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It would be a downright disaster if your smart toaster functioned as a conduit for a corporate data breach. Believe it or not, hackers do write scripts & deploy bots to find & hack unsecured secured connected devices, like toasters. Click To Tweet

It would be equally appalling, if you were to spend an evening at a friend’s house, with whom you discuss business, and the smart speakers recorded and leaked the overheard audio.

Smart speaker etiquette is evolving, and when someone enters your home, you should disclose whether or not there are smart speakers within the home.

“Does the owner of a home need to disclose to a guest? I would and do when someone enters into my home, and it’s probably something that the products themselves should try to indicate,” says Google’s devices chief, Rick Osterloh.

In regards to owning smart speakers in the first place, does the device’s functionality and value outweigh the risk, especially for corporate higher-ups? Once upon a time, everyone did manage to turn on music, set timers and check calendars by hand.

Security Research Consultancy, based in Germany, notes that smart speakers can be hijacked by malicious apps that can phish for passwords.

“The unfortunate truth is that the best privacy defense against potential breaches is to unplug the devices until you’ve decided this is functionality you cannot live without.”

For more on how smart devices are phishing for passwords, visit Ars Technica.