IT Blog

Right now, my Amazon Echo speaker is looking a lot uglier than usual.

Protruding from the top of the speaker is a three-inch-tall cylinder of yellow plastic, with a sunburst pattern around the edges. When it’s plugged in and turned on, an array of ultrasonic speakers on the device’s underside confuse the Echo’s always-on microphones, rendering Alexa inoperable until I either clap three times or triple-tap the top of the cylinder.

The device, called Alexagate, is the latest effort from MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based startup that makes limited-run products with a rhetorical flourish. In this case, MSCHF’s point of view is that Amazon is snooping on users through its Echo speakers, and that users should have an easier way to turn off the mics. Kevin Wiesner, MSCHF’s creative director, calls Alexagate an “aftermarket privacy adjustment” with an adversarial bent.

“We have a device, it’s in our homes, it’s essentially a wiretap sitting on a coffee table,” he says. “Let’s…