"Hey Google, let me in!" Get this WiFi smart lock (well, you have to get a Nest Connect or Nest Guard too) and you can unlock your door, check to see if you door is locked, and know if someone has come or gone, from anywhere. Create passcodes to share with the plumber or that friend from high school so they can come and go until you don't want them to anymore. This lock is WiFi only, which means you don't need to worry about a Bluetooth vulnerability leaving you, well, vulnerable. How does this smart lock do when it comes to privacy? Well, Google is gonna Google, so your data won't be sold but it will be used to target you with lots of ads.
O que pode acontecer se algo der errado?
Smart locks are one of those connected devices that seem to worry lots of people. The pros: They offer a lot of convenience with multiple ways to unlock the door to your home, a way to track who comes and goes from your home, they can allow you to give out a keypad number to people like a babysitter and then revoke that when they no longer need access, and they can help you make sure you locked your front door when your anxiety kicks in on vacation. The cons: They can be vulnerable to any number of things such as power outages, lost or compromised phones, ransomware attacks on the company who made your lock, product security vulnerabilities, WiFi and/or Bluetooth vulnerabilities, home hub vulnerabilities, bad software updates, data leaks, and more.
With all that said, how does Google’s Nest x Yale smart lock stack up? This smart lock doesn’t come with WiFi built-in, meaning it doesn’t connect directly with the internet. Users will need Nest Connect or Nest Guard to connect it to their WiFi and the Nest app. Without that WiFi connection, users can still open the lock using the keypad. We found no known security breaches of Google's smart lock. Overall, Google seems to do a good job with security, with very few security breaches reported over the past three years, but they also aren’t perfect. It’s always good to take precautions like changing pre-existing passcodes and setting up two-factor authentication.
“OK, Google.” That’s pretty much exactly how we think Google does when it comes to privacy. They are OK, if you consider the fact that they are a ginormous data collecting advertising company that makes billions of dollars off your personal information. This is the world we live in now, though, and there are other Big Tech companies doing a worse job than Google at protecting and respecting your privacy (looking at you Meta/Facebook). It’s really unfortunate just how low the bar has gotten when it comes to privacy these days.
That said, you should be aware Google is a huge ad company that needs lots and lots of your data to sell ads. What sorts of data does Google collect on you? Well, there are those voice recordings when you go, “Hey Google, unlock my door for the pizza delivery?” And while Google promises that your voice recordings won’t be used to send you personalized ads, they do say the transcripts of your voice interactions with your Google smart speaker may. Google also collects things like your location, information about things near your devices like wi-fi access points and bluetooth enabled devices, people you communicate with, purchase activity, voice and audio information, your favorite songs on Spotify, what things you search for, what things you ask Google, when you turn your lights on if you have smart lights, when you use it to run your robot vacuum, and so much more.
Of course, Google uses your personal information to sell those targeted, personalized ads you see all over the place like in your Gmail, in your favorite Solitaire app, on partner websites, and on YouTube. Yup, the ads are everywhere. Google does say they won’t use things like your sexual orientation, race, and health to show you ads…although we just have to trust them on that. I’m sure we’ve all seen ads based on sensitive things about us that felt pretty creepy. And Google says they won’t use content from your Google Drive, Email, or Photos to personalize ads. We sure hope not.
We do like that people who use Google’s AI voice assistant are now automatically opted out of Google's human review of voice recordings, because that was super creepy. We also like that Google does try to communicate with users how they collect and use data in their Safety Center. Google does collect a ton of data on you, especially if you don't take the time to adjust your privacy settings to lock down just how much info they can gather. You should absolutely take the time to adjust these privacy settings. Just beware, you will get notifications that some things might not work right if you change settings. That’s annoying, and probably worth it for a little more privacy.
As for Google’s track record at protecting and respecting your privacy, well, it’s a mixed bag. Google does pretty good at the security side of protecting all that heaps of data they collect on your. It is their money making business asset, after all. Unfortunately, Google also has a spotty track record at respecting privacy, as seen in the multitude of fines and lawsuits that have been thrown at them all around the world for violating privacy laws and protections. South Korea fined Google (and Meta) millions of dollars recently for privacy violations. So did France and Spain. And in the US, Google has faced a host of lawsuits and settlements from Texas, California, DC, Illinois, Arizona, the Federal Trade Commission, and more. All this makes it pretty hard to trust what a company says they do with that massive amount of personal information they collect on you.
What’s the worst that could happen? Well, it’s entirely possible you are always asking Google to unlock your door at 8pm, right after you’ve asked Google to order you a ham and pineapple pizza. Based on that, Google decides you don’t have a life and keeps showing you ads for dating apps. You get depressed because you’re actually happily married and those ads remind you of the horrors of dating. Absolutely nobody needs that!
Dicas para se proteger
- Check out tips to ensure your smart lock safety
- Maintain a strong door
- Choose a secure access code
- Set up two-factor authentication
- Review Nest privacy tips
Pode me bisbilhotar?
Câmera
Dispositivo: Não
Aplicativo: Não
Microfone
Dispositivo: Não
Aplicativo: Não
Rastreia localização
Dispositivo: Não
Aplicativo: Sim
O que pode ser usado para se inscrever?
Sim
Celular
Não
Conta de terceiros
Sim
Que dados a empresa coleta?
Pessoal
Name, email, phone number, address
Relacionado ao corpo
Voice recordings (if you use Google Assistant)
Social
Como a empresa usa esses dados?
Como você pode controlar seus dados?
Qual é o histórico conhecido da empresa na proteção de dados dos usuários?
Google received plenty of fines from European, American, and Korean authorities in the last few years. The biggest was the $170M fine from New York Attorney General for mishandling the children consent. The other cases include the fine of $100M for violating the Biometric Information Privacy Act in Illinois, $71.8M fine for mishandling consent in South Korea, $57M fine for violating GDPR in France, as well as other fines from local Data Protection Authorities in Ireland, Italy, Spain.
In 2022 Google agreed to a nearly $392 million dollar legal settlement with 40 US states "for charges that it misled users into thinking they had turned off location tracking in their account settings even as the company continued collecting that information".
In August 2019, the company admitted that partners who work to analyze voice snippets from the Assistant leaked the voice snippets of some Dutch users. More than 1,000 private conversations were sent to a Belgian news outlet, some of the messages reportedly revealed sensitive information such as medical conditions and customer addresses.
In December 2018, a bug exposed exposed the data of 52.5 million Google+ users.
Nest Security Bulletin contains details of security vulnerabilities that previously affected Google Nest's devices.
Informações de privacidade infantil
Este produto pode ser usado offline?
Informações de privacidade fáceis de entender?
Google provides a page with privacy information about Nest.
Links para informações de privacidade
Este produto atende aos nossos padrões mínimos de segurança?
Criptografia
Encryption in transit and at rest.
Senha forte
Atualizações de segurança
Gerencia vulnerabilidades
Google has a Security Rewards program. Link: https://www.google.com/about/appsecurity/programs-home/
Política de privacidade
Google publishes academic papers about its AI research (https://ai.google/) and makes several tools available via open source. https://ai.google/tools/
Esta inteligência artificial não é confiável?
Que tipo de decisões a inteligência artificial faz sobre você ou por você?
A empresa é transparente sobre como funciona a inteligência artificial?
O usuário tem controle sobre os recursos da inteligência artificial?
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