“The Moto X is apparently always listening for commands, the initiating command appears to be ‘Ok Google Now’ without having to load Google Now or select voice operation, after hearing this command the phone instantly responds with the information you require or performs the function you want, like providing directions or setting reminders or other Google Now functions.” Google always listening in? Sure, that’s not creepy at all or anything.
If you want to be paranoid, how do you know Google isn’t already listening, just because you can’t actually do anything useful with it?
Hence why it’s not a bad idea to install a custom ROM, built from known-good source by a trusted project. They could go down in flames if it was discovered that they were sneaking spyware in.
(Same basic principle as running Debian as a desktop OS. They’ve got too much to lose.)
…. Unless you install the gapps zip on top of it, rendering the system just as insecure as the vendor build
They say that Google Now listens (when it is open) .. I guess the phone won’t listen when Google Now isn’t open(has the screen), that would probably drain the battery way too much.
So major speculation going on here. Could just be a hands free version of something like Siri.
Hopefully people won’t blow this out of proportion and throw the baby out with the bathwater like they did on the Xbox. This sounds like a very useful feature. If you’re worried about the government listening, you will likely be able to turn it off. And that’s the best part, if it’s easy to turn it off, then people the government are looking for won’t use it, hence they won’t be listening to it.
BAHAHAHAHA. Good one.
I’m quite certain there’ll be smartasses who will get close and say things like “OK Google Now, delete all appointments” or “OK Google Now, call 911” if they see someone with a Moto X. Oh boy, that’ll sure be fun.
That was my first thought too.
I love how augmented our lives are becoming and how “natural” some technology has become, but this seems like a bit of a security flaw. This is probably one of the few occasions that I wouldn’t want intelligent voice recognition – I’d want to have the phone only pick up my vocal patterns (ie like how the old voice recognition software of the 90s had to be programmed).
Edited 2013-07-14 19:14 UTC
I really think its too early to know the extent to which you’ll be able to control such a technology. For example, with the Xbox One, the Kinect knows to recognize your voice and only your voice.
Or so they atleast claim.
Yeah, that’s true. We’ll see. Still, I have faith in Google to do the right thing here. It just strikes me as such an obvious potential problem that they can’t possibly be that dumb, frankly speaking.
To be honest, I’m starting to lose faith in Google’s ability to secure Android. I love the platform, but there seems to be a lot of failings on it when it comes to security, with the recent cert vulnerability being the cherry on the cake. And I’m not convinced that the virus scanners are any good either (Avast failed the testing I’d done – though that was anything but scientific).
I really think security should be Google’s primary concern as Android at the moment feels like the same kind of “open season” for malware that Windows suffered a few years ago.
I don’t think it’s going to be too precise simply due to the fact that they’d probably want it to be able to recognize commands even if the owner had a sore throat, had some allergic reaction, were drunk or happened to be in a noisy environment. Also, there just happen to be many people who are either good at imitating someone or just naturally have a similar voice.
It remains to be seen how well it performs, but I’m gonna admit I don’t expect much.
What if you have an evil twin brother?
I hope they add goatee-detecting technology to the forward-facing camera, then.
I could care less about Google. I am more worried about the government listening in on me. They already do it with OnStar. That is old old news. Soon everyone will have a camera and mic always on them every where they go. You will have no secrets except what you keep in your head. And pray they don’t figure out how to read those….
If you’re that worried than load your own ROM
That’s why I don’t drive GM cars.
It’s just a new form of stand-by ..they were always listening for the remote. Now you are the remote.
This is nothing. Wait for Google Glass. Google will always be seeing what you see… *That* will be creepy.
The thing does not stream audio and video 24/7 to Google’s servers, do you have any idea how much bandwidth and battery that would require?
Well, I realize there are some technical difficulties to what I am suggesting, and although significantly less, so there are to streaming audio to the servers. But that does not change the fact that Moto X is still always “listening”. Some data is processed server side, some client side, probably more client side than server side, but still, listening.
In case of a phone, you can turn it off (somehow), with the only downside being not having the added benefit of voice control.
Turn voice off for Google glass, and/or video off. And it will be useless. It will have to be always on, if you actually want to use it.
So, yes, I still maintain Google glass will be significantly more creepy than Moto X from a “listening” point of view.
We already live in a world of mass-spying and “monitoring”. Nobody has any true freedom or privacy. At best we have a restricted amount of free will. If you don’t want to be filmed & recorded, living in a modern country or city isn’t for you. Even then satellites these days are capable of amazing things so escaping to the middle of nowhere might not even help.