One of a series of posts I will publish leading up to the Mobile World Congress (MWC). For more click here.
Above: the Paranoid device turns off the mic on your smart speaker or spouts white noise that interferes with the speaker until you want to ask Alexa or Google for something.
And while still on the books for the end of this month, Ericsson just pulled out of MWC due to the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus so I have a few thoughts.
8 February 2020 (Sliema, Malta) – As I have noted before, the vision of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) is about more than simply convening mobile technology professionals. It challenges those who are driving mobile transformation to think, design, and create beyond what’s possible today. With more than 120,000 attendees, 2,800 exhibitors, and over 360 speakers, MWC is the largest mobile technology and telecommunications industry show and one of the largest conferences in the world. It is the second largest event I cover with my media team (the Frankfurt Book Fair is larger).
It offers attendees and exhibitors extensive opportunities for networking, education, and a peak at some truly innovative products and approaches to technology.
However this year, while still on the books for the end of this month … problems. Ericsson just pulled out due to the spread of Wuhan coronavirus. It was the third company to announce a change of plans due to the coronavirus outbreak. ZTE is scaling back its presence at the show, LG has withdrawn from MWC entirely, and Huawei announced none of its China-based staff will attend. Huawei plans to use just European-based staff. Ericsson is the first European company to withdraw from the event. If additional companies withdraw from the show, the GSMA (organizers of the event) may not have any choice but to cancel this year.
But there is still a tsunami of pre-MWC product and service announcements and white papers to plough through so I will keep sharing some of my more interesting finds.
Smart speakers are a great convenience. But as of late, a good chunk of smart speaker users have been worried about who is listening in to what they have to say. Adding to the worry is the fact that most users don’t enable the physical mute button, letting Amazon Echos and Google Homes listen to whatever they are saying nearby, even before the wake word is uttered.
This is the problem Paranoid hopes to tackle. Yes, as the name suggests, this is a product for those who are paranoid about their privacy. So Paranoid – available in three configurations – will try and block a smart speaker’s ability to hear conversations it is not supposed to:
1. There is the Paranoid Home Button, a USB-powered button-pusher that physically turns on and off a smart speaker’s mute button when it hears the Paranoid wake word.
2. The Paranoid Home Wave, meanwhile, generates noise near the speaker so that it can’t hear anything else. When the wake word is uttered these noises stop and the speaker can hear you — this is ideal for models without a physical mute button.
3. And for the really paranoid users is the Paranoid Home Max option where you send the device to the company for an internal configuration.
Paranoid is aimed at all smart speaker brands, but initially they are supporting several models of Amazon Echo and Google Home. For the record, the world has over 200 million smart speakers on last count (from Edison Research which tracks this stuff and has a very high accuracy rating on its stats).
You can be rest assured that Paranoid itself won’t be a cause for worry because the tiny device cannot connect to the cloud, WiFi, Bluetooth or the internet as it lacks an antenna and other connectivity components. It uses only on-board processing to detect the keyword. It cannot be remotely accessed by potential hackers, and will not transmit any data to the cloud – or so says the company’s tech specification sheet.