Lifehacker Should you ever tell someone that you’ve stashed a smart speaker, camera, or display in your home somewhere? If the person lives with you, absolutely. If you’re having some friends over, though, is this overkill? Do you have a responsibility to let people know, or are you making a mountain out of a (smart) molehill?
Having just acquired a Google Nest Hub Max, I have my own thoughts on this. But first let’s hear from Google’s own Rick Osterloh—senior vice president of devices and services, and the guy who who basically ran last week’s Made by Google event, if you recall.
In a recent interview, Osterloh had a somewhat surprising admission about device transparency. Surprising not because he was wrong, but because you might not expect the guy sitting on a mountain of hardware—at Google, no less—to share such a concern in a public form. As he told the BBC:
“It’s quite important for all these technologies to think about all users… we have to consider all stakeholders that might be in proximity. Does the owner of a home need to disclose to a guest? I would and do when someone enters into my home, and it’s probably something that the products themselves should try to indicate.”
I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments. To get the conversation started, here’s what I’ve been thinking based on my own life experience of using a variety of connected devices—speakers, cameras, whatever—in the house I share with my roommates.
The smartest devices I own are several stratocasters.
I tell my guest that WiFi is only on when absolutely needed, and goes OFF at bedtime.