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Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

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Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#81

Post by Cthulhu_ »

wowamit wrote: post #60
XJ6 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All "big tech" are at it, I tried to go to "My Pictures" the other day and microsoft asked me to run my pictures through facial recognition. They said that by consenting I was asserting I had the consent of anyone who appeared in any of my photos or might appear in future which is insane to ask of anyone, no-one can really give that third party consent. Then when I refused they showed me a nag screen which didn't hav…

I wonder why does Google need the web activity to be turned on for subscribing to the Podcasts? Is there any realistic reasoning for it?

I know podcasts are generally advertised via an RSS feed on a webpage, but that should be collected by e.g. Google (or Spotify, Apple), not directly by a device.

Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#82

Post by a3n »

wowamit wrote: post #60
XJ6 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All "big tech" are at it, I tried to go to "My Pictures" the other day and microsoft asked me to run my pictures through facial recognition. They said that by consenting I was asserting I had the consent of anyone who appeared in any of my photos or might appear in future which is insane to ask of anyone, no-one can really give that third party consent. Then when I refused they showed me a nag screen which didn't hav…

I wonder why does Google need the web activity to be turned on for subscribing to the Podcasts? Is there any realistic reasoning for it?

Bait. That's today's reality.

Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#83

Post by freeflight »

augustk wrote: post #44

I think a device with a camera/microphone should have a physical on/off button and a LED which indicates when it's on. At least, that's how I would design it.

Doesn't Google Glasses have an indicator LED for when they are recording?

Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#85

Post by michannne »

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #2

>"Gosh, I haven't thought about this before in quite this way," Osterloh said. "It's quite important for all these technologies to think about all users... we have to consider all stakeholders that might be in proximity." How much do they not care about privacy that a chief exec with an army of lawyers and advisors "haven't thought about this before"?

They are clearly at fault, but at this point customers need to be more cognizant of the fine print. I recently did a Google takeout of my data and found for most services they have no tracking on me after March, which is around the time I started actively hunting for options to turn off anything which reveals private information. Taking steps to learn how to reduce my online footprint also helped

Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#86

Post by dawg- »

prepend wrote: post #74
Terretta wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all big tech are at it. The reason you hear a global sigh that “my battery life is terrible!” at every major iOS release, is the photo face to people clustering is done entirely on-device, and which photos are in the cluster is not shared across devices through iCloud. There are several such features where Apple has made life difficult for themselves and the UX a little less seamless for users, in service of not…

Is Apple the only big tech that’s using AI on device in a privacy protecting way? I appreciate their approach to user functionality that doesn’t dump all my data into a near infinite number of collectors. I also think it’s a neat way of distributed computing to use the cpus of all these phones sleeping at night to crunch stuff is actually cheaper than cloud. I think because the phones are sunk cost that is idle a few…

I think Google is trying to do this with the new update to Assistant - the language model is only 500mb so it can all be processed on the local device. I saw in a blog post somewhere they are trying to get to where individual devices hold data and compile these aggregated profiles on the device, the send the profiles to google for their ad services and other big data stuff

Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#87

Post by a3n »

soulofmischief wrote: post #35
madez wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish it were socially accepted to tell people to turn their Android device off while they are in company. I wish I could tell people that visit me to turn their device off or put it into rf and sound shielded containers. I don't mind people using computers and their powers to ease their lives. I don't want to deny them that just because they are next to me or in my home. I just don't want them to use that power to…

I have voice-activated assistant on my droid turned off, meanwhile Siri is active on all iDevices, and everyone with a laptop at your place is a mole. Do you expect to altogether prevent people from bringing computing devices into your home? If you are not a state target, then that is just silly. Focus your malcontent on the real bad actors, not their victims.

Actually this is interesting. Some US states require two party consent for recording. Doesn't that make a phone in your pocket illegal in those states, unless you say "I have a phone in my pocket, and it's recording."

Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#88

Post by criley2 »

eloisant wrote: post #59
pmlnr wrote: post #8

I'm genuinely curious why only nest, alexa, google home[^1] devices get highlighted - aren't they all use the same tech as the Google App on android? Why are android phones not flagged as well? [^1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21262521

I might be wrong but I don't think Android phone are always listening by default.

All smartphones, Apple and Android, use dedicated audio processors which are always listening for the command word by saving recent audio to a buffer and analyzing it before discarding it.

There has never been any evidence that I've ever seen that these audio processors save and transmit their work pre-activation, only post-activation of the service.

Although I do remember in the 2014-2016 time frame when the CIA hack tools got released I believe there was a tool which could basically hot-mic certain iPhones through a zero day and use it to live transmit to a state actor without warning the user (minus the device getting hot from recording and network access).

I'm sure Android has similar zero days just as all software does.

Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#89

Post by AJ007 »

prepend wrote: post #73
XJ6 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All "big tech" are at it, I tried to go to "My Pictures" the other day and microsoft asked me to run my pictures through facial recognition. They said that by consenting I was asserting I had the consent of anyone who appeared in any of my photos or might appear in future which is insane to ask of anyone, no-one can really give that third party consent. Then when I refused they showed me a nag screen which didn't hav…

Google has implemented this asshole design/nagware in many products to push unnecessary to me and invasive data collection or functionality I want won’t be available. For example, their maps app on iOS won’t save locations for me unless I sign in an enable web history tracking. I get prompted every time I try to save a pin as well as every once in a while I’m case I change my mind. It’s a free app and it’s Google’s p…

They’ve done the same to AdWords and Adsense. I have messages that have been showing for years now and won’t go away.

Re: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home

#90

Post by gmadsen »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #72
IshKebab wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's anywhere where it's illegal to record conversations of both parties know about it.

That's the point though, if your Nest device starts automatically recording your guests and you don't warn them, could you be liable in a 2-party consent state? But on the flip side, Google Assistant devices don't start recording unless it gets the "OK Google" keyword, so it's not like it's randomly recording everything. You specifically have to turn it on (albeit it can be turned on accidentally if it misdetects an…

its listening for that keyword, whose to say its not listening for others
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