Google CEO Asked To Explain About A Secret Microphone Inside Nest Devices

After Google was criticized for “forgetting” to inform the existence of a microphone inside Nest Secure, its home security system, the US lawmakers demanded the company to give an explanation for this.

On February 25, the Mississippi senior Roger Wicker, who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote a letter to Sundar Pichai to search for the reasons behind the Google concealing a microphone put inside the Nest devices to its consumers.

In addition to Wicker’s signature, the two other signatures in the letter included the Kansas Senior Jerry Moran and the South Dakota Senior John Thune. They are now subcommittee chairmen. The letter also mentioned the hearing in September 2018 when Keith Enright, the chief privacy officer of the tech giant claimed that "transparency is a core value of our approach to serving users."

However, what the Senate committee has received in recent times seemed to show that the privacy of Google's consumers always is a big question.

The deadline for Google to give the answer in writing to the Senate committee is March 12. It will answer 6 questions concerning the secret microphone as mentioned above, such as when and how it detected that its spec sheets lacked the information on the microphone, as well as whether any 3^rd parties are using the component "for any unauthorized purpose” or not.

In addition, Google will have to hold a briefing to discuss more on the matter before March 30.

Some days ago, as cited by Business Insider, a few lawmakers showed their concerns relating to the secret microphone as well as how consumer privacy could be affected.

As the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Vice-chairman, Mark Warner from Virginia claimed that Google’s concealing the component was "totally at odds with consumer expectations."