Risks of technology that’s always on

Chances are you or someone you know is using voice-activated technology. However, the second that you ask your smart device to do something, it begins recording you. Tom Skill, Chief Information Officer at the University of Dayton said, you could be giving up your privacy. He finds voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo, Google Assistant and Apple's Siri to be both intriguing and unsettling.

TIPS: How to protect yourself from tech that is always on

"Right now, those devices are listening," said Skill. "We don't quite always know where that voice is going. Is it being stored locally? Is it going off into the cloud? Who is using it?" 
Tom Faris of Clark County calls "Alexa" his personal assistant.

Internet privacy rules In 2017, the Senate voted to undo rules regulating your online privacy.

"You can ask her what's on TV? We can do video calls with the grand kids that live down in Georgia," Faris said.

Even after three decades in law enforcement, Faris said he is alright with losing some privacy for convenience.

RELATED: High-tech toys and privacy concerns

Faris said, "They hack into the U.S. government. What are they going to get from me that's important to them?"

However, we learned, that if something were to happen in your home whatever was recorded could be used in a court of law. Recordings from a murder suspect's Amazon Echo were recently handed over to prosecutors in Arkansas. They said the evidence could solve a 2015 homicide.

Chris Wallace and his wife, Carol, got an Echo Dot as a Christmas gift and he said he is not a fan.

"I really don't need to have it recording what I say or do," said Wallace.

"I like the new stuff. I get the new stuff," said Carol, who works in information technology. Still, she does her best to protect herself with smart devices.

RELATED: Could what your Amazon Alexa overhears be used against you?

"I can turn off Siri. I can turn off location services. I can turn off a lot of those things and I do, but I am not sure everybody does," said Carol Wallace.

To protect yourself, Tom Skill suggested that you look at the user agreements of your smart devices to find out where your information is being stored, if you can access it, and how to turn your devices off. He also said it is important to update the software on your devices to make them harder to hack.

"I only send audio back to Amazon when I hear you say the "wake" word," said Alexa.

Remember your smart technology is always on and listening.