Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Friday June 19 2015, @11:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-forget,-who-are-the-good-guys-now? dept.

Google added to Chromium 43.x a new add-on called "Chrome Hotword Shared Module" without source code. At first run, it is automatically downloaded and installed without any prompt. After this installation [it] is only available at chrome://voicesearch/ and is not shown in the extensions menu and by default the user is not able to disable or uninstall it. This add-on can record audio any time since is linked to the Ok Google feature ( https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2940021?hl=en [support.google.com] ).

Sources: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=500922 and http://www.ghacks.net/2015/06/19/googles-in-hot-water-after-dropping-binary-code-in-chromium-for-linux/


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday June 20 2015, @06:11PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Saturday June 20 2015, @06:11PM (#198757)

    Both of the guys who use Chromium are gonna be pissed when they find out.

    I use Chromium and I am pissed. I hope debian adds a patch to exclude this functionality soon.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2