U.S. senator presses Amazon, Google on Matter smart-home effort

FILE PHOTO: Prompts on how to use Amazon's Alexa personal assistant are seen in an Amazon ‘experience centre’ in Vallejo, California, U.S., May 8, 2018. Picture taken May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google need to offer more details about how their smart-home devices and virtual assistants will support competition and user privacy, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar wrote to the companies on Tuesday.

In a letter, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee said testimony last week by attorneys from the companies left her with concerns about their dominance of the fast-growing field.