"Your wireless earbuds and voice assistants aren't just listening for wake words-they're building detailed profiles of your daily habits, conversations, and even background noise patterns that companies use for targeted advertising and AI training. Always-On Means Always Recording Low-power listening modes capture more than intended wake words. Those earbuds maintain "low-power listening mode" to catch voice commands? They're essentially miniature surveillance devices. When your AirPods or Google Assistant mishear a conversation as a wake phrase, audio gets uploaded to cloud servers without notification."
"That convenient voice feature just cost Google $68 million in privacy settlements. Your wireless earbuds and voice assistants aren't just listening for wake words-they're building detailed profiles of your daily habits, conversations, and even background noise patterns that companies use for targeted advertising and AI training. Always-On Means Always Recording Low-power listening modes capture more than intended wake words."
Google agreed to a $68 million settlement after voice-activated devices recorded conversations beyond intended wake words. Low-power listening modes in earbuds and assistants capture more audio than necessary and can misidentify speech as activation phrases. Misheard segments and background snippets get uploaded to cloud servers without notifying users. Human contractors have accessed supposedly anonymized clips and discovered personal details, enabling the construction of detailed user profiles. Companies use these audio collections for targeted advertising and to train AI models. The settlements address privacy violations and unauthorized review of intimate audio captured by always-on devices.
Read at Gadget Review
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