Security: what to share for voice control – and what not to

Only share for voice control what a guest in your house would also be allowed to switch. Lights, blinds and room temperature belong on that list. Anything that opens your house or disables a security system does not.

Why this rule?

A voice assistant does not check who is speaking. Anyone standing in the room, or calling through a window left tilted open, can give a command. With a floor lamp, that does not matter. With a front door, it does.

Not critical

• Lights on, off, dimming
• Light moods
• Blinds and roller shutters
• Setting and checking the room temperature
• Checking energy values, for example the battery storage charge level

Better not by voice

• Front door and side entrances
• Garage door and yard gate
• Arming or disarming the alarm system
• Anything that can cause damage if something goes wrong: pumps, immersion heaters, machines

Think about the ground-floor blinds as well. If someone could open them at night by calling from outside, you lose a privacy screen. In most houses this is not a problem, because an Echo device cannot be reached from outside. Even so, do not place it right by the window.

Two layers of protection in MFM Voice

First: a separate user on the Miniserver. In Loxone Config, create a user just for MFM Voice. Give this user access only to the rooms and functions that Alexa is meant to control. What this user cannot see, no voice command can reach either.

Second: the selection in MFM Voice. Once your Miniserver has been read, you decide for each device individually whether Alexa may see it.

MFM Voice does not offer alarm systems and door intercoms for sharing at all.

When something changes

New housemates, a renovation, a new device: go through the list of shared devices once a year. That way, nothing stays shared that nobody has switched by voice for a long time.

For more on the technology behind this, see Security and data protection.