Google admits error over hidden microphone
Google has acknowledged that it made an error in not disclosing that one of its home alarm products contained a microphone.
Product specifications for the Nest Guard, available since 2017, had made no mention of the listening device. But earlier this month, the firm said a software update would make Nest Guard voice-controlled. On Twitter, concerned Nest owners were told the microphone "has not been used up to this point". Business Insider was first to report the development.
The Nest Guard is one component in the Nest Secure range of home security products. The system includes various sensors that can be monitored remotely by the user. Nest Guard is an all-in-one alarm, keypad, and motion sensor but, despite being announced well over a year ago, the word "microphone" was only added to the product's specification this month. The change coincided with the announcement that it was now compatible with Google Assistant.
In response to criticism, Google said on Tuesday: "The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs. That was an error on our part." It added: "The microphone has never been on and is only activated when users specifically enable the option."
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday February 21 2019, @02:18PM
And the vast majority of people who own these devices aren't complaining. It's not like these are totally independent variables -- it would be quite reasonable to expect substantial overlap between people complaining about spying smart devices and people running open source smartphone OSes. I would guess that the vast majority of people buying these smart devices aren't even looking at the tech specs, and couldn't tell you if there's a microphone in there or not.
The way I see it, there's two classes of people who buy these products. On the one hand, you've got people like my parents. They don't even own a traditional PC -- just a couple smartphones and Android/iOS tablets. But they use Siri and Google assistant, and they've got more than one Alexa speaker. They bought and set all of those up themselves -- I certainly wouldn't touch that stuff and I'm the geek of the family. On the other side, you've got the hackers who want to grab the cutting-edge tech and see what they can do with it. Those people are going to care about the spying, and are often going to be running customized software which enhances user control, and will want to know what the hell their devices are doing.
I know a lot of people who are worried about their smartphones. I have friends who unplug their *Playstation* because they're convinced it's spying on them. People *freak the fuck out* when they see some ad on a website trying to sell them something that they've been talking about recently but never actually searched for. I've been hanging out with non-tech-savvy friends living in apartments and out of nowhere they'll just start going "Man, I gotta buy some fertilizer. I really need some fertilizer soon. Fertilizer, fertilizer, fertilizer. Sorry, I'm trying to test if Siri is spying on me by talking about how much I need fertilizer occasionally to see if I start getting ads for it." They generally don't know what to do about it, and the steps they attempt aren't always appropriate, but they *certainly* care. The ones who don't probably aren't complaining about these smart speakers either.