This is a petition to virtual assistant vendors such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home to respect the privacy of their end users. 

Based on a news article from the New York Times: 

"It has been almost two decades since Google started to dominate internet search the way Microsoft dominated software for personal computers a generation earlier.

Now computer scientists at Stanford University are warning about the consequences of a race to control what they believe will be the next key consumer technology market — virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.

The researchers’ biggest concern is that virtual assistants, as they are designed today, could have a far greater impact on consumer information than today’s websites and apps. Putting that information in the hands of one big company or a tiny clique, they say, could erase what is left of online privacy.

Virtual assistants have access to a broader and more personal range of data than, say, a search engine. A virtual assistant can be like a personal secretary, with access to many of the most intimate details of your life."

If you are reading this petition, chances are that you are, at this very moment, getting "monitored" by a virtual assistant such as Alexa and Google home without your explicit consent. The Stanford research team cited by the NYT article does have some ongoing research initiatives to make virtual assistant more privacy-preserving. However, we need your help and vote to make sure the whales in the industry (Amazon and Google) are doing the same thing to protect user privacy.