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Abstract

Virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri have become hugely popular conveniences in homes worldwide. However, they also pose unprecedented privacy risks by being black-box vehicles of corporate surveillance by the likes of Amazon, Apple and others. Is it possible to design a virtual assistant that can be guaranteed to protect user privacy, and be fully transparent and controllable by end-users? This project will involve designing and developing a fully modular, open source virtual assistant called ARETHA from the ground up, using open source components, which can provide strong guarantees about being prirvacy-preserving and pro-user.