It’s a really slick mod, and the amount of documentation did while researching this is impressive. Enabling and disabling the mics is done via the existing Dot keys, with feedback provided by tones sent through the Dot speaker. The tiny microcontroller grounds the common I²S data line shared by the seven (!) microphones in the smart speaker, effective disabling them. To achieve this, embedded a Seeeduino Xiao inside his Echo Dot Gen 2. And for that job, only a hardware-level disconnect of the microphones will do.
Yes, these devices all have software options for disabling their microphone arrays, but as relates it, his concern is mainly to thwart exotic attacks on smart speakers, some of which, like laser-induced photoacoustic attacks, we’ve previously discussed. So this hardware mute switch for an Amazon Echo represents a middle ground between digital Luddism and ignoring the possible privacy risks of smart speakers.
It seems like the most prudent path is to not have one of these devices, but they are pretty useful tools. What exactly are they doing with the constant stream of audio we generate, some of it coming from the most intimate and private of moments? Sure, the big companies behind these devices claim they’re being good, but do any of us actually buy that? Since we’ve started inviting them into our homes, many of us have began casting a wary eye at our smart speakers.