To help navigate convoluted and complex privacy settings on commonly used websites, CNET News columnist Dan Farber proposes that virtual assistants, such as Siri and Google Now, can be effective tools to give users more control of their settings. Virtual assistant apps could also help educate users on how their data is being collected, processed and shared. “Instead of reading pages of text,” Farber suggests, “users could query a virtual assistant, which could walk them through their privacy settings.” As virtual assistants “gain more popularity, managing privacy and protecting your online persona will be more of a continuous, background process handled by an intelligent agent rather than a sometimes impenetrable chore.”
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