There is apparently a glitch in Google Allo, specifically in the integration of the Google Assistant to the messaging app. Apparently, your past searches may actually be revealed to your friend or even friends in your conversations, as experienced by some users. While Google has already responded and said they have fixed the error, this still raises some serious concerns as this glitch may very well violate the privacy of users in app that has already come under fire from Internet privacy advocates.
One of the writers on the website ReCode shared a conversation she was having with a friend, as they were testing out the Google Assistant capabilities of Allo. In the middle of their conversation, when her friend told the digital voice assistant to identify itself, it gave them a link to Pottermore, the popular Harry Potter fan website. It may seem like a random glitch, but the friend actually searched for this site a few days earlier. So yes it was a glitch, but there was also a basis for the information given.
The good thing, well sort of, was that it was just an innocuous search term. But what if one of you in the conversation was actually searching for something he or she didn’t want anyone to know and suddenly that information popped up. Of course no one has to admit anything, but the damage may have been done. Google assured the website that they have already fixed the issue that caused this, so we might breathe a little sigh of relief.
Allo has been criticized by privacy advocates since it doesn’t use end-to-end encryption as a default, like most messaging apps now do. Law enforcement can actually access messages that are in the default mode, if they have a warrant for your account. So this other glitch is a cause for concern, if ever Google actually failed to fix it.
VIA: ReCode
