Privacy advocates ask regulators to take a closer look at gadgets that are ‘always on’

If your device is always ready to hear your commands, does that mean it's always listening, too?

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) would like regulators to delve deeper into the privacy implications of devices, such as those with voice-controls that are "always on." The group posted a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department asking for an investigation always-on technologies present in devices from Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others. The group said that the average person probably isn't thinking about the privacy implications of these kinds of systems when they buy these devices. "It is unreasonable to expect consumers to monitor their every word in front of their home electronics," the letter says. "It is also genuinely creepy."