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From a non-privacy perspective this adds the feature of being able to customize your wake word, which besides being a nice feature on its own also counters Goog
by guelo 8y ago
From a non-privacy perspective this adds the feature of being able to customize your wake word, which besides being a nice feature on its own also counters Google and Amazon's desire to inject their brands deeper into our psyche by making us say them out loud.
From a privacy perspective, having user control of the wake word prevents Google and Amazon from adding future wake words that could be abused for other ways to track us. For example, Google might get the bright idea to track TV ads by listening for audio in the ads. Or tracking people in your house by making Android phones emmit non-audible chirps. These kind of "features" could be easily introduced at any point in the future by an update to privacy policies that nobody notices.
- reaperducer 8y agoGoogle might get the bright idea to track TV ads by listening for audio in the ads Considering that some TVs have this built-in, I'd be surprised if Google wasn't already doing the same. It's why my "smart" TV isn't allowed to connect to my wifi network. (There was a previous HN article about it, I believe the brand was Samsung.)
- thinkingemote 8y agoI think it was the Facebook app, it listened to ambient background to determine music and TV shows. The user had to opt in or at least approve permissions.