Smart device users should be given more information on safety, MPs hear

Users of connected devices should receive more information on security and privacy, MPs heard.

The House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee is examining the impact of devices such as smart speakers and wearable devices, and what needs to be done to ensure they are safe to use.

A unified “ingredient label” that explains a product’s safety and privacy qualities, regardless of where in the world it was made, would provide greater transparency for consumers, a Google representative told the committee on Tuesday.

David Kleidermacher, Vice President of Engineering at Android and Made-by-Google Security & Privacy, said: “We need to give consumers the tools they need to make better decisions.

“So today, if you want to buy a TV, you go to a retailer and you can compare things like screen quality and sound quality.

“But can the consumer actually decide or have any frame of reference for deciding the quality of security and privacy of these products? And I think the answer today is no…

“I fervently hope that soon we will go into a store and see not only energy labels on TVs, but also a digital label, an online label that provides information about the quality of the safety features.”

He added that this would force manufacturers to start competing on security features.

Mr Kleidermacher agreed with the UK government’s assessment that cybersecurity is a secondary issue for manufacturers, noting that this is not done with “malicious intent”.

While Google is under “relentless attack,” including from state sponsors like China, and therefore has a strong economic incentive to invest in cybersecurity, other companies that have not been targeted are less focused on the issue, he said.

Mr Kleidermacher and Leila Rouhi, vice president of trust and privacy at Amazon Alexa, who both spoke via video link from California, assured lawmakers about the safety of their companies’ voice-activated virtual assistants.

There have been concerns in the past about user privacy and data collection.

Ms Rouhi said there was a “common misconception that Alexa is always listening” and added that users could delete any recordings, which could otherwise be used by the company to train its speech recognition using machine learning.

She said the tech giant was “extremely aware” of the risk of information falling into the wrong hands, adding: “That’s why we invest so heavily to prevent situations like this from happening.

“We know that if a trust incident like this were to occur, it would have serious consequences for our business.”

Apple declined to testify before the committee.