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Google removes option to disable Nest cams' status light
No more stashing your Nest security cameras in the bushes to catch burglars unaware: Google informed users on Wednesday that it's removing the option to turn off the status light that indicates when your Nest camera is recording.
You can still dim the light that shows when Google's Nest, Dropcam, and Nest Hello cameras are on and sending video and audio to Nest, Google said, but you can't make it go away on new cameras. If the camera is on, it's going to tell people that it's on – with its green status light in Nest and Nest Home and the blue status light in Dropcam – in furtherance of Google's newest commitment to privacy.
Google introduced its new privacy commitment at its I/O 2019 developers conference in May, in order to explain how its connected home devices and services work.
The setting that enabled users to turn off the status light is being removed on all new cameras. When the cameras' live video is streamed from the Nest app, the status light will blink. The update will be done over-the-air for all Nest cams: Google's update notice said that the company was rolling out the changes as of Wednesday, 14 August 2019.
The change is a plus for the privacy-aware: say, people who are wary of their Airbnb hosts secretly filming them in the shower or bedroom.
On the other end of the spectrum, it's an outrage to some users who say they've spent big bucks on cameras that can stay hidden. One comment on Google's update notice called it "an absurd update and an invasion of my rights as a consumer" – more of a "post-purchase middle finger" to customers than a privacy plus.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday August 17 2019, @12:31PM (1 child)
Indeed. When following the links to Google's statement and other official Google pages, I was surprised to see hundreds (yes, hundreds) of comments effectively saying, "You've ruined my device! It's useless now." Maybe 1 out of 50 comments was something like, "Well guys, just tape/paint over the light for most applications. Problem solved."
Mine too.
Well, I have to disagree about at least some of the outrage. First, there's the general principle that many companies are now acting like you never "own" devices your purchase. They can just push a software update at any time, and you have to live with the consequences. That's something many people argued in complaints, and I agree with them. If a device is sold with certain features, and then those features are remotely disabled after your purchase, that's bad. (I would argue that you were stupid enough to buy a Nest/Google product, but this is an issue well beyond Google products today.)
And I can imagine some scenarios where this new issue is a serious problem -- like someone who actually wants the camera to be visible (as a deterrent or whatever in a security camera), but now you've given potential thieves an easy way to know whether they are being monitored or not... and a piece of tape is a giveaway that the device will likely be going on and off, rather than continuously on. Or other scenarios, but consumers no longer have the choice over a device they purchased.
A more extreme example from my own experience about a device: about four years (?) ago -- right after the Kindle Fire from Amazon became really cheap -- I bought one for my young kid, thinking it was a cheap tablet, and if he broke it or it broke or whatever, no big deal. It had good features by that time for restricting kids' accounts, etc., restricting amount of time used per day, etc. (Which turned out to be problematic -- but that's another issue.)
Anyhow, he loved the thing. It was his first real electronic device that was HIS. He wanted to carry it everywhere and use it for lots of things. Then, six months or so after purchase, the thing suddenly reset without warning. I mean hard factory reset -- all of his games, all of his photos, all of his content gone. I hadn't enabled cloud backup, as I thought Amazon didn't need all of my son's info and pictures and such. So most of it was just GONE.
It took me a while to figure stuff out, but scanning Amazon forums, eventually I discovered that several people had the exact same issue happen at the same time -- all running Kindle Fires purchased in a certain date range, and all running the kids' software ("Freetime") app. Apparently, they hadn't tested some security update properly, and when they pushed it to all devices, those with the kids' software app had some sort of error that caused the whole device to do a factory reset.
My reaction was, WHAAAA?? Amazon has the ability to do a remote factory reset on my device without my permission, effectively destroying all of my data whenever they want?? Now I know this kind of crap can happen on a lot of devices, but I was rather shocked when this first happened. And my kid was really upset... ever since then, he's been nervous about electronic devices, which he thinks can make his stuff disappear at any time. (Probably good to be a little cautious, but this was more like terrorizing little kids.)
I don't recall for certain, but I'm pretty sure at this time there was no option to disable automatic security updates on the Kindle Fire either. I went on and modified my review of the device on Amazon immediately too, which led to immediate comments (from shills or Amazon fans) who didn't believe me. I told them to go to the Amazon product forums where at least half a dozen people had come out and posted with the exact same issue within the past few hours, but they refused to believe me.
I've never purchased another Amazon tablet again. My point is today sometimes you are FORCED to accept what the big companies give you, even long after you've purchased a device. THAT is a serious problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 17 2019, @01:17PM
Google feel the same way about all Android devices.
Scary, hey.