Google forgot to tell about their spying secret microphone

submitted by useless_aether from thehill.com

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[–]wizzwizz4 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Yeah, but they've told people now, so it's OK. I doubt they were using it, because they're not Facebook (and because enough people who use Google products know how to reverse-engineer software). They're using it now, though, which is an issue; there isn't a way to turn it off.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Edited to highlight conversation summary at the top of the forum slid conversation:

Wizzwizz4. Why are you defending Google for adding hidden wifi-enabled listening devices to their products?

Do you have a hidden agenda?.

Are your lengthy massages actually attempts to forum slide conversations?

Original message response starts here

Yeah, but they've told people now, so it's OK. I doubt they were using it, because they're not Facebook.

Your willingness to defend corporate crimes is truly mind boggling.
Would you let the FBI or CIA place a microphone in your house as:

you doubt they were using it
because they're not Facebook

???

Would you be ok with the FBI or CIA having listening devices in law offices, or hospitals?

It is difficult to conceive of a honest reason why someone like yourself would eagerly defend corporate crimes; especially unsolicited...

[–]wizzwizz4 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

It is more concerning now that software is using the microphone, than before when software was not using the microphone. Despite my concerns about Google, they're not ones to spy on people without justifying it with a feature.

You really start to get your priorities straight about these kinds of things when you realise that there is literally no physical difference between a microphone and a speaker (apart from the amplifier circuit).

[–]wizzwizz4 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

To elaborate: there's no difference between a microphone that is not being used as a microphone and a speaker that is not being used as a microphone.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You could not be more wrong. They are in-fact opposites in their function.

  • A microphone translates a sound wave into an electrical impulse.
  • A speaker translates an electrical impulse into a sound wave.

In this situation: A hidden microphone sends your conversations and private business communication to some secret corporate location that accidentally reported the presence of the microphone.

Google did not accidentally build a microphone, and then accidentally connect it to the wifi card, and then acccidentially connect it to the coroporate storage device. Many technically skilled people were involved and solved numberous technical challenges to make this happen; to use this hidden microphone.

[–]wizzwizz4 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Take a pair of cheap headphones and plug them into your computer's microphone port. Hold them near your mouth with a sound recorder program open. You will observe that they record sound.

They are physically the same thing; the only difference is whether sound is being sent to them v.s. received from them. And the amplifier circuit, if one exists.

A hidden microphone sends your conversations and private business communication to some secret corporate location that accidentally reported the presence of the microphone.

This is not what happened. We have no evidence that the microphone was being used, and as much as I distrust Google I don't believe that they were using the microphone.

Now that they've connected a feature up to it, I think you should smash it with an axe.

Google did not accidentally build a microphone,

I never said that they did. I bet they always had plans to use it. I don't think they were using it in the past.

and then accidentally connect it to the wifi card,

This is not how electronics work.

and then accidentally connect it to the coroporate storage device.

… This is not how computers work.

Many technically skilled people were involved and solved numberous technical challenges to make this happen;

What technical challenges? This isn't a hard thing to do, actually.

to use this hidden microphone.

Erm.

I don't think you know what you're talking about.

The problem here is that they included it in the specs without telling people. The problem is not that they used it. If they were using it before, that would be clear from the network traffic.