Reminds me of the school 'vape detectors' that can also be programmed to listen for "loud noises" and "keywords" but basically handwave away the fact it violates wiretapping laws because they're claiming they're basically doing pattern matching on RAM buffered audio then dumping it.
How does keyword detection work?
HALO Smart Sensor listens for preloaded distress keywords and triggers real-time alerts when detected, ensuring quick emergency response without recording conversations.
What keywords can HALO detect?
HALO Smart Sensor comes preloaded with distress keywords and can be updated with additional phrases to fit specific security needs.
Does HALO record conversations?
No, HALO Smart Sensor ensures privacy by only detecting keywords and aggression patterns without recording audio or storing voice data.
Quite vague... and seems ripe for abuse
I can understand if there were emergency keywords like yelling "Help" or "Call 911" and extremely limited phrases like that. Essentially a voice activated fire alarm. But uploading new keywords and not being explicit of what keywords trigger the thing is really not a good look. If you can upload arbitrary words then there is no meaningful difference between spying. The thing has an occupancy sensor and it's not like it is hard to combine that data with camera data. What are the keywords? If a kid talks about someone else smoking a joint does that trigger the system? Where are kids going to get some safe place to talk about things without fear of surveillance?
The words keywords being hidden just furthers concerns of surveillance. If you can't know what words you can't use then you have to be very cautious with your speech, least you set off false positives and get in trouble. This really is too far.
Safety, security and thinking of the children was always going to be the vector that this would be implemented with. Once the school boards clear this and schools begin filling up with real-time voice recognition hardware like this under the guise of "safety", going further is just a small step away.
I wouldn't be shocked if in ten years, parents will be getting monthly summaries of their kids' out-of-class activities, complete with the most objectionable things they said out of class, their compliance score, the topics they like to discuss, the kids they associate with. Then we'll see the normalization of things like Flock from this post, followed by endless expansions in what these businesses can do to "keep you safe".
