TL;DR
🎤 Voice assistants listen continuously, exposing private and professional exchanges to risks of data collection and leaks. 🏠 In a remote working context, their presence in the home environment can compromise confidentiality. 🎯 These devices can be hacked or triggered remotely, posing concrete risks of cyber‑surveillance. 📜 European regulations (DSA, AI Act) partially frame these uses, but enforcement remains uneven. 🛡️ Several simple measures can reduce the risks: disable always‑on listening, manage settings, update software. 🌐 It is strongly recommended to isolate connected objects (IoT) from the main network. 👨🏫 Finally, training teams in cybersecurity is essential to limit inadvertent exposure.
1. Voice assistants: constant listening, constant risk
Voice assistants (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, etc.) stay listening continuously in order to detect a wake word. This “passive listening” means a constant capture of the sound environment, including private, professional or confidential conversations.
Some recordings may be processed in the cloud, with risks of being handled by unauthorized third parties or even by humans in some calibration cases. Documented incidents show that fragments of conversations have been stored or transmitted without explicit consent, raising doubts about the transparency of manufacturers’ practices.
In a professional context, this means that conversations related to projects, clients or sensitive information can be accidentally captured by devices that are not under the organization’s control.
2. Remote work and confidentiality: a weakened equation
Remote work extends the workspace to the home, but not necessarily the security that goes with it. Most residential networks lack the protections of corporate networks and centralized security policies.
Voice assistants, often integrated with other connected objects (thermostats, cameras, doorbells), can become entry points for cyberattacks. They can also be hijacked to perform actions remotely, record without the user’s knowledge or reveal valuable metadata (presence, habits, voices, etc.).
European regulation (notably the Digital Services Act and the AI Act) classifies these tools as presenting an “acceptable risk,” but stresses that user vigilance remains essential.
3. Concrete measures to reduce risks
Here are some simple but effective practices to implement:
- Disable automatic listening when it’s not necessary, or use a physical activation button.
- Check the privacy settings: limit the retention time of recordings, refuse improvement by human review, regularly erase history.
- Avoid discussing confidential information near these devices, especially during meetings or sensitive calls.
- Update the assistant’s firmware and Wi‑Fi router regularly.
- Train employees on connected‑object security and good digital habits.
- Isolate IoT devices from the main network, for example by creating a VLAN or a separate Wi‑Fi network for all connected objects (assistants, televisions, thermostats, etc.). This greatly limits the risk of spread in case of a compromise.
4. Welcome innovations, but not a panacea
Some technological advances improve the security of voice assistants:
- Apple prioritizes local processing of data.
- Google and Amazon integrate more encryption and offer more granular consent control.
However, no solution is foolproof. A misconfiguration or a forgotten update can be enough to expose users. It is therefore important to consider these devices as potentially intrusive and to keep control over their use.
🦊 A word from Blue Fox
Voice assistants are now part of our technological daily life. Their usefulness is undeniable, but when they integrate into a remote working environment, they require rigour, vigilance and training.
At Blue Fox, we help organizations to:
- Identify risks related to home automation and IoT,
- Train teams in good cybersecurity practices,
- Deploy internal policies tailored to remote work.
Security, autonomy and sovereignty: these are our keywords for responsible adoption of technologies at home and in the office.
#DigitalSecurity #RemoteWork #Confidentiality #HomeAutomation #IoT #BlueFox #VoiceAssistants #Cybersecurity #SecureNetworks
📚 Sources
- Orange Cyberdefense, “Voice assistants: what risks for your privacy,” February 2025
- Cox & Palmer, “How secure are smart homes? Overview of the risks posed by home automation,” June 2021
- Roverba, “Data security in remote work,” June 2024
- Intelligence‑Artificielle.com via AirAgent, “Trends in voice assistants for 2025,” May 2025
- Orbite Assurances, “Risks related to the use of smart devices at home,” February 2025