<story><title>Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/nest-microphone-was-never-supposed-to-be-a-secret-2019-2</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kmlx</author><text>Yes, I have 100% doubt anyone is spying on anyone. I think most of it is paranoia.&lt;p&gt;I also think this kind of paranoia is detrimental to our evolution as a species.&lt;p&gt;We should be sharing more, not hiding in our caves.</text></item><item><author>vermilingua</author><text>I think Google is well past conspiracy territory. They are a company whose bottom line depends on collecting as much user data as possible; in an economy that compels them to improve their bottom line by any means available.&lt;p&gt;Is there really any doubt that google can and will spy on you if given the slightest opportunity?</text></item><item><author>benbristow</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s getting close to conspiracy territory</text></item><item><author>coldtea</author><text>&amp;gt;&lt;i&gt;- 1. Google wants to spy on you with a hidden mic&lt;p&gt;- 2. They had future plans for the mic, but it was disabled, so it wasn&amp;#x27;t mentioned by the marketing department&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;How about both 1. and 2.? Google wants to spy (for ad context etc) with a mic that will be enabled in due time?&lt;p&gt;And why move the Overton window to &amp;quot;it&amp;#x27;s ok to have hidden mics in a bloody thermostat, as long as they&amp;#x27;re not enabled&amp;quot;?</text></item><item><author>strictnein</author><text>Infosec dramas are getting more and more tiresome. Between this and the Singapore Airlines story, it just seems like people need to ratchet everything up to 11.&lt;p&gt;You have two options, choose one:&lt;p&gt;- 1. Google wants to spy on you with a hidden mic&lt;p&gt;- 2. They had future plans for the mic, but it was disabled, so it wasn&amp;#x27;t mentioned by the marketing department&lt;p&gt;For the Singapore Airlines story, you have two options, choose one:&lt;p&gt;- 1. Singapore Airlines wants to record you&lt;p&gt;- 2. The infotainment devices in the seats are just off the shelf Android devices&lt;p&gt;One option gets you lots of clicks and let&amp;#x27;s the infosec drama crowd tweet obnoxious things and sound insightful. The other is the pretty obvious explanation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jerf</author><text>&amp;quot;Yes, I have 100% doubt anyone is spying on anyone.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;You can not possibly examine the evidence and claim &lt;i&gt;100%&lt;/i&gt; that there is no interest in spying on anyone.&lt;p&gt;Doubt that this particular case has that as the core issue? Sure. But be utterly convinced that &lt;i&gt;literally no one&lt;/i&gt;, in any intelligence agency, against any target that might be near some sort of microphone-enabled device, has ever had the thought cross their mind that these things might be useful? No intelligence agency has ever looked at one of these companies hoovering up all the data they can get and installing all this stuff everywhere they can and stroked their chin for a moment?&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re basically claiming the NSA, CIA, Mossad, KGB, MI5, and all other such things have never existed, do not exist, and will not exist. The evidence for this is pretty poor.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not asking you to wake up tomorrow and worry about whether your toaster is secretly sending all your thoughts to the alien overlords, but come on. Live in the world a bit. We&amp;#x27;re 7-ish billion people here on Planet Earth and they are not anywhere near all to a person nice, wholesome people who wish you all the best and would never even dream of exploiting you even a tiny little bit while they joyously enable you on your life journey of exploration and wonder. You&amp;#x27;re begging for exploitation.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google says Nest’s built-in mic not listed in specs was not meant to be secret</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/nest-microphone-was-never-supposed-to-be-a-secret-2019-2</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kmlx</author><text>Yes, I have 100% doubt anyone is spying on anyone. I think most of it is paranoia.&lt;p&gt;I also think this kind of paranoia is detrimental to our evolution as a species.&lt;p&gt;We should be sharing more, not hiding in our caves.</text></item><item><author>vermilingua</author><text>I think Google is well past conspiracy territory. They are a company whose bottom line depends on collecting as much user data as possible; in an economy that compels them to improve their bottom line by any means available.&lt;p&gt;Is there really any doubt that google can and will spy on you if given the slightest opportunity?</text></item><item><author>benbristow</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s getting close to conspiracy territory</text></item><item><author>coldtea</author><text>&amp;gt;&lt;i&gt;- 1. Google wants to spy on you with a hidden mic&lt;p&gt;- 2. They had future plans for the mic, but it was disabled, so it wasn&amp;#x27;t mentioned by the marketing department&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;How about both 1. and 2.? Google wants to spy (for ad context etc) with a mic that will be enabled in due time?&lt;p&gt;And why move the Overton window to &amp;quot;it&amp;#x27;s ok to have hidden mics in a bloody thermostat, as long as they&amp;#x27;re not enabled&amp;quot;?</text></item><item><author>strictnein</author><text>Infosec dramas are getting more and more tiresome. Between this and the Singapore Airlines story, it just seems like people need to ratchet everything up to 11.&lt;p&gt;You have two options, choose one:&lt;p&gt;- 1. Google wants to spy on you with a hidden mic&lt;p&gt;- 2. They had future plans for the mic, but it was disabled, so it wasn&amp;#x27;t mentioned by the marketing department&lt;p&gt;For the Singapore Airlines story, you have two options, choose one:&lt;p&gt;- 1. Singapore Airlines wants to record you&lt;p&gt;- 2. The infotainment devices in the seats are just off the shelf Android devices&lt;p&gt;One option gets you lots of clicks and let&amp;#x27;s the infosec drama crowd tweet obnoxious things and sound insightful. The other is the pretty obvious explanation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>reitanqild</author><text>&amp;gt; We should be sharing more, not hiding in our caves.&lt;p&gt;I suggest you start, your profile here is even slimmer than mine.&lt;p&gt;More seriously: while there surely is some paranoia going on, recent events have made me more careful, not less.</text></comment>