After Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed his concern for privacy with Google Clips, the Google Home Mini smart speaker is also getting a feature disabled because of similar concerns. A reviewer recently discovered that the gadget was secretly recording all his conversations. The search giant has explained that the button on the top was faulty and activated on its own.
Bug affected a limited number of devices
The issue is because of a Home Mini Bug that has affected a limited number of devices. The company has issued a software update that will disable the button entirely for all users of the device.
Meanwhile, it will develop a fix. This change will be permanent. The bug was first reported by Android Police.
The official Google statement acknowledged the bug issue. It also promised that people can have total peace of mind while using Google Home Mini. Google takes product quality and privacy concerns very seriously. After a few reports spoke of the issue, Google permanently removed all top touch functions on the Mini. Users will now have to use only voice commands to activate the device.
Touch control still active for volume function
According to the company, the best way to interact with Home Mini is through voice. All users have to do is say “Hey Google” or “Ok Google.” This is already how most people control and activate Home products.
The Home Mini volume can still be adjusted using the touch control. It’s available on the side of the product.
The Google Home Mini bug was active from October 4-7. All top touch related events from this period have been cleared from the activity page. Thus, anyone who was unknowingly affected is now secure. All clips that the device recorded are gone now.
Users and tech experts have applauded Google’s quick response and action to the bug.
The issue explained
According to Tech Crunch, those who received the Home Mini at the recent Made By Google events, were the ones affected by the bug. This means pre-ordered devices were not affected. It is still not clear why this is so. It could be that later devices do not have the touch sensor flaw.
No one knows as orders haven’t shipped yet.
The bug-affected Google Home Minis were reportedly sending clips of conversations and ambient noise constantly. This eventually produced a database of numerous clips. Many people said It was primarily a hardware issue, though effective recalls couldn’t be made. The issue was temporarily sorted out with an update.
