Recent Google Home Mini bug saw it record far more than it should have

The Google Home Mini smart speakers haven’t yet been officially released, but it hasn’t stopped them getting into trouble. A recent problem has seen some of the pre-release units spontaneously activate thousands of times per day, meaning the Home Mini was picking up almost everything happening in its vicinity.

By default, Google records what a user says after using the “OK, Google” phrase to launch the Google Assistant (or pressing the microphone button in the Google App). This happens when using Google Assistant on any device, and if you weren’t aware of this, and want to be a little bit freaked out, you can go and listen to all your past recordings here.

However, Android Police discovered that, in this case, the Google Home Mini didn’t have to be manually activated for the recording to begin.

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Seemingly, the Mini was acting like the touch control button on top of it was frequently being pressed, and its lights would appear to show that it was listening. Yet the usual tone wasn’t played to indicate that it had been activated. After Android Police contacted Google about it, the company acknowledged the bug and subsequently issued a fix.

Android Police speculates that the problem was limited to around 4,000 Google Home Minis that were distributed at its press conference and “donut” pop-up events — so it was a relatively small-scale affair — and Google has reacted quickly to the situation. Google has also offered replacement units to anybody affected by the issue and has deleted any recordings generated by the error during the period before it rolled out the fix. Further, the company has assured that pre-order devices aren’t affected (you can read Google’s full response at support.google.com).

You can’t really ask for a whole lot more from Google in terms of its reaction, here, but having said that, this episode will do little to quell the fears of those currently worried about connected speakers and their implications for privacy. Unintentional as it may have been, connected devices inherently provide another way for personal information to be recorded and uploaded. And some would argue we’re offering up far too much already.