6 ms·

> What would have happened if Google had secretly put a microphone into their fire alarms as well, not just their home security system? You could have found it

by cbg0 8y ago

> What would have happened if Google had secretly put a microphone into their fire alarms as well, not just their home security system? You could have found it by dismantling the device and the renter would have won their case against the landlord.

xg15 8y ago
As people could - in theory - have with the security system, yet apparently didn't.
merb 8y ago
it wouldn't the case was dismissed, because it's the wrong court. second it was dismissed because just because it's modern and has several technology that can be missused doesn't mean that it will be missused. in germany you need to actually have evidence to really get something like that dismissed. Especially since the landlord actually also offered that she can use her own fire alarm (when she buys it)
jve 8y ago
I hope you all know that Nest fire alarm aka Nest Protect v2 features microphone for automatic sound (health) checks.
- xyzzy123 8y ago
  Yeah so the nest protect is, when you look at it objectively, a ceiling mounted general purpose remote sensing package. It’s basically only lacking a wide angle camera and I suspect that’s because they figured it would cross too far into “creepy” for it to be saleable. It seems to me like a team sat for a while, looked at all the possible ways they could get people to mount a package like this in every room and settled on calling it a smoke alarm. At the most optimistic they started with a smoke alarm and gradually realised they could build a general purpose platform based on the hardware being deployed in lots of rooms and many types of sensors being dirt cheap now. Decided they could enable new capabilities (and data goldmines!) in software later. It’s a pity there’s not an actually customer controlled version of it.
  - jve 8y ago
    Are there any alternatives to nest protect that would: Sense Carbon Monoxyde AND smoke AND fire off some event to mobile phone via wifi/sms/whatever?
    - ozzyman700 8y ago
      Yes, depending how comfortable you are with soldering. https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/a-cheap-diy-smoke-detector-that-can-save-lives/ https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/a-cheap-diy-smoke-detector-t...
    - graeme 8y ago
      There's the first alert onelink. May have the same issues though, it has a microphone and an alexa integration. Also support homekit, unlike the Nest Protect. Are there any best practices for using a device like this but not having it communicate with the wider world? I.e. It can communicate with you via a homekit hub, but can't connect outside your LAN https://onelink.firstalert.com/withalexa/ https://onelink.firstalert.com/withalexa/
    - mvarrieur 8y ago
      I use a z-wave smoke detector to supplement the wired smoked detectors in my house: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KMHXFAI https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KMHXFAI I then paired it with https://www.home-assistant.io/ https://www.home-assistant.io/ to send alerts to my phone, google home, etc. Haven't had to actually test that the carbon monoxide alarm works yet because testing that is hard/expensive, but for smoke it works just fine.
  - vegardx 8y ago
    They don't have to be connected to a network in order to work. The will even happily do self-check without network access - something I realized when I wanted to mute a self-check only to find out that I had done some network changes. Had to use a schtick, like in the old days. Given that these devices are battery powered and meant to last for years on a single charge you can imagine how often they actually connect to the wireless network. And how much traffic they send. And again, they work perfectly fine without Internet access. Or network access for that matter. I love them, and as someone with an irrational fear of being in a fire they have helped a lot. They're much more sensitive (without being an issue, due to pre-alarm) than the alternatives.
SilasX 8y ago
And then they probably would have been fined for disabling a fire safety device...
StanislavPetrov 8y ago
Probably a DMCA violation thanks to our benevolent overlords.

by cbg0 8y ago

xg15 8y ago

As people could - in theory - have with the security system, yet apparently didn't.

merb 8y ago

it wouldn't the case was dismissed, because it's the wrong court. second it was dismissed because just because it's modern and has several technology that can be missused doesn't mean that it will be missused. in germany you need to actually have evidence to really get something like that dismissed. Especially since the landlord actually also offered that she can use her own fire alarm (when she buys it)

jve 8y ago

I hope you all know that Nest fire alarm aka Nest Protect v2 features microphone for automatic sound (health) checks.

xyzzy123 8y ago
Yeah so the nest protect is, when you look at it objectively, a ceiling mounted general purpose remote sensing package. It’s basically only lacking a wide angle camera and I suspect that’s because they figured it would cross too far into “creepy” for it to be saleable. It seems to me like a team sat for a while, looked at all the possible ways they could get people to mount a package like this in every room and settled on calling it a smoke alarm. At the most optimistic they started with a smoke alarm and gradually realised they could build a general purpose platform based on the hardware being deployed in lots of rooms and many types of sensors being dirt cheap now. Decided they could enable new capabilities (and data goldmines!) in software later. It’s a pity there’s not an actually customer controlled version of it.
- jve 8y ago
  Are there any alternatives to nest protect that would: Sense Carbon Monoxyde AND smoke AND fire off some event to mobile phone via wifi/sms/whatever?
  - ozzyman700 8y ago
    Yes, depending how comfortable you are with soldering. https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/a-cheap-diy-smoke-detector-that-can-save-lives/ https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/a-cheap-diy-smoke-detector-t...
  - graeme 8y ago
    There's the first alert onelink. May have the same issues though, it has a microphone and an alexa integration. Also support homekit, unlike the Nest Protect. Are there any best practices for using a device like this but not having it communicate with the wider world? I.e. It can communicate with you via a homekit hub, but can't connect outside your LAN https://onelink.firstalert.com/withalexa/ https://onelink.firstalert.com/withalexa/
  - mvarrieur 8y ago
    I use a z-wave smoke detector to supplement the wired smoked detectors in my house: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KMHXFAI https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KMHXFAI I then paired it with https://www.home-assistant.io/ https://www.home-assistant.io/ to send alerts to my phone, google home, etc. Haven't had to actually test that the carbon monoxide alarm works yet because testing that is hard/expensive, but for smoke it works just fine.
- vegardx 8y ago
  They don't have to be connected to a network in order to work. The will even happily do self-check without network access - something I realized when I wanted to mute a self-check only to find out that I had done some network changes. Had to use a schtick, like in the old days. Given that these devices are battery powered and meant to last for years on a single charge you can imagine how often they actually connect to the wireless network. And how much traffic they send. And again, they work perfectly fine without Internet access. Or network access for that matter. I love them, and as someone with an irrational fear of being in a fire they have helped a lot. They're much more sensitive (without being an issue, due to pre-alarm) than the alternatives.

SilasX 8y ago

And then they probably would have been fined for disabling a fire safety device...

StanislavPetrov 8y ago

Probably a DMCA violation thanks to our benevolent overlords.