Google will permanently disable a control on its new $50 speaker after the gadget listened in on some users (GOOG, GOOGL)

pulse

October 12, 2017 1:42 AM

Google Home Mini is losing the ability to use it by touching the button on the top, after a reviewer raised concerns that it was recording without his consent.

Google is permanently disabling a feature on the forthcoming Google Home Mini smart speaker, after a reviewer discovered that it was surreptitiously recording his conversations without his knowledge or consent.

Here's Google's statement:

this issue

What happened

Google unveiled the $50 Mini, which goes on sale on October 19, at its event last Wednesday. Soon after, Android Police's Artem Russakovskii, who was one of the reporters who received a test unit,discovered that his device was turning on by itself, recording his conversations, and uploading them to Google.

Normally, there are two ways to interact with Google's smart speakers, including the Mini. You can say the words "OK Google," followed by a command such as "play 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'" Alternatively, you can press the button located on the top of the devices instead of saying "OK Google."

hen he checked his personal activity page on Google, the site that shows users' interactions with the search giant's services and the data it collects on users, he found sound files that had been uploaded to Google's servers from the Mini without his consent.

Google blamed the glitch on a faulty button in some of the units. The buttons on those Minis were detecting touches even when there was no touch to detect.

On October 7th, three days after it handed out the Mini review units, Google rolled out a software update that disables the button. The change affects every Mini it's handed out, even those that weren't malfunctioning. Meanwhile, the company says it's deleted all the data recorded from alleged button pushes on the Mini review units — whether they were actual button pushes or not — from the time it handed out the devices to reviewers until it issued the update.

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