Table of Content
- Google Introduces Sleep Profile To Its Pixel Watch
- UPDATE: 2017/10/10 5:31pm PDT BY
- Hey Google, Why Are You Listening To Me? Do I have a reminder?
- Yale Assure Lock 2 with Wi-Fi review: Future-proofing your home security
- Google Home Mini caught spying on user 24/7
- Is Your Google Home Mini SPYING on You? UPDATE: No.
The update will be completely rolled out by end of day October 15, 2017. In the meantime, as it turns out, the Mini was behaving very differently from all the other Homes and Echos in my home - it was waking up thousands of times a day, recording, then sending those recordings to Google. All of this was done quietly, with only the four lights on the unit I wasn't looking at flashing on and then off. Manufacturers, on their part, assure us their devices are perfectly safe and only listen when prompted. We brush the concerns off and move on with our lives, but not before granting our smart pineapples (did you know "pineapple" is the codename for Google Home?) access to the smart rice maker, smart vacuum, and smart toothbrush. Google said at the time that devices pre-ordered by customers would not be affected by the fault, but this stance has now changed.
While it's unclear what happens to the recordings once they land at Google, the obvious privacy implications are enough to scare just about anyone. While we believe that we are secure behind the walls of VPNs or other similar security arrangement, in the end there is always some data that is seeping through. The latest name to cause panic over virtual surveillance has become that of the Google Home Mini – which is reportedly “spying” on its users thanks to a software bug. Here's an example screenshot from the Google My Activity page, filtered by Assistant.
Google Introduces Sleep Profile To Its Pixel Watch
BGR’s audience craves our industry-leading insights on the latest in tech and entertainment, as well as our authoritative and expansive reviews. But when the home speaker is Google’s new Home Mini, all sorts of red flags go up. After all, this is a company which has had to deal with a variety of privacy-infringing scandals in the past, and a company that makes money off your data. Since I have a Google Home sitting on my kitchen counter–I love the thing–I’ve been considering the purchase of Google Minis to sprinkle through the home so I can have smart speaker connectivity everywhere in the house.
It’s a bit surprising given the brand had previously stated that it would try to resolve the underlying issue. Google immediately responded, taking away his Home Mini and giving him 2 in exchange. As it turns out, the touch mechanism in a small number of units were behaving incorrectly. The smart speaker has a panel at the top which can be long-pressed to activate the Assistant, but due to a malfunction some units thought there was a press when there weren’t any. To keep the audio smart speakers hear -- but in this case, the device wasn't activated by the wake word. You can check out the latest firmware update in Google’spreview firmware channel.
UPDATE: 2017/10/10 5:31pm PDT BY
I set up an experiment with my Google Home to see what this little thing is actually sending over the network. I used Wireshark to capture the wireless traffic in and out of the Google Home. There was a significant amount of communication between the device and other nodes on my network, but we will save that for another blog.
Filtering what is happening in music to save you time, money and effort. The information gathered is for Communitic International to ensure the sending of the newsletter. Google Home Mini, the puck-like smart home device from the Alphabet-owned company, has a big problem. Just to clarify, the audio is not coming out of the speaker next to the Home Mini, but from a TV speaker a few feet away. The frequency of these anomality’s greatly increased August 2020 and into September, two months away from what will be the most nationally volatile elections in US History. If a Forbes article from ten days ago that I discovered while writing this hadn’t confirmed unusual Google Smart Device activities too, I’d probably be much less concerned.
Hey Google, Why Are You Listening To Me? Do I have a reminder?
The issue was discovered and first reported by Artem Russakovskii over at Android Police. Russakovskii was given a Home Mini by Google at the device's launch event earlier this month, installed it in his bathroom and used it as normal. EPIC has pending complaints with the FTC and DOJ alleging that always-on devices like Google Home, Echo and Siri violate consumer protection law and federal wiretap law. A Google spokesperson confirmed the issue to CNN Tech and said it stems from the touchpad, known as the activation button, on the devices given to early reviewers.
The mention of "com.google.android.apps.chirp/mushroom/prod" does not appear before then either, all pointing to the Home Mini being the culprit and not the larger Homes, Android TVs, or phones. I went to the Google launch event in San Francisco that I'm sure many of you watched closely. In addition to the two new Pixels, the Pixelbook, Pixel Buds, and Google Clips, Google introduced the Home Mini, a tiny $50 version of the Home we'd expected for several months. Everyone in attendance got to take one home, and having run out of rooms to put it in, I stuck mine in the bathroom. Before you go raising your eyebrows, this is a room I spend a considerable amount of time in, listening to podcasts, music, and asking Google random questions when I get ready for the day in the morning. As for turning itself on and recording, I first began noticing it after the Washington Has Fallen Minecraft project began.
Apparently, the Mini allows for hot-word activation through a long press on the touch panel. This feature allows folks to activate Google Assistant without actually saying the hot word “Hey Google.” However, on some Minis, the devices registered “phantom” touch events, which meant that Google Assistantwas always on. We have made the decision to permanently remove all top touch functionality on the Google Home Mini. As before, the best way to control and activate Google Home Mini is through voice, by saying “Ok Google” or “Hey Google,” which is already how most people engage with our Google Home products.
A firmware update has now been issued to affected Home Minis, switching off the ability to use a long touch to activate Google Assistant. This isn't an ideal solution, naturally, because it takes a feature away from the device. Google is working on a permanent solution and says the fault is only present on devices handed out at the Made By Google media event. The user in question was Android Police’s Artem Russakovskii who had received an early unit of the Home Mini at Google’s October 4 event.
No new Google Activities in my History, so where is that audio Google Nest Mini is recording, going to, and why doesn’t it show in my account history? I could ramble on repeating the same things, so lets just jump to a few of the times, I first began noticing the Google devices actively recording or turning on by itself in 2020. The Home Mini is meant to be used primarily as a voice-based smart speaker, so losing the touch functionality isn’t too big of a loss. Still, it might turn off people who wanted all the features they were promised. Plus, it doesn’t reflect well on Google that it managed to botch up the launch of a new piece of hardware. After the controversy that erupted in the wake of a few Home Mini units spying on its owners, Google has decided to permanently stop the feature that was causing the problem in the first place.
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