<ul><li>Google Smart Home Speaker can be hacked, claims a researcher </li><li>The device can be used to listen to your private conversations using remote access via a backdoor account. </li><li>This was recently discovered by a researcher named Matt Kunze.</li></ul>The saying walls have ears is as old as time, but it seems this is now our reality. Worse, when you realize it might be the smart home speaker on the side table listening to you. Recently a researcher named Matt Kunze discovered that hackers could spy on you by accessing the <keyword id="6358470" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="google-home" source="Orion">Google Home</keyword> smart speaker. According to <a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-home-speakers-allowed-hackers-to-snoop-on-conversations/">Bleeping computer</a> (via Android Central), Kunze was messing around with a Nest Mini when he discovered that a rogue account could be created using the Google Home App. This backdoor account can then be used to get remote access to the smart speaker, including its microphone feed. The rogue account uses cloud API (application programming interface) to send commands to the smart speaker. The API allows multiple computer programs to communicate. The information needed to hack the intelligent speaker includes the device’s name, certificate, and cloud ID. The hacker can send a request to Google’s server to link the smart speaker using this information. Then it can be used to make online transactions, control smart appliances, and even unlock the front door. Kunze discovered it by making a malicious routine that included a call command. This allowed him to activate the microphone in the smart speaker at a specified time. He even recorded a video showing how the Nest Mini’s microphone can send conversations to a smartphone. Upon discovering it, Kunze received $1,07,500 from Google. <div type="Youtube" id="2FNctCA7JaI" title="Google Home Mini remote call demo" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2FNctCA7JaI/mqdefault.jpg"><url><![CDATA[https://youtu.be/2FNctCA7JaI]]></url></div> However, worry not. Kunze discovered this in January 2021, and Google fixed it in April 2021. Anyone running the latest firmware is absolutely safe from this issue. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/apple-airpods-lite-might-launch-soon/articleshow/96704050.cms" style="">Cheaper AirPods could be on the way — Apple reportedly working on a toned down pair of earbuds</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/series-creators-want-more-money-after-ads-appear-on-netflix/articleshow/96700323.cms">Series creators want more money after ads appear on Netflix</a>

Researcher finds Google Home speaker vulnerable of getting hacked and snooping on conversations

Chip maker <keyword id="6369515" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mediatek" source="Orion">MediaTek</keyword> on Tuesday announced the latest chipset -- octa-core Genio 700 designed for smart home, smart retail, and industrial IoT products. The chipset comes with support for FHD60+4K60 display, as well as an ISP (<keyword id="5382294" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="image-signal-processor" source="Orion">Image Signal Processor</keyword>) for better images, and it will be commercially available starting in Q2 2023, said the company. "With a focus on industrial and smart home products, the Genio 700 is a perfect natural addition to the lineup to ensure we can provide the widest range of support possible to our customers," Richard Lu, Vice President of MediaTek IoT Business Unit said in a statement. With a focus on power efficiency, the MediaTek Genio 700 is a 6nm IoT (Internet of Things) chipset that boasts two ARM A78 cores running at 2.2GHz. Moreover, the chipset allows designers to customise products using Yocto Linux, Ubuntu, and Android. With this support, customers can easily develop their own products with a minimal amount of effort, regardless of application type, according to the company. In additional features, it supports high-speed interfaces and dual display. The new chipset will be featured as part of a demo at MediaTek's booth at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/india-could-exempt-feature-phones-hearables-and-wearables-from-the-usb-c-rule/articleshow/96705056.cms" style="">India could exempt feature phones, hearables, and wearables from the USB-C rule</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-home-can-be-hacked-and-snooped-on-listening-conversations/articleshow/96704649.cms" style="">Researcher finds Google Home speaker vulnerable of getting hacked and snooping on conversations</a>

MediaTek announces octa-core Genio 700 chipset for smart home, smart retail, and industrial IoT products

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a6f330bcf8410ec048b5038-960/maxresdefault.jpg" alt="Lilly Singh" data-mce-source="YouTube/Screenshot" />YouTube/Screenshot</div></div></div>Facebook's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-users-say-theyre-seeing-changes-in-their-news-feeds-2018-1">latest algorithm change</a> may make life a lot harder for publishers and businesses accustomed to getting their messages in front of the platform's users with relative ease.But it could have a surprising benefit for digital influencers - particularly those with budding followings.To read more about how Facebook's News Feed change may benefit up-and-coming digital influencers, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-news-feed-change-may-give-a-boost-to-some-up-and-coming-digital-influencers-while-burying-the-biggest-digital-stars-2018-1">click here.</a>In other news:<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-ad-business-is-red-hot-but-no-threat-to-facebook-and-google-morgan-stanley-2018-1">Amazon's ad business is red hot but not a threat to Facebook and Google.</a> That's because instead of digital <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> spending, it is focused on promotions and couponing, effectively expanding the advertising market significantly.<a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/01/now-even-youtube-serves-ads-with-cpu-draining-cryptocurrency-miners">YouTube reportedly served ads containing Coinhive's cryptocurrency-mining and CPU-draining JavaScript, likely using Google's DoubleClick.</a> Google has said that the ads have now been blocked.<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-26/twitter-says-russian-linked-bots-retweeted-trump-470-000-times">Twitter announced that Russian bots retweeted Donald Trump's account 469,537 times in the period leading up to the US election in 2016.</a> Hillary Clinton's tweets, by comparison, got 47,846 retweets.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dr-pepper-snapple-to-merge-with-keurig-green-mountain-2018-1">Dr Pepper Snapple group to merge with Keurig.</a> The combined company will have $11 billion in annual revenue.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-ikea-founder-ingvar-kamprad-became-a-billionaire-2015-7">How IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad's bizarrely frugal habits and 'disagreeable' personality traits made him one of the richest self-made billionaires.</a> Kamprad had been at the helm of IKEA for more than 70 years when <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ikea-founder-ingvar-kamprad-dead-at-91-2018-1">his death was announced Sunday</a>. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-grammys-skit-on-trump-fire-and-fury-nikki-haley-reacts-2018-1">Hillary Clinton read an excerpt of 'Fire and Fury' in a Grammys skit mocking Trump, and Nikki Haley was furious about it.</a> She joined artists Snoop Dogg, Cardi B, and DJ Khaled in the pre-recorded skit.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-super-bowl-ad-alexa-loses-her-voice-2018-1">Jeff Bezos stars in a new Super Bowl ad where Alexa loses her voice.</a> The primetime commercial, which will debut during the Super Bowl on February 4, will likely allow Amazon to capitalize further on its dominance in the smart speaker home space.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html">Everyone from celebrities and politicians to sportspeople are purchasing fake followers to scale their popularity, the New York Times reports.</a> <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-et-ct-jim-kirk-latimes-editor-20180128-story.html">Fake follower counts are not good news for marketers, who look at these numbers to recruit influencer to tout their products.</a><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-et-ct-jim-kirk-latimes-editor-20180128-story.html">Jim Kirk is to replace Lewis D'Vorkin as editor in chief of the Los Angeles Times amid tumult at the newspaper.</a> D'Vorkin will move to the role of chief content officer at parent company Tronc.Follow us at <a href="http://read.bi/2eHPhLy">@BI_Corporate </a> to be among the first to hear about news and updates from Business Insider. Also, sign up for the <a href="http://read.bi/2uscrJP">Executive Summary</a> , a new biweekly newsletter that brings the latest marketing news, trends, and company updates straight to your inbox. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/myths-earth-true-science-2016-4">5 common 'facts' about Earth that everyone gets wrong</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/TZgTiXYy-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

What you need to know in advertising today

<ul><li>In the last decade, marketers have started focusing a lot on personalization and using advanced targeting technologies to woo their consumers. </li><li>However, there is an increasing awareness around <keyword id="803848" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Data-privacy">data privacy</keyword>. In a panel discussion organised by Mobile Marketing Association APAC, experts discussed how marketers can offer personalised user experience in the age of data privacy. </li></ul>Imagine your local retail store owner knocks on your door late in the evening to ask if you need dry snacks for your party you never invited him for and have never shared personal details of your life with him. That would be immensely creepy, right? But if he made a note of every purchase you make to offer a better, new product that is available in the market when you visit, that would make you feel special, like the seller cares enough to notice and improve your buying experience. Mondelez India’s latest personalised Diwali ad was one of the most appreciated ads in the ecosystem that set a benchmark in our industry. It was the first hyper-personalised ad tailored according to different pin codes in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Indore, Ahmedabad and Lucknow and targeted different sets of consumers sitting there. So, treading this thin line between hyper-personalization and snooping can be difficult. In an era where consumers want to be seen and spoken to personally within a short amount of time and at the right time, it is highly challenging for marketers to understand how to use data available to create the right media plan. It doesn’t take a lot for a new-age brand to turn from cool to creepy. Offering an exceptional customer experience (CX) has become an important differentiator for a brand’s success. As data has become the new oil, consumers now exist in the form of cookies, email addresses, date of birth, mobile numbers, social addresses, etc. in a marketer’s database. So, how does a marketer strike the right balance? A panel organised by MMA with Jahid Ahmed, Head - Digital &amp; Content Marketing HDFC Bank, Rakesh Jaitly, Senior Sales Director - Oracle Applications, Gaurav Kaushik, Global Vice President-Ad Platform, JioSaavn, Umesh Krishna K - Marketing and Head of Media, Swiggy and Raman Kalra - Partner, PwC India explored this question. COVID’s impact on consumer targeting and data processing With COVID, many marketers shifted a larger chunk of their monnies on digital marketing and started exploring new ways of reaching out to consumers. Kaushik noticed a key difference in consumers. A lot of them shifted from cities to their hometowns. He said, “One major shift that we noticed was the definition of WFH and of people from Tier I to Tier II. To their hometown and work from there as they just need the internet. With this, brands who would target people in Tier I and II, have shifted their focus to the whole of India. People would listen to music when they commuted. Now, our media mix has changed because they are using multiple devices like speaker, smart TVs for the same task because you have those devices available.” So, as a marketer, Kaushik suggested that one should reach out to the same consumer via different devices and moments in life. It is the same user but how and where they consume the content should be taken into consideration, which is a different mix now. “We have over 5,000 branches but our website is the biggest branch now after COVID. The kind of business we have seen is phenomenal. With this, the expectation from digital marketing has changed. Consumer end-to-end journey have become more developed. Digital is now an end-to-end conversion source for you,” said Ahmed. Consumers’ expectations have also increased. They expect marketers to take notice and speak to them personally, which is why marketers need more data to personalize their campaigns. “After the pandemic, there are three words used very often: digital engagement and contactless, which has given different meaning to lots of business models. Marketers nowadays emphasize on these three points with the changing time: Connected data, connected intelligence and connected experience. It is not just about name, email address or mobile number but both implicit and explicit data. For us, it is important to recognise key differences between individual consumers, even outside the digital ecosystem -- are they frequent travellers, are they going to buy a car, this is what we track. We can bring commonalities from data that lead to personalization,” said Jaitly. Striking balance between privacy and customization Kaushik highlighted that consumers often pretend to be someone they are not in real life to assimilate themselves in a social group. However, data never lies. Speaking on how JioSaavn uses data to trace consumer journey, Kaushik said, “It is one thing to listen to music and another thing to look at the data and it tells you a different story altogether. For example Baby Doll was one of the biggest hits when it launched. So, music is personal and a companion and medium, these together become a really powerful tool to customize the journey for the user. Music creates a true profile for you and that helps to understand the user better. All we do at JioSaavn is to understand how people consume music and focus on that part because that is the only type of content that has a repeat button to it! And because it is on repeat, it starts creating patterns. There was a user who listened to ‘I wanna break free’ 64 times in a day and you can imagine what their state of mind is. Music goes hand-in-hand with your mood. With age, the romantic genre goes down and religious genre goes up. Nobody likes to accept that but that’s the reality. So music becomes a powerful tool to understand the user, which helps us understand the consumer journey at a customised level.” In a diverse country like India, for a brand like Swiggy it is difficult to find the right mood and understand their consumers' taste buds based on their behaviour. So how does it divide them into different cohorts and target them? Krishna K said, “For meaningful segmentation, you need to have a finite set of segments in the range of 3 to 7, not 20 to 30. But within those segments, we personalise our communication in terms of what imagery should go through which would fit a certain consumer of one profile. For this, a lot of third-party data helps us in re-targeting and branding.” Speaking on how <keyword id="2366412" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="personalisation">personalisation</keyword> helped push digitalisation and shape consumer behaviour, Ahmed said, “One of the parts of personalization is the product. From the 30 million base that we have, we are ensuring that we are serving our customers in the best way possible. Hence, I have to personalise the product for one person, what is that they would be interested in -- that is the first level of personalisation. Second is intent -- I have made this product, but the consumer intends to buy something else, how do I understand that? Then serving a campaign according to their intent. For example, if I know a consumer who doesn’t have a credit card, I would offer reward points to lure them. So, we subtly nudge them. We need to nudge the consumers at the right time and right set of creatives. Data also has to be married properly with storytelling.” He further highlighted how every website has added a notification informing consumers about data tracking and seeking their consent. He said that people don’t have a problem if they consent to it and they see concrete results in exchange for data. Jaitly told us the question every consumer asks before they consent to sharing data. He said, “Do you treat me and understand me better if I share my data? Organisations need to prove how they are balancing it. Building trust is important.” Conclusion Experts suggested gaining consumer confidence about how the information was gathered, giving them control of their personal data, and offering fair value in return. Lastly, they said that brands should use first-party data to analyse user behaviour and while using third-party data, they try and segment their requirements into different cohorts like time of the day, genre and location. Communication, therefore, should not be at a user level, but should resonate with the consumer at a larger group level so that it doesn’t cross a line.

How brands can provide personalised user experience without violating their privacy

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5cabdb3dc6cc5056620e1967-2400/ring jamie siminoff.jpg" border="0" alt="Ring Jamie Siminoff" data-mce-source="Ring" />RingRing Chief Inventor Jamie Siminoff</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Amazon acquired smart doorbell startup Ring one year ago as of April 12 for a reported $1 billion.</li><li>Ring founder Jamie Siminoff discusses how his company fits into Amazon more broadly in an interview with Business Insider.</li><li>Siminoff says he's often tapped to sit in on meetings for projects and upcoming products, including the development of Alexa Guard, Amazon's home security feature for its Echo smart speakers. </li><li>In general, though, he says that Ring is still running exactly as before - but with the added bonus that he has access to the company's vast resources whenever it needs anything. "I almost feel like I'm kind of like brought into the Amazon shopping mall," he says. </li></ul>Jamie Siminoff has built his career on founding startups and inking deals with large companies.Unsubscribe Inc., a company he co-founded in 2010 that made a tool for easily un-registering from email lists, sold to TrustedID in 2011. Before that, in 2009, Siminoff struck a partnership with Ditech Networks that gave the firm exclusive rights to sell his speech-to-text voicemail subscription service to other companies. Ditech Networks has, in turn, since been acquired by speech recognition software maker Nuance.But Siminoff's biggest exit wouldn't come until nearly a decade later when he would <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-acquiring-doorbell-videocamera-startup-ring-2018-2">sell Ring</a>, the home security startup he founded in 2013 - famously, after he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shark-tank-ring-jamie-siminoff-guest-shark-2018-10">got rejected on Shark Tank</a>- to Amazon for a reported $1 billion in 2018. Ring, which initially gained attention with its line of video doorbells and has since expanded to other security products, will officially have been part of the <keyword id="6354851" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="retail">retail</keyword> juggernaut for a full year as of April 12.For Siminoff, the experience isn't all that different from his startup days."We're this huge company with hundreds of thousands of team members, and yet [Amazon] still has nimbleness," Siminoff said of his experience with Amazon after a year. "It's just got a very entrepreneurial foundation to it."<h2>Making a splash at Amazon</h2>Siminoff still considers himself Chief Inventor at Ring, a title he's long preferred over Chief Executive Officer, and says much of his time is spent running the company he built.But that doesn't mean he hasn't had an impact on Amazon's broader product portfolio. Siminoff reports to Dave Limp, Amazon's senior vice president of services and devices, and says he's frequently sought out for his input on projects."[At Amazon] they are inventing and looking at a lot of different things all the time in different areas," he said. "So I'll be brought into a call or a session where they're going to look at XYZ product in a totally new category."What exactly those products and categories are, Siminoff cannot say. But he did contribute to Alexa Guard, the feature Amazon announced in 2018 that makes it possible for Amazon's digital helper to send alerts about the sound of breaking glass and activity from smoke detectors. Alexa Guard can also integrate with security systems from Ring and third parties like ADT."I definitely had a lot of insight and amazing meetings and things that were going on with [Alexa Guard] before it was launched that were very fun to help [with] and sort of be part of the team," he says. "And that was really more of an Alexa thing, which Alexa to me was always this amazing product that I used. Now I get to see and maybe even shape some pieces around the edge of it."Siminoff was also able to leverage his expertise when it came to the company's acquisition of Wi-Fi mesh networking startup Eero. That deal valued Eero at $97 million in a fire sale, according to documents obtained by Business Insider.Read: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-paid-97-million-to-acquire-eero-in-fire-sale-leaked-documents-2019-4">Amazon paid $97 million to acquire Eero in a fire-sale deal that left some shareholders with practically nothing, according to leaked documents</a>"We were involved a little bit as a division of Amazon that relies heavily on great Wi-Fi," Siminoff said. "Eero had always been the best in class that we had been able to use and recommend to our customers...I wouldn't say at all [that] we did the deal... But I do think we were certainly a part of it because we are a product that requires great Wi-Fi connectivity. We use a lot of bandwidth so we were certainly very sensitive to Wi-Fi networks."<h2>'They're not telling us what to do'</h2>Ring, for the most part, is run exactly how it was before becoming part of Amazon, he says. Siminoff even says "you almost kind of forget" that Ring is now owned by one of the most valuable companies in the world. That is, until it's time to break out the checkbook."I almost feel like I'm kind of like brought into the Amazon shopping mall," Siminoff said. "It's like I was given a credit card and it's like, 'Go to whichever stores you need and buy whatever you need for yourself.' They're not telling us what to do, we get to ask."It's not just financial support that Ring has benefited from over the past year. Being part of such a large company also means Ring has the advantage of working with Amazon's security team and being held to the company's security standards. That's critical as ever for a company like Ring that creates devices capable of recording video and audio.In February, for example, <a href="https://dojo.bullguard.com/dojo-by-bullguard/blog/ring/">researchers discovered</a> a vulnerability Ring had patched <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/27/18243296/ring-doorbell-hacked-fake-images-security-experts">that could have let intruders</a>inject fake images into the Ring Video Doorbell's video feed, or snoop on its recordings."One thing with security that's important for everyone to understand is that the world continues to change and evolve," Siminoff said. "There's no such thing as something that's secure and stays secure forever. You're going to need to have that continued watching over it."<h2>Behind the curtain </h2>Siminoff's team also has the benefit of being able to learn about Amazon's product development process, and applying those insights to their own projects. Ring also has access to the resources of Lab126, Amazon's San Francisco-based outfit responsible for developing its consumer electronics gadgets like the Echo, which they can consult when facing issues. If Ring is having difficulties with the Wi-Fi antenna on a product, for example, they can contact Lab126 for guidance."The next thing you know, you have a team that's immediate that can step in," he said.Today, Siminoff is in a position many startup founders would likely hope to find themselves in. He's still running the company he founded more than six years ago with the support of an industry giant like Amazon. But he wasn't always in such a favorable situation. When he presented his idea for a smart doorbell on the ABC reality show Shark Tank in 2013 - then called DoorBot- each judge passed on his idea. To Siminoff, that kind of struggle and rejection is necessary for achieving success."It should be really hard and it should be something that you have to fight for, and it should be something that is a lot of risk," he said. "Because if you actually make it, the rewards outweigh the work that you put in." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/foldable-phone-samsung-huawei-apple-motorola-2019-3">Everyone's talking about foldable phones, but a few things need to happen before people start buying them</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/M7gMs5Fk-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

A year after selling to Amazon for $1 billion, the chief inventor of the Ring video doorbell explains how he's bringing his entrepreneurial spirit to the online retailer

You Searched For "smart speaker snooping" and got 5 results

Researcher finds Google Home speaker vulnerable of getting hacked and snooping on conversations

Dhruv Mohan

MediaTek announces octa-core Genio 700 chipset for smart home, smart retail, and industrial IoT products

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What you need to know in advertising today

Tanya Dua

How brands can provide personalised user experience without violating their privacy

Karuna Sharma

A year after selling to Amazon for $1 billion, the chief inventor of the Ring video doorbell explains how he's bringing his entrepreneurial spirit to the online retailer

Lisa Eadicicco