Suzanne Humphries
In a recent blog post, Google provided an updated commitment to privacy and security for its Nest devices and announced it is publishing new security commitments in Nest’s centralized Safety Center. Google also promises at least five years of Nest device support.
The new security commitments align with those long-held by Google and add in a few new updates more tailored to Nest’s devices and services. Most notable on the list was Google’s promise to “issue critical bug fixes and patches for at least five years after launch.” It stated that the Nest team is diligent about staying up to date with new technology and the current security landscape by producing “many lines of defense,” like automatic security updates addressing known issues for Nest software.
Google is still validating Nest devices (introduced in 2019 or later) through an independent third-party security standard and will continue to publish those results and hold any new products it creates up to those standards. For reference, the original Google Home speaker launched in November 2016, and the original Google Nest Hub is three years old, so it’s possible that they’re coming up on end of life.
The tech giant also made a point to remind readers that it is still investing in the Google vulnerability reward program, that will pay anyone to find and report security vulnerabilities.
The blog also mentions the various security measures used to protect user accounts, most of which are automatic—like Security Checkups, suspicious activity detection, and two-step verification—along with a reminder that you can see all of the devices currently connected to your account via the device activity page.
Lastly, Google says that all of its devices introduced in 2019 and after use verified boot to double-check that it is running the correct software every time it restarts and that no unwanted third party has gained access to your account or control of your device without your say so.
The new Safety Center page states “A helpful home is a private home” and is a stellar resource to read through for anyone using Google products.
Source: Google
