Siri, Alexa & Team!

An interesting feature on BBC News this morning celebrating Apple’s 10 year anniversary of the launch of their Iphone.  Hugely successful. Most of us probably feel the technology has been around for ever and we absolutely couldn’t live without it.  Quite literally for some!

We see people texting as they walk down a street – just missing lamp posts etc or, more worryingly, as they alight a train getting very close to the platform edge – thank goodness for peripheral vision!  There is even a company now which teaches how to detach from Iphones/Ipads etc!  Off button maybe?

The news feature I found really interesting on BBC focussed on Voice technology.  The BBC raised the thought – should we consider the personal information which is being captured by Siri, Alex etc each time we use it?  We’ve seen how the information from websites we visit is captured by Facebook and others to bombard us with adverts.

There is another potential consideration.  How does this software fit with Equality?  Anyone with a language or speech issue may have difficulty using it.

Anything that makes our lives easier and saves time is good.  But always in balance.  We must be mindful to protect our personal data and not give too much away.

Just as the tech giants are working tirelessly on the next innovation, so are the fraudsters.

So stay calm, but be aware!