reminder that the google home tells you that the mic is muted if you call it. it’s basically a telescreen. in the case of the echo show, it is literally a telescreen.
Muting puts the microphone on a closed circuit iirc, i.e. it’s just a circuit that detects whether you’ve used the keyword, and is completely separate and inaccessible to its OS beyond it knowing “the user used the keyword”, a boolean value if you may.
Exactly, that way it can record your data offline and upload it next time you go back online. They don’t send data while muted, they didn’t say anything about after…
Technically, per EU and California law, you should be able to download all data they have on you – Google will offer a friendly page with recordings and their transcripts. But who knows if that’s all they store? They’re a black box.
Yes you do, you trust every paranoid nut spouting conspiracy theories they heard on tiktok - you’ve just decided to doubt the very clear and logical evidence that refutes them.
As you can see from the graph above, we have sharp spikes of data being sent around the times the hot word and commands were sent. The Google Home performed as expected. As the device booted up, there was some data transfer, otherwise the network was relatively quiet between commands. We also proved that when the device microphone is muted, none of the hot word triggers or talking caused an increase in network traffic.
This is an old article based on an older device but you can test a new one for yourself with some pretty basic networking knowledge and equipment.
As the article suggests: “Should you trust them not to be spying on you?” Hell no!
But we can also use freely available tools to verify this.
This is even more potent on your phone.
A lot of people seem to believe your phone is listening to you all the time and feeding you ads based on your IRL conversations.
That’s not happening, and this can be easily verified even without any networking knowledge/tools by taking a look at your cell phone data bill.
Recording and uploading your mundane conversations all day long would be a huge drain on your battery and an expensive addition to your cell data bill. You would likely notice if it was happening.
Again: by all means DO NOT TRUST THESE COMPANIES, but also maybe do a little testing before assuming all private conversations are being recorded.
I mean google literally keeps all your voice to text transcriptions(if you use the feature) and location history by default. It wouldn’t be such a far fetch to think the device does basic analysis locally and sends ad recommendations along with everything else
That’s quite a terrible test though. I’m not a security expert but even I can think of quite a few ways they could’ve hidden traffic from such tests, even unintentionally. If Google is that evil, they know they have to be smart about it. And, unfortunately, they are both. So I wouldn’t trust anything but a complete software and hardware analysis, painstakingly checking every circuit and processor instruction. But then, why even bother, the whole thing is like hiring a child molester as a kindergarten teacher.
Oh, yes I agree. If you want to be malicious, you can think of many ways to go around it. You could use a physical switch that kills the circuit to the microphone and say “see? it’s physically impossible to listen if the microphone wires are not even connected!” and then hide a second microphone inside the speaker chassis. But unless you’re a valuable target, I prefer my Occam’s razor to be the appropriate kind of sharpness.
Oh, they definitely want to be malicious. Afterall, their livelyhood depends on it, and there’s are literal tons of money on the table for knowing exactly the things that people don’t want to be known about them. That’s why I referred to them as pedos in kindergarten: they look like a data hoarding company, swim like a data hoarding company and quack like a data hoarding company. They might play it nice for now and test waters, but ultimately, what they are after all along is your personal data and especially private data. No way you can bet on them not acting upon this temptation.
reminder that the google home tells you that the mic is muted if you call it. it’s basically a telescreen. in the case of the echo show, it is literally a telescreen.
It has a separate local thingy that doesn’t talk to the internet for voice activation. This is actually proven.
Not saying google isn’t shady as fuck but this particular time its legit.
so “Muting” your google home effectively puts it in airplane mode?
Muting puts the microphone on a closed circuit iirc, i.e. it’s just a circuit that detects whether you’ve used the keyword, and is completely separate and inaccessible to its OS beyond it knowing “the user used the keyword”, a boolean value if you may.
I don’t need a conspiracy nut to tell me that’s probably not true to believe that it’s probably not true
Companies and the public don’t give a shit about privacy
Pretty sure muting it straight up disables the microphone completely.
No. If it’s “muted”, it will recognize “OK google” and tell you to unmute the mic first to enable online functionality.
I have 3 devices and none of them do this 🤷
It’s also not “airplane mode” because I can send music to any of them
Exactly, that way it can record your data offline and upload it next time you go back online. They don’t send data while muted, they didn’t say anything about after…
Technically, per EU and California law, you should be able to download all data they have on you – Google will offer a friendly page with recordings and their transcripts. But who knows if that’s all they store? They’re a black box.
I trust nothing.
Yes you do, you trust every paranoid nut spouting conspiracy theories they heard on tiktok - you’ve just decided to doubt the very clear and logical evidence that refutes them.
Projecting
Err, not applicable I think
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https://labs.sogeti.com/google-home-spying/
This is an old article based on an older device but you can test a new one for yourself with some pretty basic networking knowledge and equipment.
This.
As the article suggests: “Should you trust them not to be spying on you?” Hell no!
But we can also use freely available tools to verify this.
This is even more potent on your phone.
A lot of people seem to believe your phone is listening to you all the time and feeding you ads based on your IRL conversations.
That’s not happening, and this can be easily verified even without any networking knowledge/tools by taking a look at your cell phone data bill.
Recording and uploading your mundane conversations all day long would be a huge drain on your battery and an expensive addition to your cell data bill. You would likely notice if it was happening.
Again: by all means DO NOT TRUST THESE COMPANIES, but also maybe do a little testing before assuming all private conversations are being recorded.
deleted by creator
I mean google literally keeps all your voice to text transcriptions(if you use the feature) and location history by default. It wouldn’t be such a far fetch to think the device does basic analysis locally and sends ad recommendations along with everything else
But my battery is shit and I’m always connected to Wi-Fi
WiFi makes it easier IMO.
It’s very simple to snoop all the WiFi traffic and verify what is being sent while it’s more challenging to get those details on cell data
Sadly, it’s not my Wi-Fi
That’s quite a terrible test though. I’m not a security expert but even I can think of quite a few ways they could’ve hidden traffic from such tests, even unintentionally. If Google is that evil, they know they have to be smart about it. And, unfortunately, they are both. So I wouldn’t trust anything but a complete software and hardware analysis, painstakingly checking every circuit and processor instruction. But then, why even bother, the whole thing is like hiring a child molester as a kindergarten teacher.
Oh, yes I agree. If you want to be malicious, you can think of many ways to go around it. You could use a physical switch that kills the circuit to the microphone and say “see? it’s physically impossible to listen if the microphone wires are not even connected!” and then hide a second microphone inside the speaker chassis. But unless you’re a valuable target, I prefer my Occam’s razor to be the appropriate kind of sharpness.
Oh, they definitely want to be malicious. Afterall, their livelyhood depends on it, and there’s are literal tons of money on the table for knowing exactly the things that people don’t want to be known about them. That’s why I referred to them as pedos in kindergarten: they look like a data hoarding company, swim like a data hoarding company and quack like a data hoarding company. They might play it nice for now and test waters, but ultimately, what they are after all along is your personal data and especially private data. No way you can bet on them not acting upon this temptation.
Mine doesn’t? I scream at it until I get pissed, look at it, and realize the light is orange.
It absolutely does. It screams “THE MIC IS CURRENTLY MUTED” whenever I talk while it’s muted. Google mini Gen 2
Well I don’t have that model, and mine doesn’t. Weird.