Are Your Smart Devices Really Spying on You?

The Wirecutter Show

The New York Times

Wirecutter, Podcast, The Wirecutter Show, Education, Life Hacks, Product Testing, Products, Product Recommendations, Society & Culture, Advice, How To, Leisure, New York Times, Home & Garden, Testing, Recommendations

4.4 • 894 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Everyday devices around your home are monitoring you. We share how your data is being collected and sold—and how to protect yourself.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Okay, so now we know what data they're collecting.
0:07.0	Can you tell us who is this amorphous they?
0:10.1	Who is actually collecting the data?
0:11.7	It's a guy named Gary.
0:16.3	I'm Christine Cyr Clissette.
0:18.0	I'm Cairo Blackwell.
0:19.2	I'm Rosie Garron.
0:20.2	And you're listening to The Wirecutter Show.
0:35.7	Hi, friends. We are talking about data privacy on the show today, and I've actually been thinking and kind of worrying a lot about it recently and maybe increasing since having kids.
0:47.9	Okay, let me explain.
0:49.4	I was in the car the other day, and my wife texted me, sent me a text message. And so being the good
0:56.7	safe driver I am, I had Siri play it. And my wife must have had the new Siri AI thing
1:05.7	enabled because not only did it transcribe the words she wanted to text to me, it started transcribing or describing the photo she sent, which happened to be of my two children.
1:19.4	And she's describing their features and their faces through the – I was like, cancel, cancel.
1:27.4	She being the AI.
1:28.4	She being Siri, yes.
1:29.9	Was she accurate?
1:31.0	Not really, but I assume they're learning, right?
1:34.2	Yeah.
1:34.4	And so that really gave me pause, and it started me thinking about the age we live in with
1:40.9	these two polars on the one hand, all we have been able to achieve from technology,
1:47.2	from our lives being very connected. And on the other hand, relinquishing control of our data
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 7 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New York Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New York Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.