The Chinese Listen

Last week, Baidu (BIDU), the giant Chinese tech company, unveiled XiaoduPods, a new wireless hearable with auto-translate features, available only in China (for now). For 199 yuan, you can search the web, make calls, hear music and… get instant, real-time Chinese/English translation. As far as I can tell, the processing is done both locally and in the cloud. In other words, Baidu is listening, which means that the Chinese government is listening.

In contrast, Google Translate's (GOOG, GOOGL) mobile and AR features are processed mostly on your device, meaning that your privacy (while always at "American Big Tech Level" risk) is not at "Big Brother Level" risk.

This has nothing to do with Why You Think Your Devices Are Listening to You; that's not what this is about. The fear here is that Baidu (aka the Chinese Government) is actually listening. In the case of Baidu, I'm not sure the fear is unwarranted. -s