I have had two occasions where it has become clear that my Google Home is listening and acting on things that are not said to it directly:

1. Much to my confusion, I received a push notification about the weather in Ibiza. It only became clear why a week later when my wife told me she was going there with her Mum. She had been discussing it next to one of our two Google Home devices.

2. Just now, I had a meeting where the word "Glasgow" was said several times (again, next to my Google Home), along with discussing an upcoming meeting there. When I opened Google Maps after that, it opened centred on central Glasgow. I live at the other end of the UK, there's no other reason for it to do that.

Now, I understand that both of these things were "helpful" as Google's algorithms saw it. I appreciate that it's trying to help me. The problem I've got is that as far as I know Google swears it doesn't listen when not addressed directly, when it clearly absolutely does. If it does for purposes that are "good" for me, what else does it do with what it hears.

#google #googlehome #googlenest #voiceassistant #dataprivacy