Google announced a new Safety Center today to provide Nest device owners with a place to find out how Google is protecting their privacy if they own one of their products. In addition to the new Center, they committed to providing updates for a number of years to Nest products.
The Safety Center (you can visit it here) talks about what Google does with camera feeds, microphone access, WiFi data, and other sensors that a Nest device may utilize. All of these items are connected, so if you own one and want to know where you can see what kinds of data comes from each of your devices and these components, the Safety Center will help you find it.
Each section provides a nice breakdown for what’s shared, how you can delete info, if anything is shared with 3rd parties, and how you can setup things like 2-factor authentication or catch a fresh update.
Speaking of updates, Google said that they plan to provide updates for Nest devices for at least 5 years from the time they were released. That “were released” part is key here, as it only means Google updates them from the date they started selling them, not from the time you might have purchased one. That make sense?
These updates should arrive automatically with security patches included. To see the list of still-supported devices, you can visit this Google Support page.
Taking a look around the Safety Center is probably worth your time if you own a Nest device. It pretty clearly explains what your devices are doing, how you can add levels of protection to your account, and more.