The Google Home, a smart speaker, was first released in November 2016. This month, the internet giant presented its younger brother: the Google Home Mini.
Shaped like a pebble, this innocent looking gadget listens to your voice commands and acts as a personal assistant through Google’s Assistant services. The home assistant’s listening abilities are activated by calling out a so-called hotword; ‘OK Google’. So far so good, right?
However, in the beginning of this month, founder of the Android Police, Artem Russakovskii , found out something very fishy. The device, which he had received before its official launch, kept turning on and off continuously, without anyone using the hotword. Later, the device did the same when it was placed close to a TV that was turned on. Having just found out about the following feature, Artem went to check Google’s My Activity portal, which has an assistant-specific section. On this page, he found thousands of the device’s recordings, including time stamp and even a ‘play’ button. Although Google discloses that the recordings made my smart speakers are sometimes stored, something was definitely wrong here.
So how did Google respond to this situation?
Luckily they responded swiftly, by stating there was a glitch in the software of the touch panel on the device. Unable to solve the issue, Google then sent out a software update disabling the features of the touch panel completely (Russakovskii, 2017).
Although a Google spokesperson said that ‘they take user privacy and product quality concerns very seriously’ this does make you think about the potential power Google has over its customers (Tung, 2017). Google’s reaction may seem adequate, but is it also genuine?
So this incident happened recently, but did such a violation of privacy happen before, or could it even be happening at this very moment? Should we really be letting devices into our homes which could potentially be listening to us 24/7? And when adding on top all the cameras on our laptops, tablets and phones; are we maybe making it a bit too easy for the Googles and Facebooks of this world?
What is your stance?
by Nikki Sonneveld (382290)
References:
Russakovskii, A. (2017, October 11). Google is permanently nerfing all Home Minis because mine spied on everything I said 24/7 [Update x2]. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/10/google-nerfing-home-minis-mine-spied-everything-said-247/
Tung, L. (2017, October 12). Google ditches Home Mini’s top-touch panel feature after spying blunder. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-ditches-home-minis-top-touch-panel-feature-after-spying-blunder/
