US engineer’s ‘Smart Speaker Firewall’ isolates Alexa devices in a snap

A Washington engineer has designed a firewall to keep Alexa devices from listening in to everything. (Amazon)

Chuck Carey is an experienced engineer and self-described technophile, but he’s also wary of the proliferation of data-hoovering, Internet-connected devices such as the microphone-and-speaker combos used with digital assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. 

“While I have three Echo Dots, I have always been suspicious of what gets collected by them,” the Kirkland, Washington, man said. “So I tried to solve that problem: How to keep Jeff (Bezos)’s minions out of my private stuff.”