US Patent 11404038 Privacy sleeve for smart speakers

A method of selectively preventing surreptitious listening by a smart speaker by placing an audible interference device into physical proximity with the microphone(s) on the smart speaker, and whenever ensured privacy is desired toggling a feature on the audible interference device from a listening mode, wherein the device allows the microphone to receive and the smart speaker to interact with intelligible speech from the surrounding environment, and a deaf mode wherein the device inhibits reception of intelligible speech by the microphone and thereby prevents both desired and surreptitious listening by the smart speaker.