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A comment on Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret. Parent comment

Re:Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was n... by jancsika on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @12:17PM (#19209667)
> The engineering team refused to take the less expensive route, and insisted that the mute button physically disconnect the circuit, so that no future engineering team could decide to stealth "unmute" the microphone through software.

Who are these engineers? Have they ever spoken publicly about this stance?

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Re:Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was n... by jhall1468 on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @01:27PM (#19210504)
That was a bit more dramatic than it should have been. The engineering team said a software mute button would be a security issue due to back door enabling, so they implemented it as hardware. This wasn't really dramatic, engineers said no and the higher-ups respected their expertise.
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