
Google admits its new smart speaker was eavesdropping on users (2017) - otp124
http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/11/technology/google-home-mini-security-flaw/index.html
======
atonse
Hmmm yet again, I am inclined to not believe this. How is it that these bugs
always end up invading our privacy, and not the other way round?
("Google/Facebook admits a bug in their system reduced the data they could
collect"). Because those bugs are true bugs as far as these companies are
concerned, and they're squashed ASAP.

This is like when Facebook had an oopsie about leaving the microphone on, "oh
no sorry it was just a bug." Right, when you abused an iOS API to leave your
app running all the time, a side effect was that you also recorded all the
conversations on the phone. These companies are becoming a cancer on our
privacy.

~~~
Karunamon
>How is it that these bugs always end up invading our privacy, and not the
other way round? ("Google/Facebook admits a bug in their system reduced the
data they could collect")

Because you and I both know that's not newsworthy and wouldn't make it out
from inside the company where it happened?

------
programmarchy
> My Google Home Mini was inadvertently spying on me 24/7 due to a hardware
> flaw

Are we really supposed to believe this?

Charitably, Google does not take privacy seriously, because they release
products that have gaping flaws they neglect to test or correct. It would have
been trivial for a test engineer to see a unit is collecting data on
conversations without the wake word.

Or uncharitably, Google does not take privacy seriously, because they are
releasing spyware, and just lie when they get caught.

Edit: In this case, maybe some leeway can be given because they were test
devices, but it still makes me wary of having these type of things in my home.

~~~
apocalyptic0n3
This case seemed a pretty cut and dry bug in pre-release software. They
actually launched the device with the at-fault feature disabled while they
fixed the bug, even. I get that Google is difficult to trust when it comes to
privacy issues, but in this case it seemed like a bug much in the way a few
weeks ago an Alexa picked up keywords that it understood as "Call this person"
and the people on the other end of the call were able to hear a private
conversation.

~~~
mcphage
> This case seemed a pretty cut and dry bug in pre-release software.

In this case it was actually hardware—the button used to manually trigger the
device (instead of saying “okay google”). Seems weird that Google managed to
screw up a button, but i doubt it was malicious.

------
flashgordon
By this point, is the the only difference between breaches by Google (and its
ilk) and Equifax is that in the case of the former we can opt out using it?

