Google has restored some videos taken by the Nest doorbell of Nancy Guthrie, in a bid to help law enforcement in its ongoing case. It had been thought that this was impossible, due to Guthrie being on the free tier of Google Home. However, Google has been able to find those videos, an imaginable boon for those looking into the mystery of Guthrie’s disappearance.
But while this is undeniably a very good thing, it also raises questions about how much control Google really has over all the data created by your devices.
Chilling videos show efforts to remove the Nest doorbell
The two videos, released on the FBI’s YouTube channel, are less than thirty seconds long each, and show a man in a balaclava attempting to remove the Nest doorbell. Cupping a hand over the lens, it seems as if he attempts to lever the doorbell from the mounting bracket, later placing a plant over it to block the camera’s view. At some point after these videos were taken, the doorbell was eventually destroyed. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information that could help to solve the mystery of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
It was assumed any video taken by the Nest doorbell would not be able to be recovered. As a free user, Guthrie’s videos were only stored locally for up to three hours, and would not backed up online. So, it was thought that Google would not be able to recover the videos, as it had never really had them in the first place.
Except that’s exactly what it has done. And while that’s great for this particular case, it raises questions about how much presumed deleted or expired data Google really has in its possession. Statements from investigators say that Google “recovered [the videos] from residual data located in backend systems”, and it’s also claimed it took Google several days to recover the videos.
Google has previously claimed to Ars Technica that it does not use user videos directly for processes like AI training, but it considers actions taken with those videos and other such data to be fair game, which may explain why the video was available somewhere in Google’s systems to begin with.
Still, in the wake of the Ring doorbell Super Bowl advert and the scare that kicked off, it’s worth keeping this in mind with any connected media device. What may be inaccessible to you may not be to someone like Google.
