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Google Permanently Disables Touch Function On All Home Minis Due To Privacy Concerns (bbc.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the overly-sensitive dept.

Big Hairy Ian shares a report from BBC: Google has stopped its Home Mini speakers responding when users touch them. It permanently turned off the touch activation feature after it found that sensors primed to spot a finger tap were too sensitive. Early users found that the touch sensors were registering "phantom" touches that turned them on. This meant the speakers were recording everything around them thousands of times a day. Google said it disabled the feature to give users "peace of mind." Google's Home Mini gadgets were unveiled on October 4th as part of a revamp of its line of smart speakers. The intelligent assistant feature on it could be activated two ways -- by either saying "OK, Google" or by tapping the surface. About 4,000 Google Home Mini units were distributed to early reviewers and those who attended Google's most recent launch event. Artem Russakovskii from Android Police first discovered the issue with his unit, ultimately causing Google to "permanently [nerf] all Home Minis" because his spied on everything he said 24/7.

8 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Why not make it configurable? by dwywit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A double-tap, or a tap followed by verbal, or something that the user finds satisfactory.

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  2. Yeah, right by willoughby · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So I'm supposed to believe that all of the engineers at Google can't figure out how to adjust the sensitivity of this sensor. I think it's far more likely that they simply got caught.

    1. Re:Yeah, right by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      If Google were trying to hide this they went about it in a strange way - you can simply go to your Google account and review everything you have ever said to any Google/Android device if you have voice history turned on (which it is by default). That's how this journalist noticed.

      This sort of thing happens all the time. You design a new product, you buy in some touch sensors and test them out. Maybe they need calibration during manufacturing, so you design that in too. But then when production ramps up to the tens of thousands you find that a significant proportion are flakey or the calibration was incorrect.

      I've had this happen where some microcontrollers where supposed to be factory calibrated by the manufacturer, but any made between certain dates weren't.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. Recourse? by jwhyche · · Score: 2

    So google disables a feature on a product someone pays for because they have found it defective. Sounds to me like google should be providing a replacement instead of just disabling it and calling it a day.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    1. Re:Recourse? by swillden · · Score: 2

      So google disables a feature on a pre-production product someone got for free as a promotional giveaway because they have found it defective.

      FTFY.

      Sounds to me like google should be providing a replacement instead of just disabling it and calling it a day.

      Google gave two replacements to the guy who reported the bug. The production devices people buy will not have this defect.

      --
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  4. working as expected. by zlives · · Score: 2

    its not spyware, its a feature. new speak fixes all.

  5. the remaining flaw by slashmydots · · Score: 2

    How are they going to patch the fact that anyone with a device like this in their house is an idiot? Or that the NSA knows damn well that nobody of interest to them would talk about their top secret plans in front of a voice to text-capable, internet-connect device?

  6. Let me get this straight.. by GrBear · · Score: 2

    So they removed the feature that would randomly trigger recording.. and instead implemented a feature that listens all the time?