
Soon You Won't Have to Say 'Hey Google' to Launch Google Assistant - joeyespo
https://lifehacker.com/soon-you-wont-have-to-say-hey-google-to-launch-google-a-1822563826
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zitterbewegung
Soon I will be able to be monitored by Google without my consent. Since now it
will be hard to know what word will trigger it or even if I will hear the
result of the trigger word.

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monkeynotes
Huh? I don't disagree that devices like GH might listen in on you more than
you are aware of, but how does customizing the trigger word change anything
beyond which word summons an interaction?

I mean why would changing it from 'hey google' to 'hey alfred' or even simply
'alfred' make GH more likely to monitor you without consent? Why would it be
harder to know what will trigger it, or make the results less likely to be
heard?

~~~
imglorp
In theory, the device could only listen for its trigger word using local
processing, which then and only then would trigger a cloud upload to process
the following phrase. The user has implicitly indicated "I'd like a cloud
lookup on this please, and I understand what I say next is going somewhere out
of my control."

If you go with continuous recognition and upload, you then have everything you
say being removed from your control. You'll see situations where cloud
providers' records are subpoena'ed like that murder case with Alexa. [1]
You'll also see cloud providers say "if you want to hav a private
conversation, you best leave the room." [2] That's terribad for everyone.

1\. [https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/07/amazon-hands-over-
alexa-...](https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/07/amazon-hands-over-alexa-data-
after-murder-suspect-gives-the-okay/)

2\. [https://www.cnet.com/news/samsungs-warning-our-smart-tvs-
rec...](https://www.cnet.com/news/samsungs-warning-our-smart-tvs-record-your-
living-room-chatter/)

~~~
bootlooped
I don't think they would move to continuous recognition and upload. I think it
would simply be listening for a different keyword, which it would recognize
on-device, and then upload the audio following that.

It would be pretty insane if every android smartphone was continuous uploading
audio to Google's servers for processing. Can you imagine the processing
requirements, the bandwidth load, the battery drain?

~~~
imglorp
Mobile, yeah, but going by the above two references, both the Alexa and
Samsung examples _are_ doing something with continuous upload or they wouldn't
be in the news.

~~~
EpicEng
If you had bothered to read the article...

>While Alexa is constantly listening, it only records data after the "Alexa"
or "Amazon" commands are given. However, the Echo speaker was reportedly
streaming music near the tub, and investigators believe it could have been
awakened intentionally or accidentally. If so,the presence of a recording
could tell them if Bates was awake when he said he was sleeping, for instance.

It only sends data after hearing its wake up words, just like everything else.
If it were constantly streaming they would be caught as soon as someone
decided to fire up wireshark (i.e. very soon after release.)

~~~
joshumax
I even ripped apart an Echo dot a little while ago, de-soldered the NAND from
the device and dumped the FireOS-based ROM to take a peek myself. It is indeed
performing audio processing for the wake-up word entirely locally.

~~~
imglorp
This is the most important comment here. Some independent verification.

Worthy of a blog post?

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tzs
Trigger words have their place, but come on Google, Amazon, and Apple...the
obviously correct primary way to tell the device you are about to speak a
command or query should be by tapping a replica of a Star Trek combadge worn
on the front of your shirt.

At its simplest, all this needs to be is a Bluetooth button paired with the
device. Higher end badges could also be available that include microphone and
speaker and can communicate with the device over something longer range than
Bluetooth, such as WiFi, to provide access to the device when outside of voice
range.

Such badges already exist for hands-free calling with cell phones [1], so its
not like there is some technological limit to building such things.

[1]
[http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/jmgi/](http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/jmgi/)

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lighttower
Great. Can't wait for the day when I can selectively summon Google Home
without having to awake every single Android device within an earshot.

~~~
zamalek
There's actually a support page for this, outlining the steps to make sure
that this doesn't happen (basically: have Google Home installed on your
phone). It doesn't work.

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dustinmoris
Really looking forward to this feature! I've had Google Home since the first
day it became available in the UK and it's proven to be really useful. I love
how I can ask Google random questions and it gives me very accurate answers,
play my favourite songs or let Google surprise me by suggesting a music genre.
Depending on my mood I might ask Google to play anything from classical music
to heavy metal.

The best thing about Google is that the more I use it the more I discover how
useful it can be. For example last week I was running up and down through my
flat packing some stuff and I quickly had to go to a grocery store at 10PM and
I thought instead of opening my Google maps and check all nearby stores
manually I thought I'll try to ask Google which grocery store is still open
near me and it gave me a perfectly matching answer. I was really impressed!

~~~
trendia
I had the opposite experience. I asked Google:

"Hey Google:, whatis the score of [University] basketball game?"

Even though the game was going on, Google told me about the women's basketball
game the following day. It took about 5 min before I could get Google to give
me the results I wanted.

I have had a lot of results like this--Google becomes useless. It's faster for
me to search for it by hand.

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jccooper
Various Android phones have had that for ages. Shouldn't be very hard.

~~~
bootlooped
My 2014 Moto X did this. When I switched to a Nexus 6P I was bewildered why I
could no longer pick my own phrase.

