‘Alexa, Call My Mom!’—Will The Echo Become A Phone?

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Publish Date:
February 16, 2017
Source:
PYMNTS.com
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Summary

There might be another use for Amazon’s and Google’s popular home speakers coming this year, with both companies considering turning them into home phones.

The Wall Street Journal reported that sources said Amazon’s Echo or the Google Home could be used to make or receive calls, a functionality that would give consumers further control over their digital lives at home. The new feature could even be launched sometime this year, although there are concerns over privacy, telecom regulations and emergency services.

“We’re headed to a world of embedded sensors in everything, that measure everything, that see everything, that hear everything,” said Albert Gidari, director for privacy at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. “The reality is that technology … kind of blurs law for privacy.”

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