Alexa, am I being watched?

“If our devices are always listening, how much are they really hearing, and who else might be listening too?”

In 2018, a smart speaker recorded a private conversation and sent it to a third party, no hacking, no warning. Incidents like this force us to confront whether our homes are purely private spaces. As voice-enabled devices become embedded into daily life, the line between convenience and privacy grows increasingly fragile.

In this episode of Yours Lawfully, produced by qLegal for the TMT Institute, we are joined by Nimet Karaca, Legal Counsel at Ocado Group and a qualified solicitor in England and Wales who has also practised law in Turkey. With this international legal background, Nimet brings a unique perspective and takes us behind the scenes of how smart-home devices are designed, how wake-word detection and cloud processing function and meaningful consent.

Together, we explore voice-enabled devices, the privacy implications for guests and bystanders, the limits of the household exemption under data protection law, and current regulations.

As smart technology becomes ambient, invisible, and deeply integrated into domestic life, we ask a fundamental question: Are we trading privacy for convenience more than we realise?