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Nest Secure Has an Unlisted, Disabled Microphone (androidauthority.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Android Authority: Owners of the Nest Secure alarm system have been able to use voice commands to control their home security through Google Assistant for a while now. However, to issue those commands, they needed a separate Google Assistant-powered device, like a smartphone or a Google Home smart speaker. The reason for this limitation has always seemed straightforward: according to the official tech specs, there's no onboard microphone in the Nest Secure system. However, Google just informed us that it is right now rolling out Assistant functionality to all Nest Secure devices via a software update. That's right: if you currently own a Nest Secure, you will be able to use it as a Google Home very soon. That means somewhere in the Nest Guard -- the keypad base station of the Nest Secure -- there might be a microphone we didn't know existed. Either that or your voice commands are going to be heard by another product (like your phone, maybe) but Assistant's output will now come from the Nest Guard, if you happen to be in the range of that device. UPDATE: Google has issued a statement to Android Authority confirming the built-in microphone in the Nest Guard base system that's not listed on the official spec sheet at Nest's site. The microphone has been in an inactive state since the release of the Nest Secure, Google says. This unlisted mic is how the Nest Guard will be able to operate as a pseudo-Google Home with just a software update.
look, i just want a warm living room when i come home from work
can we fuck off with this creeping and creepy featuritis?
I will not buy a TV with a video camera.
I'd be furious if I found out my TV had one, that only needed a software update to activate.
Is how many other devices have clandestine microphones unbeknownst to the owners?
How can you trust anything from any of these tech companies. They all spy on you.
"according to the official tech specs, there's no onboard microphone"
The tech specs not listing a microphone is very different than the tech specs saying "there is no onboard microphone," as claimed.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
so I wonder how many other google products have hidden microphones??? what about their mesh router?
Well, their business is exactly collecting as much data on you as they can, then selling it and making money. Care to hazard a guess? They're getting surveillance data on you that would make Microsoft blush.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Slashdotters need to learn and realize that the average consumer - read the vast vast majority of people - don't give a flying-rat-fuck about security or privacy. They care about shiny new toys and personal convenience and they do not care what the price.
These major services/vendors have figured it out. They understand that they can do whatever the fuck they want, so long as it's convenient or shiny new for the end user. The end user/consumers gleefully hand over their money, their security, and their privacy to any and all of these companies for shiny new or convenient.
You people worrying about microphones listening in, cameras recording activities, big data tracking your every fucking activity on a global scale, you're very much in the minority. The MASSIVE majority don't just fail to understand your odd and suspicious concerns, they are angered by your belligerent resistance to devices and services such as completely unnecessary $200 thermostats that track the consumer's habits, or Smart TVs that track viewership, feed targeted ads, and listen in on household conversations.
To the rest of the world, you're a nutter deserving of scorn, ridicule, and ostracization.
Just expect that camera to be cleverly hidden in the future.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
You can't block the MAC on all your neighbours' wifi systems, and you can't stop the TV breaking the weakest password protection it finds.
I remind about the Sony CD rootkit debacle.
There's always some idiot who thinks "B...b...b...but I don't have anything to hide!"
So far, so good...
Oh, and you were doing so well.
Google doesn't "sell" their data about you. That data, that's their golden goose. If they sell it, they've got nothing. No, what they sell is you. Or rather, your eyeballs and attention.
People go to Google and say "Show my ad to enough people to earn me 100,000 additional sales". Google uses its data about you to determine whether you're likely to respond to that ad, then based on that it decides whether to show it to you. It's able to do this because of all the data it holds about you - but if it sold that data directly, then anyone else would be able to horn in on their market.