Amidst user consternation regarding Google Chromium’s listening software, Google has made the feature optional, Business Insider reports. While the service in question “uses the computer’s microphone to listen out for the ‘OK, Google’ hotword to trigger voice searches,” users were not given the ability to opt out, the report states. Some expressed concern “Google was downloading a ‘black box' onto their machines that was not open source and therefore could not be verified to be doing what it said it was meant to do,” the report continues. “As of the newly landed r335874, Chromium builds, by default, will not download this module at all,” Google said in response, adding that if a user so chooses, the service can be obtained via the company’s web store.
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