Multi-User Smart Speakers - A Narrative Review of Concerns and Problematic Interactions

Nicole Meng; Rabia Yasa Kostas; Kami E Vaniea; Maria K Wolters

doi:10.1145/3544549.3585689

Multi-User Smart Speakers - A Narrative Review of Concerns and Problematic Interactions

Nicole Meng^*, Rabia Yasa Kostas, Kami E Vaniea, Maria K Wolters

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract / Description of output

Smart speakers in multi-user spaces, such as Amazon Echos, introduce risks to both owners and anyone sharing the space. They store voice recordings of user requests, and anyone in range can potentially interact with the device. As smart speakers are usually bound to a single account, despite being shareable by design, it introduces potential tensions between users. We systematically searched the literature for findings on concerns and scenarios in which problems may arise and synthesised the resulting 20 papers in a narrative review. Owners were concerned about other users’, potentially malicious, interactions, device faults, and third party sharing. In contrast, bystanders worried about "being listened" to and a lack of awareness and protections. Our findings show a clear gap in literature on the privacy concerns of regular and incidental secondary users of smart speakers.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	ACM Association for Computing Machinery
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Print)	9781450394222
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3585689
Publication status	Published - 19 Apr 2023
Event	ACM CHI 2023 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Hamburg, Germany Duration: 23 Apr 2023 → 28 Apr 2023 https://chi2023.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	ACM CHI 2023 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Abbreviated title	CHI'23
Country/Territory	Germany
City	Hamburg
Period	23/04/23 → 28/04/23
Internet address	https://chi2023.acm.org/

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

smart speakers
voice assistant
multi-user
bystanders/visitors
incidental user

Access to Document

10.1145/3544549.3585689Licence: All Rights Reserved

chiea23-383Accepted author manuscript, 541 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3544549.3585689Licence: All Rights Reserved

Cite this

@inproceedings{e4711824a0cf4b8bb7e816b5e3feb1d2,

title = "Multi-User Smart Speakers - A Narrative Review of Concerns and Problematic Interactions",

abstract = "Smart speakers in multi-user spaces, such as Amazon Echos, introduce risks to both owners and anyone sharing the space. They store voice recordings of user requests, and anyone in range can potentially interact with the device. As smart speakers are usually bound to a single account, despite being shareable by design, it introduces potential tensions between users. We systematically searched the literature for findings on concerns and scenarios in which problems may arise and synthesised the resulting 20 papers in a narrative review. Owners were concerned about other users{\textquoteright}, potentially malicious, interactions, device faults, and third party sharing. In contrast, bystanders worried about {"}being listened{"} to and a lack of awareness and protections. Our findings show a clear gap in literature on the privacy concerns of regular and incidental secondary users of smart speakers.",

keywords = "smart speakers, voice assistant, multi-user, bystanders/visitors, incidental user",

author = "Nicole Meng and {Yasa Kostas}, Rabia and Vaniea, {Kami E} and Wolters, {Maria K}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Farid Bin Abdol Ghani for his assistance in paper screening, and the members of the TULiPS and Catalytics lab for their feedback throughout the process. This work was supported in part by the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Natural Language Processing (grant EP/S022481/1) and the University of Edinburgh. Rabia Yasa Kostas was supported by the Ministry of National Education, Republic of T{\"u}rkiye. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 Owner/Author.; ACM CHI 2023 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI'23 ; Conference date: 23-04-2023 Through 28-04-2023",

year = "2023",

month = apr,

day = "19",

doi = "10.1145/3544549.3585689",

language = "English",

isbn = " 9781450394222",

booktitle = "CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

publisher = "ACM Association for Computing Machinery",

url = "https://chi2023.acm.org/",

}

Meng, N, Yasa Kostas, R, Vaniea, KE & Wolters, MK 2023, Multi-User Smart Speakers - A Narrative Review of Concerns and Problematic Interactions. in CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 383, ACM Association for Computing Machinery, ACM CHI 2023 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Hamburg, Germany, 23/04/23. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3585689

Multi-User Smart Speakers - A Narrative Review of Concerns and Problematic Interactions. / Meng, Nicole; Yasa Kostas, Rabia; Vaniea, Kami E et al.
CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Association for Computing Machinery, 2023. 383.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

TY - GEN

T1 - Multi-User Smart Speakers - A Narrative Review of Concerns and Problematic Interactions

AU - Meng, Nicole

AU - Yasa Kostas, Rabia

AU - Vaniea, Kami E

AU - Wolters, Maria K

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Farid Bin Abdol Ghani for his assistance in paper screening, and the members of the TULiPS and Catalytics lab for their feedback throughout the process. This work was supported in part by the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Natural Language Processing (grant EP/S022481/1) and the University of Edinburgh. Rabia Yasa Kostas was supported by the Ministry of National Education, Republic of Türkiye. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Owner/Author.

PY - 2023/4/19

Y1 - 2023/4/19

N2 - Smart speakers in multi-user spaces, such as Amazon Echos, introduce risks to both owners and anyone sharing the space. They store voice recordings of user requests, and anyone in range can potentially interact with the device. As smart speakers are usually bound to a single account, despite being shareable by design, it introduces potential tensions between users. We systematically searched the literature for findings on concerns and scenarios in which problems may arise and synthesised the resulting 20 papers in a narrative review. Owners were concerned about other users’, potentially malicious, interactions, device faults, and third party sharing. In contrast, bystanders worried about "being listened" to and a lack of awareness and protections. Our findings show a clear gap in literature on the privacy concerns of regular and incidental secondary users of smart speakers.

AB - Smart speakers in multi-user spaces, such as Amazon Echos, introduce risks to both owners and anyone sharing the space. They store voice recordings of user requests, and anyone in range can potentially interact with the device. As smart speakers are usually bound to a single account, despite being shareable by design, it introduces potential tensions between users. We systematically searched the literature for findings on concerns and scenarios in which problems may arise and synthesised the resulting 20 papers in a narrative review. Owners were concerned about other users’, potentially malicious, interactions, device faults, and third party sharing. In contrast, bystanders worried about "being listened" to and a lack of awareness and protections. Our findings show a clear gap in literature on the privacy concerns of regular and incidental secondary users of smart speakers.

KW - smart speakers

KW - voice assistant

KW - multi-user

KW - bystanders/visitors

KW - incidental user

U2 - 10.1145/3544549.3585689

DO - 10.1145/3544549.3585689

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 9781450394222

BT - CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - ACM Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - ACM CHI 2023 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Y2 - 23 April 2023 through 28 April 2023

ER -

Multi-User Smart Speakers - A Narrative Review of Concerns and Problematic Interactions

Abstract / Description of output

Conference

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

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Cite this