#News

FSB demanded round-the-clock access to Yandex's 'Smart Home' server with the voice assistant 'Alice'

2025.08.28

This is the first instance where a security service publicly attempts to access services that can be used to listen in and monitor practically everyone

A Moscow district court found the legal entity of Russian 'Yandex' guilty of not providing the FSB access to the 'Smart Home' service with the voice assistant 'Alice' and fined the company administratively 10,000 rubles, reported 'Vedomosti'. This means that the FSB is already routinely interpreting the 'Yarovaya law' expansively, whereas previously such requests were usually limited to messaging correspondence, say experts from the publication.

As noted by the 'Agency'*, this is the first attempt by a security service to gain access to 'Alice'. Lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov from the 'First Department'* fears that the FSB's goal is to gain access to information and equipment in 'Alice' smart speakers, which are located in apartments and with which users interact. 'To my knowledge, this is the first such case, I have not heard before of the FSB publicly attempting to access such equipment,' confirmed Smirnov.

It is quite likely that if the FSB obtained the requested access, the security service could use all the system's capabilities, including listening to and viewing requests and accessing other user gadgets, Smirnov suggested.

The 'Alice' smart home includes a smart speaker with a voice assistant that is activated by a voice command. Developers claim that only commands addressed to the assistant are sent to Yandex's servers. This was confirmed by testing conducted by 'Roskomsvoboda'* in 2019.

* Recognized as 'foreign agents' in Russia.

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