Alexa alternatives have a secret weapon: Privacy

guest · Jul 15, 2018

Alexa alternatives have a secret weapon: Privacy
July 14, 2018
https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/14/alexa-alternatives-have-a-secret-weapon-privacy/

[...] startups like Snips, which is bringing its own smart speaker to market, center their attention on one primary differentiator: privacy.

“My goal is to destroy Alexa by providing a platform that is the exact opposite, that people are going to enjoy building on top of,” CEO Rand Hindi told VentureBeat in a phone interview.
Surveillance fears may dampen smart speaker demand
The problem with Google Assistant and Alexa, Hindi says, is that by centralizing so much of people’s personal data and operating in the cloud, they become increasingly ripe targets for mass surveillance or hacking.

“There is no way we can start having AI all around us in our living room if we’re constantly potentially under surveillance,” Hindi said.
Selling privacy as a feature
Hindi wants decentralization of assistants to become the norm, and for smart speakers to go the way of messaging apps, where end-to-end encryption and increased concern about privacy drove the popularity of services like WhatsApp and Telegram Messenger.
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guest · Sep 19, 2018

Committed to privacy, Snips founder wants to take on Alexa and Google, with blockchain
September 18, 2018
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/18/c...-to-take-on-alexa-and-google-with-blockchain/

The French startup Snips thinks it might have an answer to the issue of security and data privacy. Its built its software to run 100% on-device, independently from the cloud. As a result, user data is processed on the device itself, acting as a potentially stronger guarantor of privacy. Unlike centralized assistants like Alexa and Google, Snips knows nothing about its users.

“Сonsumers are increasingly aware of the privacy concerns with voice assistants that rely on cloud storage — and that these concerns will actually impact their usage,” says Dr Rand Hindi, co-founder and CEO at Snips.

By using blockchain technology to share data, they will be able to train the network “without ever anybody sending unencrypted data anywhere,” he told me.

“This is the main argument for Google and Amazon to pretend that you need to send your data to them, to make the service better. If we can fix this [by using blockchain] then we can offer a real alternative to Alexa that guarantees Privacy by Design,” he says.
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