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Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

businessinsider.com

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Re: Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

#121

Post by ozzyman700 »

jve wrote: post #111
xyzzy123 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 settl…

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?

Yes, depending how comfortable you are with soldering.

https://hackaday.com/2014/07/29/a-cheap-diy-smoke-detector-t...

Re: Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

#123

Post by sametmax »

chimen wrote: post #17
sametmax wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's sad is that those companies accept. I have been offeredd job interviews at google and facebook and politely refused. Yes, millions are a much bigger temptation, but you still have a choice. In the hand, either they decided those companies where matching their ethics, or they gave up on ethics for money. Given our entreprenarial culture, is that surprising ?

Often, the offer is much harder to pass. "We will buy you or we will build a better you and destroy your business" - it's not just a money offer to refuse when you think about it. Part of the decision process is also the feeling that a huge company wants to enter the market with the same product. Can you compete?

Suunto still exist after garmin and samsung entered the market.

It is possible. Not saying it's easy, but it's still a choice.

The we still make the choice to give the bullies more power in the end.

Re: Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

#124

Post by vectorEQ »

vegardx wrote: post #119
est31 wrote: post #25

Oh wow, this is amazing. There's been a lawsuit in court about someone in Germany who sued their landlord because the landlord has put a Google Nest fire alarm into their flat against their will, ignoring offers by the renter to put in a non-google-non-iot fire alarm at the renter's expense. The landlord won because apparently the court was not convinced that the fire alarm could spy on conversations [1]... What woul…

The microphone / motion sensor issues aside I would never sleep in an apartment where someone could remotely silent an alarm.

:D in my country, i never saw anyone with an alarm on their house :D maybe the issue is not to remotely silent the alarm, but that it's needed in the first place :D

Re: Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

#125

Post by graeme »

jve wrote: post #111
xyzzy123 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 settl…

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?

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/

Re: Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

#126

Post by SilasX »

cbg0 wrote: post #41
est31 wrote: post #25

Oh wow, this is amazing. There's been a lawsuit in court about someone in Germany who sued their landlord because the landlord has put a Google Nest fire alarm into their flat against their will, ignoring offers by the renter to put in a non-google-non-iot fire alarm at the renter's expense. The landlord won because apparently the court was not convinced that the fire alarm could spy on conversations [1]... What woul…

> 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.

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

Re: Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

#128

Post by smolder »

baxtr wrote: post #48
est31 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're one decent security flaw (in an IoT device no less) from anybody having a microphone in your house. Many people already have Android smartphones, so there is already a Google microphone in your house. The big difference is that you know that it has a microphone.

Which of course makes a big difference. We are all adults. We can weight pros and cons and then make an informed decision. Not so if we don’t know all the details. This is what you’re betting on when leaving “details” like this out.

Lots of technology now incorporates the idea that people are better not given too many choices. DRM/trusted computing, root-locked phones, software and operating systems that decide what information they send where, without any explicit consent or choice to disable.

Re: Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

#129

Post by pergadad »

vectorEQ wrote: post #124
vegardx wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The microphone / motion sensor issues aside I would never sleep in an apartment where someone could remotely silent an alarm.

:D in my country, i never saw anyone with an alarm on their house :D maybe the issue is not to remotely silent the alarm, but that it's needed in the first place :D

Legal obligation on landlords in any developed country

Re: Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret

#130

Post by dpark »

vectorEQ wrote: post #124
vegardx wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The microphone / motion sensor issues aside I would never sleep in an apartment where someone could remotely silent an alarm.

:D in my country, i never saw anyone with an alarm on their house :D maybe the issue is not to remotely silent the alarm, but that it's needed in the first place :D

Do you also live in a country where homes never catch fire?

“Not needed” implies that there is no fire risk or that the risk is so low that you don’t care.

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