Google is the first Tech-group-face detection in the connected home and risked protectors new criticism of data.

The Internet group introduced a smart speaker with a Display and a camera that can adjust the display of it, who stands just in front of him. All the information about the face recognition would be processed only on the device and went at any time into the grid, emphasized Google’s Hardware-in-chief, Rick Osterloh to kick off the developer conference Google I/O on Tuesday.

The “smart Display” with the name of the Nest stroke Max will initially come only in the USA, the UK and Canada on the market and 229 dollars cost. Google promises automatic personalization, thanks to face detection a higher Use. At the same time, privacy advocates are, especially in Europe, face detection, in General, very skeptical. Google stressed that the function will by default be switched off and the users only enabled. The Concerns against the group wants to get even with a privacy pledge for the connected home: You will always clearly indicate which data are what is collected, it States, among other things. And Google will sell your personal information to anyone.

Networked speaker with Display, there is, among other things, of Amazon. The competitive unit from the Online retailer with the name Echo Show, the voice assistant, Alexa, has on Board, was a Hit last Christmas. Facebook offers a similar technology under the name of the Portal is mainly for video calls. The Portal cameras detect when they see a face in your field of vision, so that all the people in the room come into the picture – it does not identify the user but. At the same time, the Online could introduce network, at least for users that have consented to facial recognition in Facebook photos, a function similar to Google.

At the Start of the Nest stroke Max in other countries, there was initially no information. In Germany, first sold new to the previous model Nest Hub that is smaller and does not have a camera.

When Alexa-competitor Google Assistant managed the Internet group, a major breakthrough. Google voice recognition can now also locally on the Smartphone. So far the voice assistant as the Assistant, Alexa, or Apple’s Siri recordings to send to the speech recognition into the net. With the local processing of data, Google has secured itself a head start over the competition and can also claim a benefit in terms of privacy.

The function will be introduced in the autumn with new Smartphones, the Google brand, “Pixel”, said the responsible Manager Scott Huffman. In a Demonstration on stage, the assistance software responded extremely quickly to all voice commands. Also, it was not necessary to say in front of every command, the activation words, “Hey, Google”.

the new local function way that had been shrunk with the necessary software base of 100 Gigabyte to 500 megabytes, said Google chief Sundar Pichai. Overall, the Software work on machine Learning at Google directly to the devices of the user, instead of sending raw data to the Server of the group.

Pichai stressed that Google wanted to provide users with better ways to control over your privacy. So the automatic deletion of older Google collected users should be extended to include information with time, more categories of data. First of all, Google allows data to Web and App usage with an expiration date of 3 or 18 months. In Android Q, the next Version of the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, is restricted to the data-access App-developers also.

To kick off the developer conference to be held in a natural amphitheatre near the company’s Headquarters in Mountain View were Google-critic circles, a small plane carrying a Protest Banner over the event. Google: “control is not privacy,” along with the Hashtag “Save local news”. The roar of the plane engine was in the back looking up at the sky.

another new device, Google introduced the Smartphone Pixel 3a. The phone is a slightly stripped-down Version of the current Pixel 3, the Google brings a price of 399 euros on the market. A slightly larger model Pixel 3a XL will cost 479 Euro. Thus, the Internet group plays for the first time in the mid-price segment, in particular, Chinese suppliers are very strong. The phone will be displayed on the screen with new functions such as AR Navigation points, in the direction of the arrows in the camera image on the Display in the real environment.

dpa