Google has a potential winner in the new Home Mini but looks like the tech giant needs to make some adjustments. One unit was discovered to be spying on its owners 24/7 and as bad luck has it, the person happens to be a tech guy. Android Police’s Artem Russakovskii shared his experience upon discovering that his Mini wasn’t functioning as it’s supposed to do. He has a number of smart speakers from other brands but the Home Mini has been turning on even when it shouldn’t.
The particular unit was received on the day of launch, October 4, at the Made by Google event. Apparently, his unit was “defective”–it was behaving differently from all the other smart speakers he has at home.
Artem checked on his My Activity portal on the web and found out it contained an Assistant-specific section. He saw thousands of recordings. It meant the Google Home Mini was “listening” to him every time by default. The files are stored on Google’s servers but you can disable it in the My Activity section.
The tech review contacted Google PR to let them know of his findings and that he knew it was a violation of one’s privacy. He heard immediately from a representative who said they were already looking into the issue.
Google was quick to act on the problem and said they wanted to collect the unit. Artem agreed to have his Home Mini picked up by Google PR and it was replaced by not just one but two Google Home Minis. The defective unit is said to be examined by an engineer. Artem then received an email from Google with the initial assessment:
We have learned of an issue impacting a small number of Google Home Minis that could cause the touch mechanism to behave incorrectly. We are rolling out a software update today that should address the issue. If you’re having any additional issues, please feel free to contact Google Support at 1-855-971-9121.
As it turned out, some Google Home Minis support hotword activation while some are seeing the touch panel register “phantom” touch events. A software update is now ready to fix the problem. Google also posted a statement on the Home Mini Help page acknowledging the problem—a number of Google Home Mini touch controls are behaving incorrectly.
The updated software rolled out last October 7 but a more permanent fix should be ready soon. The support team further showed its dedication to customer service by “removing activity/queries that were created by long pressing the top of a Google Home Mini between October 4 and October 7”.
A replacement Google Home Mini can be requested if you are still experiencing the reported issues.
VIA: Android Police
SOURCE: Google
