Re:Project Alias hacks Amazon Echo and Google Home to protec...
by reaperducer on Monday January 14, 2019 @01:05PM
(#18904900)
Google might get the bright idea to track TV ads by listening for audio in the ads
Considering that some TVs have this built-in, I'd be surprised if Google wasn't already doing the same. It's why my "smart" TV isn't allowed to connect to my wifi network.
(There was a previous HN article about it, I believe the brand was Samsung.)
Re:Project Alias hacks Amazon Echo and Google Home to protec...
by thinkingemote on Monday January 14, 2019 @04:46PM
(#18906833)
I think it was the Facebook app, it listened to ambient background to determine music and TV shows. The user had to opt in or at least approve permissions.
From a privacy perspective, having user control of the wake word prevents Google and Amazon from adding future wake words that could be abused for other ways to track us. For example, Google might get the bright idea to track TV ads by listening for audio in the ads. Or tracking people in your house by making Android phones emmit non-audible chirps. These kind of "features" could be easily introduced at any point in the future by an update to privacy policies that nobody notices.