--- title: "New App Tells You When Your Smart Speaker Is Spying On You" description: "A new app built by Princeton researchers can monitor your smart speaker and other IoT devices to track how much of your info they're sending out." date: "2019-04-25" modified: "2019-04-25" authors: - name: "Dan Robitzski" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/app-smart-speaker-spying" categories: - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "iot" - "privacy" - "surveillance" - "the digest" --- # New App Tells You When Your Smart Speaker Is Spying On You ![A new app built by Princeton researchers can monitor your smart speaker and other IoT devices to track how much of your info they're sending out.]() *\Image: Rahul Chakraborty via Unsplash/Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\* ## Double Agent Your internet-connected devices share a lot of the information that they collect about you, even when you're not actively using them. To help inform people about just how much personal information gets sent out, a team of Princeton University scientists [built a tool]() that tracks every transmission that a smart home device, whether it's an Amazon Echo or a smart TV, sends out into the world. ## Self-Surveillance The app, called the [Princeton IoT Inspector](), uses a common hacking technique called ARP spoofing, [according to a slideshow]() that the team published along with their app. That technique lets the app intercept all of the activity on a WiFi network to track what information is being sent to whom. For instance, the app could track which TV networks and ad agencies see the shows you watch on a smart TV or how much of your personal data gets sent out by a smart speaker. ## Third Party It's no surprise that our devices share information with marketers, but the extent to which that happens is often a well-kept industry secret, [writes *CBC*](). "Our smart devices are watching us," reads the app's website. "It's time for us to watch them." **READ MORE:** ['It's time for us to watch them': App lets you spy on Alexa and the rest of your smart devices]() \[*CBC*\] **More on the internet of things:** *[Amazon Workers Listen to Your Alexa Conversations, Then Mock Them]()* ## Author Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California. ### Author social links [Twitter]()