(CNBC) – Amazon, Google and other makers of voice-activated smart speakers faced similar privacy concerns when their devices first hit the market, in some cases leading to lawsuits and regulatory fines. 

But this new generation of AI devices is also testing the limits of privacy law.

Unlike earlier smart speakers that were activated via a so-called “wake word” and sometimes stored recordings or sent audio to the cloud, some of these products can continuously listen, interpret speech, and extract its meaning without retaining the underlying audio. This capability has raised a largely untested question about whether that processing itself can amount to an unlawful interception. (Read More)