The study I conducted was on virtual assistants, such as the ones found in Amazon’s Echo, Apple’s HomePod, and Google’s Google Home. The null hypothesis was that the assistants aren’t used often and don’t pose a security threat to users. Unfortunately, the study confirmed the null hypothesis; luckily, the group tested was small, so there is plenty of room for error. My method was user experience, so I brought in a group of 6 people and then, one by one, had them use an Echo, HomePod mini, and Google home. Then, I asked them about their experience and about their privacy concerns. I kept it purposefully open-ended so that I could work with their raw experiences rather than a question-guided one. The results make me think that there needs to be a greater emphasis on spreading information about the dangers of data collection by major tech companies, especially without the knowledge of the user.
Zach, I was very impressed with your research and found it engaging. I like that you conducted personal interviews while prior allowing the participant to actually use one of these personal assistants. This type of research method allowed the results to be very specific and detail-oriented. I also really liked that you gave participants open-ended questions that allowed them to think about their personal experiences. By using certain verbiage in these questions, the participants seemed to think a certain way.