"Hey, Alexa, play the latest Taylor Swift album.” Smart speakers offer amazing convenience – from playing your favorite tunes to re-ordering toilet paper – with only a simple voice command. But that convenience can come with a steep cost in privacy that many consumers aren’t even aware they’re paying.We’ve all had the uncanny experience of searching for something on the internet and then suddenly ads for that very thing are popping up everywhere we look online. It’s no coincidence, says Umar Iqbal, assistant professor of computer science &amp; engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.“My collaborators and I uncovered that Amazon uses smart speaker interaction data to infer user interests and then uses those interests to target personalized ads to the user,” Iqbal said. “That’s something that Amazon was not upfront about before our research.”The team presented its work Oct. 26 at the ACM Internet Measurement Conference in Montreal, where they received the best paper award. They aim to provide visibility into what information is captured by smart speakers, how it is shared with other parties, and how it is used by such parties, allowing consumers to better understand the privacy risks of these devices and the impact of data sharing on people's online experiences.To crack open the black box around smart devices and the data they capture, the research team built an auditing framework to measure the collection, usage and sharing of Amazon Echo interaction data. First, they created several personas with interests in specific categories and one control persona. Each persona interacted with a different Echo device, then the researchers measured data collection by intercepting network traffic and inferred data usage by observing ads targeted to each persona on the web and on Echo devices.The team reported that as many as 41 advertisers sync or share their cookies – which are typically linked to personal information – with Amazon, and then those advertisers further sync their cookies with 247 other third parties, including advertising services.They also found that Amazon did not clearly disclose that users’ smart speaker interactions are used for profiling them for the purposes of ad targeting. Specifically, Amazon's general privacy policy and Alexa-specific privacy disclosures did not mention that smart speaker interactions are used for ad targeting. However, after their work’s preprint was released and Amazon was made aware, Amazon updated the Alexa Privacy Hub and Alexa Device FAQs to include that Alexa Echo interaction data is used for ad targeting.“Unfortunately, surveillance is the business model of the internet,” Iqbal said. “The issues we identified in our study seem to be part of the design of the smart speaker ecosystem, and the purpose of our study is to bring public transparency. In fact, after our work's preprint was released, Amazon updated its disclosure to include that it uses smart speaker interaction data for ad targeting.”&nbsp;“Consumer protection government agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. and the European Consumer Organization in the EU have also shown significant interest in our findings,” Iqbal added.Whether interventions by lawmakers or consumer-protection agencies, including recent lawsuits against Amazon by the FTC and consumers themselves, will be successful remains to be seen. Regardless, Iqbal says it’s important for consumers to be aware of just how much data they’re giving away when they invite smart devices into their homes and how that information might be used.<hr>Iqbal U, Bahrami PN, Trimananda R, Cui H, Gamero-Garrido A, Dubois D, Choffnes D, Markopoulou A, Roesner F, and Shafiq Z. Tracking, profiling, and ad targeting in the Amazon smart speaker ecosystem. ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC), Oct. 24-26, 2023.&nbsp;<a href="https://umariqbal.com/papers/alexa-echos-imc2023.pdf" target="_blank" data-lf-fd-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true">https://umariqbal.com/papers/alexa-echos-imc2023.pdf</a>This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation (CNS-1956393, CNS-1955227, CNS-2103439, CNS-2114230, CNS-1909020), the Computing Research Association for the CIFellows 2021 Project (CNS-2127309), the Northeastern University Future Faculty Fellowship (2021), and the Consumer Reports Digital Lab.

The Amazon Echo smart speaker and Alexa assistant offer convenience in exchange for your data. Umar Iqbal is bringing transparency to how Amazon uses smart speaker interactions for targeted advertising. (Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash)

Umar Iqbal and collaborators developed a framework to measure data collection, sharing and use by smart speaker platforms

Your smart speaker data is used in ways that you might not expect

USound currently offers two MEMS loudspeakers that are part of the Ganymede series: Adap UT-P2019 and Achelous UT-P2018. Adap is optimized towards maximum acceleration, making it ideal for free-field applications, whereas Achelous is optimized towards maximum excursion, making it especially suitable for occluded-ear applications. Therefore, USound MEMS loudspeakers can be evaluated in both acoustic domains: baffle and coupler conditions. For baffle conditions, the IEC 60268-5 standard is used, while for coupler conditions, the relevant standard is the IEC 60318-4, formerly known as 60711, or simply &ldquo;711&rdquo;. For both setups, proprietary measurement adapters are used to fit USound speakers to the standardized setup. Using the adapters, it is possible to achieve the results shown on the Adap and Achelous datasheets. Measurements with the Carme Box UJ-R1020 can also assess the speakers&rsquo; performance even if they lead to slightly different results. In this article, we will show several possibilities to perform the measurements and the differences between those methods.<h2 id="isPasted">BAFFLE MEASUREMENT (IEC&nbsp;60268-5)</h2>To measure the loudspeaker in a&nbsp;baffle, it is necessary to place the MEMS speaker inside the measurement adapter. The following picture shows a drawing of the proprietary adapter used by&nbsp;USound.<figure><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/J5XLouoWSuShn2kNsrXZlX7cw0jFZl5jQrjSL1EdbaFMATh5sfK1oVCd4B3D4nkMQWXAM0cgZFBTtXlW445rnkRFSDvZ_OB4v7qyiR53GGHtAIHN67NhwYzjFeitd6NnvWBOIlvs" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></figure>The electronic connection is achieved using pogo pins that press against the pads on the back of the loudspeaker. A gasket is placed in front of the speaker for sealing purposes, and an opening in the baffle enables the speaker to radiate towards the microphone, which is placed at a 10 cm distance from the baffle (as per the IEC 60268-5 standard). The SPL and THD results measured with this setup can be found on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usound.com/technical-documentation/" target="_blank">Adap UT-P2019&nbsp;datasheet</a>.<h3>COUPLER MEASUREMENT (IEC&nbsp;60318-4)</h3>For coupler measurements, a coupler adapter was designed to place the speaker close to the coupler without introducing additional resonances. This was obtained using a port of 3.6 mm diameter and 1.5 mm length (with an additional gasket of 0.5 mm, compressed to 0.3 mm). By using these dimensions, any emerging resonance is guaranteed to fall above the audible frequency range (&gt;20 kHz). With the use of USound&rsquo;s coupler adapter, the measurement can be performed without the earmold adapter. The SPL and THD results measured with this setup can be found on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usound.com/technical-documentation/" target="_blank">Achelous UT-P2018 datasheet.&nbsp;</a><h2>MEASURING MEMS SPEAKERS WITH THE CARME UJ-R1020 SPEAKER&nbsp;BOX.</h2>The two methods mentioned above require the use of proprietary coupler adapters. Another possibility to measure USound loudspeakers is by using the Carme UJ-R1020 speaker box. With a back volume of 100 mm&sup3;, it provides the necessary sealing to avoid an acoustic short circuit. It offers a convenient way to connect USound MEMS speakers to USound&lsquo;s linear amplifier Amalthea UA-R3010 or to the Helike UA-E3010 development board. With the Carme speaker box, both measurements in free-field and measurement on an artificial ear are&nbsp;possible.<h3>MEASUREMENT WITH CARME BOX IN&nbsp;FREE-FIELD</h3><figure><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/U5uzyqnZLWRpXlwc1Gtv94bUBUlLcpX3s9UJe1VlHTHF_9lVpc0SFpNX6beQXZZ9-pAwYi3JtRSSDJryAP7TG87oB2c9DlVplTXJkcbf4DDb6Be2K3hJUxZLcoDwHzkSkSeDYsp0" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></figure>The box must be placed in a reflection-free space such as an anechoic chamber and pointed towards the microphone. Since no baffle is used in this setup and a back volume is introduced, the frequency response will be different from the results present on the Adap datasheet. Due to the missing baffle, the SPL will be ~6 dB lower below resonance frequency. The following graph compares the results obtained with the USound coupler adapter and with Carme&nbsp;Box.<figure><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Adap-UT-P2019-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-speaker-box-1024x409.png" alt="" srcset="https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Adap-UT-P2019-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-speaker-box-1024x409.png 1024w, https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Adap-UT-P2019-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-speaker-box-300x120.png 300w, https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Adap-UT-P2019-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-speaker-box-768x307.png 768w, https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Adap-UT-P2019-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-speaker-box-1536x614.png 1536w, https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Adap-UT-P2019-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-speaker-box.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" class="fr-fic fr-dii" style="height: 300px;"><figcaption>Adap UT-P2019 SPL measurement in the Carme UJ-R1020 test box in free field</figcaption></figure><h4>Measurement with Carme Box in a&nbsp;coupler</h4>For coupler measurements, two setups are possible: with or without the earmould adapter. Therefore, the Carme UJ-R1020 box can be placed directly on the base part of the coupler or the earmould adapter, as shown in the following picture.&nbsp;<figure><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/cW1VA3oRLSVzuCXuaaqTYz517VDH1PopwuEFtUNawEpoylpEmP7GkF3flRI7wmd1ptO-tgEIjBXap-lFYdmIcyO1_1njwZiwsStlFh9orP6DNuDWjewiBWte62oKzpxwD4WZtR2J" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></figure><figure><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/iJ9Fsql8g_vE7FFd00DiJcy4zhFNG_TelJwJ5L79xjxKP_lA99pWIZ_1rv9uxcwK58lwGF_mtHWCZGEIgnG5L8MY-RKepYMYQ3ZzBQlYZcHrGkC6ZB5YCAKcELRQb6YyQ4DDF-Y1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii"></figure>In both cases, to seal the air volume between the box and the coupler, it is necessary to apply sealing material (blu-tack, putty) between the two parts. Since the dimensions are not the same as with the USound coupler adapter, some differences will emerge.&nbsp;Recommended reading:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/why-usound-mems-speakers-outperform-electrodynamic-and-balanced-armature-micro-speakers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Why USound MEMS speakers outperform electrodynamic and balanced armature micro speakers</a>Nevertheless, the results will also be relevant to assess the MEMS speaker&rsquo;s performance. A comparison between the results obtained from the two methods mentioned above and the setup with USound&rsquo;s coupler adapter is shown in the following graph.<figure><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Achelous-UT-P2018-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-UJ-R1020.png" alt="Achelous UT-P2018 SPL measurement in the Carme UJ-R1020" srcset="https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Achelous-UT-P2018-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-UJ-R1020.png 1003w, https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Achelous-UT-P2018-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-UJ-R1020-300x124.png 300w, https://www.usound.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Achelous-UT-P2018-SPL-measurement-in-the-Carme-UJ-R1020-768x316.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1003px) 100vw, 1003px" class="fr-fic fr-dii" style="height: 300px;"><figcaption>Achelous UT-P2018 SPL measurement in the Carme UJ-R1020 speaker-test box</figcaption></figure>

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Your smart speaker data is used in ways that you might not expect

How to measure USound MEMS loudspeakers