Google must break its approach to all or nothing when it comes to permissions

For a company that makes the right choice when it comes to mobile permissions, even if years after Apple has shown, Google has a blind spot on its assistants and its promotional products, such as Home Hub.

Basically, Google wants to get the most data from its users and clearly believes that this data will be communicated to facilitate the reading of recommended content and reminders.

It is nice to know that the road to work is congested or that you have to leave immediately to make this appointment at 14:00. But to tell Google every search term I enter or every web page I visit in Chrome, whether it's on my mobile or using an office in exchange for such information is too much to ask.

In the current state of things, it is all or nothing with Google; you can not dive in or out of the case. Want only assistant updates on your calendar? Forget it.

This scenario comes to the fore when it comes to Google's smart wizard with a screen, the Home Hub, a device that Google wants to be at the center of your smart home.

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Unless you give Google the desired permissions for web history and apps, it's a good idea to get all the music out of it, because it blocks YouTube and Google Play Music badly until you do it.

At the present time, you can use any computer or smartphone in the world, grab the YouTube URL and read just about any video, but the hub of the house is not that lucky.

The irony really begins when, in the application of Google to control the Home Hub, it recovers paid YouTube and Google Play accounts; but, even in this case, Google's own hardware prevents the use of paid services.

See: Best Home Hub Alternatives That You Can Buy Now

"In order to provide the full experience of the wizard, Google Assistant requires certain levels of authorization," said a Google spokesman to ZDNet.

"Because Google Home Hub uses the Google Assistant for the YouTube interface, web activities and apps are a required permission to enable voice actions."

At this point, it should be noted that the Home Hub is a device with the front voice. Without it, the only way to play YouTube or Play Music is to stream to that device, making the Hub a Chromecast with a screen. and microphone.

It's an extraordinary situation for a Home Hub buyer to pay AUD $ 200 for a device that refuses to operate according to the advertised methods, because Google is not allowed to track them openly.

Read also: First impressions of Google Home Hub: a weekend of entertainment

There seems to be little technical reason why Home Hub could not work with individual access to Google Calendar, Gmail, YouTube, and other Google properties without the need to mess things up, but data dependency is a drug that can be used. ;hell.

The option of gracefully degrading services for those who choose not to participate in Google's data collection seems like a bridge too far for the search giant – business is business, and the company has made its decision .

ZDNet Monday morning opening

Monday morning opening is our opening salvo for the week in technology. Since we manage a global site, this editorial is published on Monday at 8:00 am in Sydney, Australia, at 6:00 pm Eastern Time on Sunday in the United States. It is written by a member of ZDNet's global editorial board, composed of our leading publishers in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.

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