Google has discovered a massive bug in Android TV. The company’s Google Home app used to manage Android TV’s linked accounts feature is letting people access other users’ data.

The issue, which only seems to affect some Android TVs, allows you to view and access data of other users with the same TV. A Twitter user first discovered the bug on their Vu Android TV, allowing them to view other users under the Linked Accounts on Google Home app with the same TV (via Ars Technica):

And that is not a huge problem — but things are about to get really worse. On TVs that allow you to show pictures in the ambient mode screensaver, you can literally use photos from strangers and access the photos without their knowledge. Because their accounts appear as part of your other accounts within the Google Home app, you can literally get access to these people’s photos without them knowing. And that means these users can also access your own photos on Google Photos.

Yikes.

The manufacturer of the Android TV stated that the issue was due to a software malfunction on the Google Home app, and it’s not a problem with its own TVs. Google first tried to blame the issue on the TV manufacturer, even going as far as telling the user to reach out to the TV manufacturer about the issue. The company later accepted defeat and disabled the Google Photos integration on Android TV devices as it looks into fixing the issue.

Tagged with Android TV, Google Photos