Common Sense Education, a platform for educators, published this article, Privacy and Security Evaluation of the Google Home smart speaker, which studies the popular visual assistant, Google Home, to see whether it is secure for its users. One of the things that always struck me as shocking was that these virtual assistants, like Siri, Alexa, Google Home, etc, are always listening to everything, which is how it recognizes your voice when you say “Hey Google”. This means that it is collecting and has access to a multitude of data and all the things we say and do in the privacy of our homes. Kelley, the author, performs a hands-on security test of the Google Home, which observes “what data goes to and from the device”, but unfortunately, gives no information on what happens once the data reaches Google or any company.
Some of the security properties of the Google Home that are mentioned are that it is “Data Secure”, meaning all of the data collected by the device is encrypted, which means it is most likely well protected from external actors or hackers with malicious intent. However, it is important to note that Google has written in their policy that they “may use information about users’ online activities for advertising or tracking”, which is awfully vague, and users really have no clue what specific information is being given to ad companies, for example. Common Sense Education gave the Google Home a 75/100 for its rating criteria by considering a variety of factors such as the ones mentioned above as well as whether they sell the data or track users. Ultimately the convenience of the Google Home may trump the security issues that it presents for many users, but it is still an important thing to keep in mind when considering bring technology into our homes.
