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1. Yes, I meant the Beauty and the Beast ad. They describe how "it invites our partners to be our guest and shares their tales." That's their actual explanation

1. Yes, I meant the Beauty and the Beast ad. They describe how "it invites our partners to be our guest and shares their tales." That's their actual explanation: this product is how Google invites THEIR guests into YOUR home. If that's honestly what you want, by all means. But not in my house. 2. Right, Home was found to be recording thousands of times a day. Google quickly shipped a software update to disable it: that's the right damage control, and they deserve credit for that response. But the point is that Google will happily "spy on everything I said" and not notice. Why should a random reporter have to dig through Google codenames to discover this spying? Shouldn't Google have safeguards in place? And see their pathetic response [1] that doesn't acknowledge the true problem at all. Google could own these mistakes. But instead they deny their ads are ads, and characterize constant eavesdropping as "touch controls behaving incorrectly." They haven't learned a thing, and until they do, this stuff is going to happen again and again with their products. [1] https://support.google.com/googlehome/answer/7550221 https://support.google.com/googlehome/answer/7550221

ehsankia 8y ago
I'm sorry but you're either being intentionally obtuse or trying to twist and mislead people by spreading stories out of context and lacking crucial information. 1. In over two years the Home existing, that happened a SINGLE time, no money changed hands and once they realize it people didn't enjoy the experience, it never happened again. Reading your original comment > Google injecting ads into the "My Day" information you make it sounds like this is something they do regularly all the time. It literally happened once a year ago and they apologized for it. 2. This was a hardware defect on a very very small number of units on a single type of smart speaker. The defect triggered the button at the top, which makes the speaker lights up, listen and tries to respond, so the user would clearly see it misbehaving. All recordings also show up on your activity page. Again here, your original comment: > Google Home was found to be listening all the time You make it sound like his happened on all devices, was doing it intentionally and was doing it in an undisclosed secret way, when in fact it was a bug which realistically affected less than 0.00001% of the people and was fixed within a few hours once reported. You can bend the truth and assume whatever crazy tinfoil theory you want, but that doesn't make it reality.
- CaptainZapp 8y ago
  The problem with all those tech companies about their "mistakes" is that they lost the benefit of the doubt long ago. Remember when Google scooped up unsecured WiFi data via their creepy street view vehicles? Yeah, that was a mistake by some mid-level manager and not intentional. Don't even get me started on Facebook's "mistakes".
  - ocdtrekkie 8y ago
    It's only a mistake if they get caught.
    - intrasight 8y ago
      Exactly!
  - walshemj 8y ago
    No if your using freely broadcast info to help with geolocation harvesting it all on the vehicle and processing to extract the info you want centrally is the optimal way to do it.
- aylmao 8y ago
  1. This doesn't mean it will never happen again, or in other contexts (not "My Day"). 2. Google still has the capacity to do it, and sure, this was a mistake, but just like Android records people's location by default, in the future google could decide for an opt-out feature that records for the sake of training ML, analytics, or some feature. This is not about tinfoil conspiracies, this is simply caring about privacy. The vast majority of people in the US weren't directly affected by the NSA's espionage, but still there was public outcry because people like privacy. If this guy/girl thinks it's better to be safe than sorry, let her/him do so. No need to get so defensive of Google. EDIT: A downvote? I'm curious as to why (especially given there was no reply).
  - ehsankia 8y ago
    Sure, a lot of things /could/ happen, but my issue in particular was that the original comment was (intentionally or not) misleading people to believe something that was very far from reality. As it is, they don't have ads and they don't record without consent. You could argue all day about what they could or would do in the future, but I will reconsider my decision to use he device then. Let's get the facts about how the product works now straight for now.

ehsankia 8y ago

I'm sorry but you're either being intentionally obtuse or trying to twist and mislead people by spreading stories out of context and lacking crucial information. 1. In over two years the Home existing, that happened a SINGLE time, no money changed hands and once they realize it people didn't enjoy the experience, it never happened again. Reading your original comment > Google injecting ads into the "My Day" information you make it sounds like this is something they do regularly all the time. It literally happened once a year ago and they apologized for it. 2. This was a hardware defect on a very very small number of units on a single type of smart speaker. The defect triggered the button at the top, which makes the speaker lights up, listen and tries to respond, so the user would clearly see it misbehaving. All recordings also show up on your activity page. Again here, your original comment: > Google Home was found to be listening all the time You make it sound like his happened on all devices, was doing it intentionally and was doing it in an undisclosed secret way, when in fact it was a bug which realistically affected less than 0.00001% of the people and was fixed within a few hours once reported. You can bend the truth and assume whatever crazy tinfoil theory you want, but that doesn't make it reality.

CaptainZapp 8y ago
The problem with all those tech companies about their "mistakes" is that they lost the benefit of the doubt long ago. Remember when Google scooped up unsecured WiFi data via their creepy street view vehicles? Yeah, that was a mistake by some mid-level manager and not intentional. Don't even get me started on Facebook's "mistakes".
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  It's only a mistake if they get caught.
  - intrasight 8y ago
    Exactly!
- walshemj 8y ago
  No if your using freely broadcast info to help with geolocation harvesting it all on the vehicle and processing to extract the info you want centrally is the optimal way to do it.
aylmao 8y ago
1. This doesn't mean it will never happen again, or in other contexts (not "My Day"). 2. Google still has the capacity to do it, and sure, this was a mistake, but just like Android records people's location by default, in the future google could decide for an opt-out feature that records for the sake of training ML, analytics, or some feature. This is not about tinfoil conspiracies, this is simply caring about privacy. The vast majority of people in the US weren't directly affected by the NSA's espionage, but still there was public outcry because people like privacy. If this guy/girl thinks it's better to be safe than sorry, let her/him do so. No need to get so defensive of Google. EDIT: A downvote? I'm curious as to why (especially given there was no reply).
- ehsankia 8y ago
  Sure, a lot of things /could/ happen, but my issue in particular was that the original comment was (intentionally or not) misleading people to believe something that was very far from reality. As it is, they don't have ads and they don't record without consent. You could argue all day about what they could or would do in the future, but I will reconsider my decision to use he device then. Let's get the facts about how the product works now straight for now.