Anti Federalist
10-13-2018, 05:24 PM
Smart Home Surveillance: Governments Tell Google's Nest To Hand Over Data 300 Times
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/10/13/smart-home-surveillance-governments-tell-googles-nest-to-hand-over-data-300-times/#116cbe192cfa
Anyone pumped for this week's launch of Google's Home Hub might want to temper their excitement. A smart home is a surveilled home. That’s been the concern of privacy activists since citizens started lighting up their abodes with so-called “smart” tech in recent years.
Take Google’s current smart home division, Nest Labs. It’s been told to hand over data on 300 separate occasions since 2015. That’s according to a little-documented transparency report from Nest, launched a year after the $3.2 billion Google acquisition. The report shows around 60 requests for data were received by Google’s unit in the first half of this year alone. In all those cases recorded from 2015 onwards, governments have sought data on as many as 525 different Nest account holders.
On Friday Forbes revealed the first known case in the U.S. where Nest handed over surveillance feeds and customer data from its cameras. Indeed, it appears to be the first documented case of Nest assisting law enforcement in such a manner anywhere in the world. The information was provided to investigators looking into a $1.2 million fraud, perpetrated by a rap crew that had taken control of surveillance technology tracking 95% of Americans.
Read More: How An Amateur Rap Crew Stole Surveillance Tech That Tracks Almost Every American
The Nest transparency report isn’t as detailed as its parent company’s, or those of other tech giants like Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter. It doesn’t give specific numbers on data requests, for instance, only a bar chart where the user is left to guess at precise figures. It also doesn’t drill down what countries made what requests. Nest didn’t respond to requests for more specific data.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/10/13/smart-home-surveillance-governments-tell-googles-nest-to-hand-over-data-300-times/#116cbe192cfa
Anyone pumped for this week's launch of Google's Home Hub might want to temper their excitement. A smart home is a surveilled home. That’s been the concern of privacy activists since citizens started lighting up their abodes with so-called “smart” tech in recent years.
Take Google’s current smart home division, Nest Labs. It’s been told to hand over data on 300 separate occasions since 2015. That’s according to a little-documented transparency report from Nest, launched a year after the $3.2 billion Google acquisition. The report shows around 60 requests for data were received by Google’s unit in the first half of this year alone. In all those cases recorded from 2015 onwards, governments have sought data on as many as 525 different Nest account holders.
On Friday Forbes revealed the first known case in the U.S. where Nest handed over surveillance feeds and customer data from its cameras. Indeed, it appears to be the first documented case of Nest assisting law enforcement in such a manner anywhere in the world. The information was provided to investigators looking into a $1.2 million fraud, perpetrated by a rap crew that had taken control of surveillance technology tracking 95% of Americans.
Read More: How An Amateur Rap Crew Stole Surveillance Tech That Tracks Almost Every American
The Nest transparency report isn’t as detailed as its parent company’s, or those of other tech giants like Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter. It doesn’t give specific numbers on data requests, for instance, only a bar chart where the user is left to guess at precise figures. It also doesn’t drill down what countries made what requests. Nest didn’t respond to requests for more specific data.