Go to Sleep, Alexa. It's Not OK, Google

The rapidly growing market for voice-controlled speakers probably needed something like the Google Home Mini disaster to happen. Now even those customers who were oblivious to the risks of placing such a device in their homes will want to consider the security implications, and manufacturers won't be able to get away with being so dismissive.

Earlier this month, Artem Russakovskii, who runs the Android Police blog, picked up a pre-market version of the Google Home Mini to review. This is the compact version of the Google Home speaker which you can ask to play music, do a web search or a unit conversion or adjust your smart thermostat. But instead of waiting for commands, Russakovskii's machine started reacting to a TV program he was watching by repeatedly saying it didn't understand. Those digital assistants do that a lot, but usually when woken up by a command like "OK Google" or "Alexa" -- or by something they have "misheard" as such a command. Russakovskii was alarmed because neither he nor the TV was saying anything similar, and the Home Mini kept reacting. He went to his Google account and discovered thousands of activity records: The device had been recording everything that went on in its vicinity.