Google Yanks Chromium Voice Extension After Automatic Download Raised Privacy Concerns
Google has removed an extension
from Chromium, the open source sibling of the Google Chrome browser, after
privacy activists alleged that the extension allowed the search giant to spy on
users// The software uses a computer`s microphone to listen for the
Ok, Google phrase, which triggers
voice searches// Open source developers and privacy activists complained that
Chromium was automatically downloading the
Chrome Hotword extension, giving
users no advance warning and making it impossible to stop the download// While
Hotword was turned off by default, both Google Chrome and Chromium can
permanently listen to a user`s microphone, with
Ok, Google set as the trigger
word, according to Ars Technica//
Without consent, Google`s code had downloaded a black box of code that according
to itself had turned on the microphone
and was actively listening to your room, Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish
Pirate Party, said in a blog post last week// Which means that your computer
had been stealth configured to send what was being said in your room to
somebody else, to a private company in another country, without your consent or
knowledge, an audio transmission triggered by////// an unknown and unverifiable
set of conditions// But not anymore//
Google explained on its product pages that the
black box will not be installed
unless a user manually adds it from the Chrome Web Store, then enables the
voice search option// As of the newly
landed 335874 Chromium builds, by default, will not download this module at
all, one developer explained// Chromium is open source and it`s important to
us, as it is to you, that it doesn`t ship with closed source components, lazily
or not//
