After much criticism, Google has pulled software that has apparently been eavesdropping on unsuspecting users.
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The news has also irritated advocates of open-source advocates, who are raging that the questionable code is installed along with Chromium, despite it being ‘black box’ and not part of the open source audit process.
Google Chrome has come under fire, as reports swirled about the code being added, unannounced to the browser platform, which would reportedly activate your microphone without permission.
The problem arises because the voice activation feature for “OK Google” searching is not now available on Chrome.
“Which means that your computer had been stealth configured to send what was being said in your room to somebody else, to a private company in another country, without your consent or knowledge”, Falkvinge argued.
Open source developers first noticed the software.
As we said at the start, “Result”, and respectfully done, too.
Giving in to user backlash, Google has removed code from Chromium that originally allowed the browser to listen in on a computer’s microphone.
“I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that”, one user complained. However, unlike Chromium, Chrome doesn’t alert users when the code is downloaded. Debian, for instance, which has received complaints about a “bug” that automatically downloads the Chrome Hotword Shared Module without an opt-out configuration, has fixed the problem by disabling the extension.
Falkvinge rejects Google’s apology, that while the binary file was downloaded without consent, it was enabled only when users ticked a box to use the Ok Google voice recognition search.
Any Chrome user can go to their settings (top right hand corner of the screen) to see whether the checkbox is disabled. Google has since denied that this is the case.
Here’s the in-brief: Google admits a “black box” of code was built into Chromium – that’s the open-source web browser project that Google Chrome’s code is based on. Conversely, Hotword’s own status page, chrome: //voicesearch/ said that by default the extension was enabled and had access to the microphone.
However, according to Falkvinge, the default install will still “wiretap your room without your consent, unless you opt out, and more importantly, know that you need to opt out, which is nowhere a reasonable requirement“.
In a second statement Wednesday, a Google representative sought to allay lingering concerns by assuring Chrome users, “We’re not listening to your conversations – nor do we want to”, according to the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper.
Falkvinge explained that the software was supposed to respond to the “OK, Google” hotword detection, a new feature in Chrome that automatically activates the search function when certain words are captured.
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