Misinformation in third-party voice applications

Mary Bispham; Suliman Kalim Sattar; Clara Zard; Xavier Ferrer-Aran; Jide Edu; Guillermo Suarez-Tangil; Jose Such

doi:10.1145/3571884.3604307

Misinformation in third-party voice applications

Mary Bispham, Suliman Kalim Sattar, Clara Zard, Xavier Ferrer-Aran, Jide Edu, Guillermo Suarez-Tangil, Jose Such

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book

3 Citations (Scopus)

73 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper investigates the potential for spreading misinformation via third-party voice applications in voice assistant ecosystems such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Our work fills a gap in prior work on privacy issues associated with third-party voice applications, looking at security issues related to outputs from such applications rather than compromises to privacy from user inputs. We define misinformation in the context of third-party voice applications and implement an infrastructure for testing third-party voice applications using automated natural language interaction. Using our infrastructure, we identify — for the first time — several instances of misinformation in third-party voice applications currently available on the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa platforms. We then discuss the implications of our work for developing measures to pre-empt the threat of misinformation and other types of harmful content in third-party voice assistants becoming more significant in the future.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, CUI 2023
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces
Editors	Minha Lee, Cosmin Munteanu
Place of Publication	New York, NY.
Pages	1-6
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9798400700149
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3571884.3604307
Publication status	Published - 19 Jul 2023

Funding

This research was funded by EPSRC under grant EP/T026723/1 and by COMET project TED2021-132900A-I00 from MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union-NextGenerationEU/-PRTR. Guillermo Suarez-Tangil was partially funded by the “Ramon y Cajal” Fellowship RYC-2020-029401-I under MCIN/AEI/10.13039/-501100011033 and ESF “The European Social Fund invests in your future.” Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors.

Keywords

security and privacy
voice assistants
online harm
misinformation
human-centered computing
human computer interaction (HCI)

Access to Document

10.1145/3571884.3604307

Bispham-etal-CUI-2023-Misinformation-in-third-party-voice-applicationsAccepted author manuscript, 153 KBLicence: Strath_1

Misinformation in third-party voice applications
Edu, J. (Speaker)
20 Jul 2023
Activity: Talk or Presentation › Oral presentation

Cite this

Bispham, M., Sattar, S. K., Zard, C., Ferrer-Aran, X., Edu, J., Suarez-Tangil, G., & Such, J. (2023). Misinformation in third-party voice applications. In M. Lee, & C. Munteanu (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, CUI 2023: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces (pp. 1-6). Article 53. https://doi.org/10.1145/3571884.3604307

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abstract = "This paper investigates the potential for spreading misinformation via third-party voice applications in voice assistant ecosystems such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Our work fills a gap in prior work on privacy issues associated with third-party voice applications, looking at security issues related to outputs from such applications rather than compromises to privacy from user inputs. We define misinformation in the context of third-party voice applications and implement an infrastructure for testing third-party voice applications using automated natural language interaction. Using our infrastructure, we identify — for the first time — several instances of misinformation in third-party voice applications currently available on the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa platforms. We then discuss the implications of our work for developing measures to pre-empt the threat of misinformation and other types of harmful content in third-party voice assistants becoming more significant in the future.",

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author = "Mary Bispham and Sattar, \{Suliman Kalim\} and Clara Zard and Xavier Ferrer-Aran and Jide Edu and Guillermo Suarez-Tangil and Jose Such",

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Bispham, M, Sattar, SK, Zard, C, Ferrer-Aran, X, Edu, J, Suarez-Tangil, G & Such, J 2023, Misinformation in third-party voice applications. in M Lee & C Munteanu (eds), Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, CUI 2023: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces., 53, New York, NY., pp. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3571884.3604307

Misinformation in third-party voice applications. / Bispham, Mary; Sattar, Suliman Kalim; Zard, Clara et al.
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, CUI 2023: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces. ed. / Minha Lee; Cosmin Munteanu. New York, NY., 2023. p. 1-6 53.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book

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AU - Bispham, Mary

AU - Sattar, Suliman Kalim

AU - Zard, Clara

AU - Ferrer-Aran, Xavier

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AU - Suarez-Tangil, Guillermo

AU - Such, Jose

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N2 - This paper investigates the potential for spreading misinformation via third-party voice applications in voice assistant ecosystems such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Our work fills a gap in prior work on privacy issues associated with third-party voice applications, looking at security issues related to outputs from such applications rather than compromises to privacy from user inputs. We define misinformation in the context of third-party voice applications and implement an infrastructure for testing third-party voice applications using automated natural language interaction. Using our infrastructure, we identify — for the first time — several instances of misinformation in third-party voice applications currently available on the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa platforms. We then discuss the implications of our work for developing measures to pre-empt the threat of misinformation and other types of harmful content in third-party voice assistants becoming more significant in the future.

AB - This paper investigates the potential for spreading misinformation via third-party voice applications in voice assistant ecosystems such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Our work fills a gap in prior work on privacy issues associated with third-party voice applications, looking at security issues related to outputs from such applications rather than compromises to privacy from user inputs. We define misinformation in the context of third-party voice applications and implement an infrastructure for testing third-party voice applications using automated natural language interaction. Using our infrastructure, we identify — for the first time — several instances of misinformation in third-party voice applications currently available on the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa platforms. We then discuss the implications of our work for developing measures to pre-empt the threat of misinformation and other types of harmful content in third-party voice assistants becoming more significant in the future.

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Bispham M, Sattar SK, Zard C, Ferrer-Aran X, Edu J, Suarez-Tangil G et al. Misinformation in third-party voice applications. In Lee M, Munteanu C, editors, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, CUI 2023: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces. New York, NY. 2023. p. 1-6. 53 doi: 10.1145/3571884.3604307

Misinformation in third-party voice applications

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Misinformation in third-party voice applications

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