Google Home Mini speaker is caught eavesdropping
A software bug in Google's Home Mini smart speaker left the device recording everything and transmitting the recordings to Google's servers. An early review unit of the Google Home Mini was found to be eavesdropping on technology reviewer Artem Russakovskii, due to an overly sensitive touch mechanism that caused the device to activate continuously. As a result, the product recorded and sent audio snippets back to Google without the user's knowledge. Google confirmed acknowledged the problem and subsequently disabled the touch-to-activate feature. The company also modified the hardware of the device to prevent similar issues in the future. The Home Mini was replaced by Google's Nest Mini in 2019. System 🤖 Google Home Mini Operator: Artem Russakovskii Developer: Alphabet/Google Country: USA Sector: Consumer goods Purpose: Provide information, services Technology: Voice reco gnition; Machine learning Issue: Privacy; Surveillance
- Date it happened
- 2017-10-01
- Organisation involved
- Artem Russakovskii
- Product, system or model
- Google Home Mini
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