https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/10/pre-release-google-home-mini-goes-rogue-starts-recording-247/

The Google Home Mini isn't out yet, but Google is already dealing with an issue related to it.

Artem Russakovskii, the founder of Android Police, tells the harrowing tale of a Google Home Mini gone rogue. Russakovskii's pre-release unit, which he picked up from Google's October 4 event for the tech press, has apparently recorded "thousands of times a day" and attempted to respond to random noises. After swapping the device with Google, Google engineers determined that Russakovskii's Home Mini had a defective touch panel that was registering "phantom" touch events. The Mini has a touch-sensitive surface, and, to issue a command, you can either say "OK Google" or long press on the top. Russakovskii's unit was apparently registering touches at random, so it would randomly start recording audio of his home and storing it on Google's servers.