„Alexa, kann ich dir vertrauen?“

Sprachassistenten als Wegbereiter der gläsernen Privatsphäre

Abstract

For some years now, language assistants have been making their way into everyday lives of many people. The intelligent personal assistants integrated in smart­phones and special speakers seem to make the life of those who use them easier. At the same time, however, they open up possibilities for interfering with the privacy of users. Companies collect large amounts of sometimes sensitive personal data for impro­ved functionality and marketing. This calls into question the traditional understanding of privacy. This article discusses the technical functioning of language assistants, elabo­rates on the transformation of privacy, and problematizes the new helpers concerning their relationship to the users’ privacy, using Amazon’s Alexa as an example.