On the Usage of Smart Speakers During the Covid-19 Coronavirus Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed every aspect of our professional and private life. It forced us to stay at home and it gave unprecedented power to technology. In this paper we focus on the emerging technology of smart speakers (e.g., Amazon Echo Plus, Google Home, etc.) and, through a developed questionnaire, we investigate how people use these devices. In particular, we analyze whether the human behavior has been affected by availability of these smart speaker. Results showed that the usage of these devices did not increase during lockdown, but it highlighted the presence of some privacy issues that might represent a burden to the diffusion of this type of technology.