Android TV bug causes a user’s private photo to leak

Recently, a Twitter user, @wothadei revealed that he found a bug in Android TV that caused the user’s private photo to be leaked. When he connected to a Vu Android TV and chose to “switch other accounts”, it was really shocking to see the names and avatars of all the people who used this TV! The video from @wothadei shows that you can also view private photos of other users through the slideshow feature of Android TV.

When I access my Vu Android TV through the @Google Home app, and check the linked accounts, it basically lists what I imagine is every single person who owns this television. This is shocking incompetence. pic.twitter.com/5DGwrArsco

— prashanth (@wothadei) March 3, 2019

In a statement to XDA-Developers, Google said the company was very serious to protect the privacy of its users and disabled this feature when investigating reported issues.

We take our users’ privacy extremely seriously. While we investigate this bug, we have disabled the ability to remotely cast via the Google Assistant or view photos from Google Photos on Android TV devices, Google spokesperson said.

Unfortunately, Google did not disclose more details about the vulnerability and what improvements it will make in the future.

Via: SlashGear