.
Case in point: Amazon Alexa features an "Away Mode" designed to act as a digital guard dog, listening intently for suspicious sounds while you're out of the house.
It’s supposed to alert you “There’s an intruder!” when they hear such noises.
Well, we set our Alexa to "Away Mode” when on a recent vacation, and when we got home, we forgot to turn it off.
Two adults and two noisy kids walked into the house and proceeded to make an absolute racket in a house that was supposed to be completely empty.
We dropped luggage, started laundry, ate food…
We are a family, which means we move as stealthily as a herd of elephants.
And what did Alexa do with this information?
She sat on the counter, glowing placidly, completely unbothered by the simulated home invasion happening all around her sensors.
A burglar could have packed up our entire living room, made themselves a sandwich, and used our Wi-Fi, and Alexa wouldn't have raised an eyebrow.
If you're relying on a smart speaker to protect your house, you might as well just leave a sternly worded post-it note on the front door.
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