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Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

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Re: Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

#211

Post by WalterBright »

croutonwagon wrote: post #91
harha wrote: post #86

I had one of these when I worked for Google, I didn’t quite trust it though, so I had it in the bathroom to limit what my employer could listen to. Imagine discussing a product idea at home with friends, then having that stolen by an engineer at one of these companies (who figured out how to find the interesting conversations) for a promotion or new position. On a larger scale these might get hooked up with some adve…

I just dont have them in the house. Every now and then i get called paranoid. And sure, my phone can function the same (though i specifically have siri disabled on our iphones) Its just a cost benefit. I can get off the couch and flip a switch or use a remote to turn on a song. I really dont need speach recognition for those functions.

I just use "The Clapper".

Re: Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

#212

Post by dehrmann »

ourmandave wrote: post #114
harha wrote: post #86

I had one of these when I worked for Google, I didn’t quite trust it though, so I had it in the bathroom to limit what my employer could listen to. Imagine discussing a product idea at home with friends, then having that stolen by an engineer at one of these companies (who figured out how to find the interesting conversations) for a promotion or new position. On a larger scale these might get hooked up with some adve…

...so I had it in the bathroom to limit what my employer could listen to. Uh, this feels like Opposite Day.

I'm just thinking of all the shower singing they'd get.

Re: Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

#213

Post by greiskul »

theshadowknows wrote: post #129

For the folks who think your devices aren’t listening try an experiment: start talking out loud about a product you’ve never, ever searched for. Something you’ve never, ever needed or wanted. See how long it takes for ads for that very thing to start showing up in Facebook and in your targeted ads. I’ve done it and Started getting ads in a matter of days.

That's a crappy experiment. There is no way to disprove the result. So, how about instead, you choose 2 products. Flip a coin to decide one them to talk about. Just think of the other one. See how long it takes to see the product you talked about, and how long it takes to see the product you only thought about. Repeat a few times for different pairs of products.

If google is listening, the time for the product talked about should be way shorter then the one you only thought about. If google isn't listening, there shouldn't be a pattern.

Now, it is really important that you flip the coin. Also, do NOT TALK TO ANYONE ABOUT THE PRODUCTS YOU ARE USING. We want to test the microphones, if you make a search for the product, or you tell a friend, and the friend makes a search for the product, that is all information signal that ad companies could be using.

Re: Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

#214

Post by greiskul »

Balgair wrote: post #179
theshadowknows wrote: post #129

For the folks who think your devices aren’t listening try an experiment: start talking out loud about a product you’ve never, ever searched for. Something you’ve never, ever needed or wanted. See how long it takes for ads for that very thing to start showing up in Facebook and in your targeted ads. I’ve done it and Started getting ads in a matter of days.

Try the experiment with friends! First, get a friend or relative to go along with the ride here. Try to have that person not be on your local network of wifi and the like. Then, go a website that will generate a list of random words: https://www.randomlists.com/nouns . Make sure that you are selecting for nouns or adjectives. Copy the first three words that you get. More is fine too. Just get enough words to be prett…

Please add a control for this experiment. There should be another list of products selected that you did the same with, but you didn't talk infront of the gadgets. There might be some signals that the ads networks are getting from you or your friends.

Re: Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

#215

Post by deadmutex »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #152
croutonwagon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just dont have them in the house. Every now and then i get called paranoid. And sure, my phone can function the same (though i specifically have siri disabled on our iphones) Its just a cost benefit. I can get off the couch and flip a switch or use a remote to turn on a song. I really dont need speach recognition for those functions.

I unplug my parents' Google wiretap device when I enter the house for holiday parties. For some reason my parents can both know that I know way more about this topic than them, and still totally disregard me and spend hundreds on Google hardware devices because they seem cool. \o/

This seems like a personal choice, and perhaps you can try to keep an open mind.

Also consider the use case of your parents being alone and falling down and not being able to get up. They can just say 'ok Google, call ocdtrekkie' (if they have setup the device fully with contacts etc.).

Disclaimer: I work for Google, but views are my own.

Re: Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

#217

Post by paulcole »

elliekelly wrote: post #208
paulcole wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1,000 a day seems fair.

Well that hardly seems like a discount for cutting out the Googley middle man! Perhaps you do indeed value your privacy a bit more than you realize?

It’s called negotiating. What’s your best offer?

Re: Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

#219

Post by TeMPOraL »

sircastor wrote: post #193
TeMPOraL wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always dismissed this as coincidence. But over the past few months, my wife reported to me several incidents of a relevant Facebook ad showing up a day or two after a conversation she had with me or her friends, and that was not followed up by any on-line searches on the topic. At this point, I'm starting to consider something may be going on after all - it seems to happen too often to be easily explained away a…

Usually when I see this sort of coincidence, I think that it is a matter of information relevance/leakage. You read an article about bug spray chemicals and don’t think about it, but start seeing exterminator ads online. If you read the article because you’re looking for pest control, the it feels suspicious. If you’re not, you ignore the ads and go on your way. I don’t want to discount your experience. I haven’t see…

That's a great point!

Thinking about it now, I can't be sure why we started to talk about particular products (and then saw ads about them day or two later). It could've been because one of us saw an article or an ad about it earlier. So perhaps this is neither by coincidence nor surveillance - perhaps there's an earlier link in causal chain that we've missed.

I suppose the only way to be sure is to start doing proper experiments.

Re: Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

#220

Post by notatoad »

choeger wrote: post #97

I might sound like a grumpy old granddad to some of you (and I am not even that old), but did you really think that a huge company would offer to put microphones into your living room for your advantage? They are going to benefit from this and you are going to pay for it. How? For instance with dynamic pricing. Your loved ones tell you how much they want that vacation on that Greek island? Good luck finding a cheap f…

>did you really think that a huge company would offer to put microphones into your living room for your advantage?

can you not think of any advantage that google could gain from their smart speakers other than the nefarious ones? All these conspiracy theories here just seem so incredibly shortsighted. like yeah, google could listen in on your every word and do their best to fuck with you, but the instant they got found out everybody would chuck their smart speakers in the garbage. And tbh, google already has a ton of data about your preferences, your conversations at home probably aren't that good of a signal compared to your email, calendar, browsing, search, and location history.

Dynamic pricing for a greek vacation sounds scary, but google doesn't sell vacations, so why would they bother abusing your trust in that way - it literally doesn't benefit them at all. They want the smart speaker in your home because they want to be the service that you ask for assistance - they want you to say "hey google, book me a flight to mykonos for the weekend" instead of "hey alexa, book me a flight to mykonos for the weekend", because they can charge a commission on that sale. If you don't have a smart speaker in your home, or if you have another brand, then they have no opportunity to make a piece of that sale.

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