As smart speakers and connected devices continue to gain popularity, it’s clear that voice interaction is the next great leap forward in UX design. But how can we as designers help brands responsibly use Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, and Apple’s Siri to reach audiences in the clearly private space of the home? If privacy is mostly about perception, we will need to find ways of building trust through absolute transparency, sharing with customers what personal data is being collected and how it is being used. Moreso, we will need to focus product design on giving customers control over their own information by adopting best practices like cookie disclaimers and GDPR compliance.

There’s still a lot to figure out with voice-assisted interfaces, but if the development of IoT platforms follows the path of reinforcing trust, the next decade can hopefully avoid an erosion of privacy and instead bring about its restoration.