Along with many others in infosec, I've always cautioned against any of the voice activated smart gadgets, largely thinking there's only marginal benefit for the risks of an always-on microphone.

Recovering from surgery with only one usable arm has completely changed my views.1/

Using voice control, which has required turning on the mics on my phone and home mini, has made my quality of life substantially better and even prevented physical pain. 2/

2 days post-op I was staying at family's house & had gone for a nap. I woke up & was completely tangled in the velcro straps from the sling and ice pack. Hair & a pillowcase were involved in the velcro nightmare too. 3/

I couldn't reach to undo it and any time I tried it was like a sharp knife through my shoulder. I was stuck. So completely and totally stuck. I tried for my phone, but couldn't reach it. I yelled, but everyone was outside. 4/

I'm thankful I had the random thought the day before to turn on assistant because I told Google to send a text message and a min later my wonderful cousin was there laughing at my predicament. (It is quite impressive how stuck I managed to get ) And she freed me. 5/

Once I came back to my own place, I realized just how many "normal" things were SO difficult. Because of the orientation of bed & lamp, I had to climb out of bed to turn it off or on since I couldn't reach on that side. A "smart" lightbulb easily solved that. 6/

These "smart" gadgets & voice control features are not just novelties. They can make life substantially better & accessible. But where our industry is today, if you use these features, then you're also opening up to not insignificant risk. But what if that wasn't the case? 7/

It could make things so much better for so many people if we all knew that nothing the mics heard was sent off the device or stored & we were confident in the security/privacy. I hope we don't give up that this is possible & we keep working towards it because people need it. 8/

Ok. These are my very rambling thoughts on my experience with "smart" gadgets after being pretty anti for many years. I completely changed my mind and see a different side to the necessity of this technology. fin.