Google Home Mini is one of the newest gadgets that Google has recently released on the market. It’s an AI speaker, made available in a multitude of countries around the world. In the U.S., for example, it costs about $49 and sales will begin October 18. Sounds like something you’d buy, right? Especially if you’re passionate about new devices. But there’s something you should know about Google Home Mini…
Due to some hardware issues, this speaker is basically able to spy on you all day long. So, if you’re a Home Mini user, this little gadget might have snooped on you for a while now. While this doesn’t seem to be the case with all the units shipped so far, some of them were having this flaw. They’d simply be triggered by listening to commands, even when no one was around them. Not only they were recording everything, but they’d also send the data to Google servers.
AndroidPolice said that they noticed that, at one point, the Google Home Mini started picking up a Spotify stream. And then broadcasted this stream to a different room, without it being asked to do so. That’s not just annoying, it can be downright disturbing. Nobody wants to have a little Imperial Probe Droid in his or her house, spying on them 24/7. Fortunately, you can check the speaker’s activity log in Google’s “My Activity” portal. And if you notice something weird, you can take action.
Actually, that’s how most of the affected users found out about the Mini’s spying flaw. They took a look in their activity feed and noticed the problem. Now, Google said it knows about this issue, and it has already released a software update to fix everything. So, if you own a Google Home Mini, it would be a good idea to install the update. Otherwise, the speaker will continue to spy on you.
RSS