Today's technology reaches every aspect of life. Everyone has access to a world on information everywhere they go with that smart phone in the their pocket. We have smart everything; smart phones, smart tvs, and even smart houses. The advent of Amazon's Echo has expanded our technology horizons even more. Echo sits silently, waiting to hear the magic word "Alexa", but what else is it hearing in the meantime? There are concerns about the information that Alexa is collecting about its users. Private conversations are being overheard, but what happens to them? Current technology laws don't really address what SHOULD be happening to such information. So are Amazon's Echo users at the mercy of Amazon with what they collect about their users? Possibly.
Even if legal code is behind the time, what about morality and ethics? Society's mores would tell us that Amazon should not collect and save any of that information, but I think we know better than to assume that. This new 'Internet of Things' world in which we find ourselves seems to need its own moral code, in addition to the legal code that will be required.
The line between respecting personal privacy and the potential for social good is discussed in this article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/internet-of-things-ethics/524802/
What do you think?
