Nest Protect - a smart thermostat and not a future Google spy
Nest has vowed to make any privacy policy changes “transparent” and opt-in.
Following Google’s $3.2 billion Nest acquisition last week, Nest CEO Tony Fadell has clarified it will not follow in Google’s privacy footsteps.
Speaking at the DLD Conference in Munich, Fadell said that although there are no changes to the Nest privacy policies at present, any made in the future will be made fully known to consumers.
“At this point, there are no changes. The data that we collect is all about our products and improving them,” explained Fadell.
Google’s Nest acquisition was met with concern by consumers, especially as to how Google might use the personal data acquired by Nest products like the Nest Protect smart thermostat.
The search engine giant has come under fire in the past for its privacy policies, including the retention of personal data and failing to offer defined and explicit purposes for such storage.
In fact, Google has faced several legal battles across the world for its use of personal data to build a full picture of named individuals, without their full knowledge.
However, this will not be the case for Nest product owners:
“If there were ever any changes whatsoever, we would be sure to be transparent about it, number one, and number two for you to opt-in to it”, added Fadell.
The Nest CEO also revealed that the Google acquisition was the result of numerous meetings with Larry Page and other prominent executives over many months.
“The amount of things that I learned from them, personally, in the same meetings that they learned from me, personally… the two way interchange of what was for me intellectual happiness and the stimulation of being able to go back and forth, and really create a new world together – and in a different way than either of us had imagined – that was personally exciting to me,” Fadell revealed.
Read more: Nest purchase is bad for everyone, except Google
Via: The Next Web