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Google Home Mini Malfunction Raises Fears Of Smart Devices Listening Too Much

Isabelle Olsson, lead designer for home hardware for Google, Inc., introduces the new Google Home Mini at a product launch event, Oct. 4, 2017, at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images)
Isabelle Olsson, lead designer for home hardware for Google, Inc., introduces the new Google Home Mini at a product launch event, Oct. 4, 2017, at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images)

Google found itself in some hot water this week when a glitch was discovered in its soon-to-be-released Google Home Mini: The device was found to be recording the user’s actions even when they hadn’t used a “wake word” to activate it.

Ben Johnson (@TheBrockJohnson), who covers tech for Here & Now, explains how wake words work, what went wrong with the device and how worried we should be in the long term about devices listening in.

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