Image of : The 1st Earl of Holland, Groom of the Stool to Charles I, until 1643, All the rage in the news lately has been the revelation that voice assistants are listening and recording many of our conversations and employees and contractors of these companies can access these recordings. And while accessing these recordings can be anonymous, happens to legitimately improve the service, and happens to a very low percentage of recordings, it still makes the most logical of us flinch. Why is that? Here is a sample of some of the latest stories: Google will pause listening to EU voice recordings while regulators investigate Amazon Alexa Capture Audio of People Having Sex, Possible Sexual Assaults: Report Apple halts practice of contractors listening in to users on Siri The thing I came to realize is that voice assistants are like butlers or more interestingly like Grooms of the Stool. What are Grooms of the Stool? Check out for more detailed info. In a nutshell, they helped the king with his toileting needs. That could include bringing the king water or towels, maybe even helping him wash his butt. The groom would even interface with the royal doctor to supply the doctor with information about the king's bowel movements and diet. Wikipedia The thing is this position was so intimate that this position became one of high trust, confidence, and power. The Groom of the Stool often knew state and personal secrets. Eventually the position evolved into an administration of royal finances and under Henry VII was given the responsibility of setting national fiscal policy. Google, Alexa, and Siri right now are fairly simple in terms of what they can do. They provide some convenient services but it is at the cost of being very intimate with us. They definitely can take some drudgery out of the everyday. With this, they not only listen in but also gather many points of data on us. My point of all this is not to scare you. After all, I'm sure many Grooms of the Stool were very well liked and highly valued. But if you wish for tech companies to take care of your private areas, you better trust them a lot. And for tech companies, you better not lose our trust, or you might get beheaded pretty quick. I think we are seeing this already for calls to break up tech companies like Facebook and Amazon. Lastly, to keep some separation of powers maybe don't let the Groom of the Stool also control your finances. I'm thinking this could be Apple and their new and . However, Amazon is probably already pretty close to this power if you shop on Amazon and use Alexa. Apple credit card Facebook and their Libra coin In conclusion, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and don't let tech companies wipe your butt unless they are highly trusted. Reference: Groom of the Stool, Wikipedia

Amazon

Apple

Facebook

Google

Winner of Noonies 2020 for the award Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - DATABASE.

Voice Assistants are the Modern Day Groom of the Stool

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

Using Vue 3 with Parcel JS

Claude Code’s Slack Beta Pushes “Chat-First” Software Development Forward

Go's New Experimental Packages: What to Know

US Launches ‘Genesis Mission’ to Centralize Scientific Data for AI

Moving Logic Out of Pods: Extending the Argo Workflows Controller

Meet Temmarie - HackerNoon Blogging Course Facilitator

Using Vue 3 with Parcel JS

Claude Code’s Slack Beta Pushes “Chat-First” Software Development Forward

Go's New Experimental Packages: What to Know

US Launches ‘Genesis Mission’ to Centralize Scientific Data for AI

Moving Logic Out of Pods: Extending the Argo Workflows Controller

Meet Temmarie - HackerNoon Blogging Course Facilitator

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Minty

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps