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(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
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I don't know if phones are listening with an open mic, but I have no doubt they're doing things like scraping text messages. I sent my wife a text saying "I need new dress shoes for work" then went to Amazon and the front page was filled with men's dress shoes. And yes, I confirmed she hadn't searched for them first.
There are many anecdotes, and even I can think of a handful of times where I wondered the same. Officially, yes our phones are listening all of the time, but supposedly only for keywords for voice assistants, mostly.
Amazon, Google, and Facebook deny that they record all conversations, and Google even had users opt out of voice collection when accusations about these things first popped up.
It is likely that these companies have so much data about us and the people around us, that they are able to infer things that come up naturally in conversation with friends and family. For instance, they know when someone else in your vicinity searches for something. So, for example, when one of your friends searches for a movie that you talked about in conversation, these companies know to show you that movie's preview.
Still, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of these companies is doing something shady with audio data.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/100282/facebook-partner-admits-smartphone-microphones-listen-to-people-talk-serve-better-ads/index.html
And how exactly one is supposedly capable of proving such thing? Let's say someone video-records themselves saying something near the microphone, so to catch the moment when the phone does suggest an ad about what was spoken, then a skeptical would say "Oh, but it doesn't prove anything because the camcorder is actually a smartphone connected to the internet", so let's say that, instead of a modern smartphone, one uses some pre-Internet camcorder (old Sony camcorders, JVC, etc), so to rule out the possibility that the recording itself would affect the results. Then the skeptical would say "It also doesn't prove anything, you could've been googled it before".
There's absolutely no way to prove, except when it starts to happen with yourself, or if someone actually manages to sneak into corp's private Git/SVN/Mercury repo containing the closed source code and point "Ha! There it is, the pesky AI module responsible for NLP and voice recognition that actually feeds ad partners with microphone data in order to increase sales and profits".
Also, don't expect any dev or ex-dev from such corps whistleblowing such thing publicly because there's something called "NDA" (Non-disclosure agreement) and people that already did this (for example, Snowden) is generally seen as "crazy" or "liars" by the majority of people (and they are promised of fines and even jail for such break of corporate secrets).
They are totally listening.
I will use my new roof as an example.
back in February I needed a new roof. I have done zero internet searches for roofs, or related subjects (no searches about materials, contractors, regulations, aesthetics, nothing). My home also has no listening devices, so no Alexas or Google Homes, or any voice activated or automation of any kind. I dont even have any accounts on my phone, google or otherwise. My phone is for nothing but phone calls and text messages, with almost all the google and other stuff that can be disabled, being disabled to make it all the more creepy.
In my home, the first time I mentioned it to anyone aloud was to my grandmother, talking about the issues with the roof and how I'll have to be getting a new one soon.
The only device in the room was my phone. on the kitchen table, infront of me.
I did no searches for roofs or anything roof related afterwards, on any device. Nor did my grandmother (she half blind and can barely answer her phone, much less start doing internet searches about shit)
By the end of the day I had gotten 12 spam mails about roof contractors/new roofs/etc, where I had never received any prior (searched my emails to prove this fact, they go back years)
And every day since, I have gotten between 5-25 new spam mails, pushing every kind of roof related spam you can imagine. Despite the roof long since being done and over with.
And thats not the first time its happened either, Its just what made me start taking notice. It has happened several more times now that I've been taking notice of it.
The phone is listening, and I don't care who says otherwise.
Coincidences can happen, but multiple coincidences cease to be coincidences and start becoming a pattern of behavior and concern.
edit
THEY DO LISTEN https://www.tweaktown.com/news/100282/facebook-partner-admits-smartphone-microphones-listen-to-people-talk-serve-better-ads/index.html
The way this stuff works is by collecting many data sources and combining them. It doesnt have to be you that searches for roof stuff, could just be someone connected to you searched for it while on your WiFi, or say you call your mom or dad and then they start searching for a roof company online.
Literally addressed all that.
Those were examples meant to get you thinking about how data points you might not have realized even were data points or that they could be collected and combined.
I'm truing to impress on you that there is not just a dozen or so avenues to take your data that you need to think about (cloud based anything, phones, computers, TVs, payment cards), its thousands of them.
Literally every single service shares with nearly every other service through the advertising network.
The only reason that this is even still a discussion is because it can't be prevent they dont do something. No matter what proof is out forward, noone would ever 100% say anything about it. Its still more likely that your data was combined aggressively enough with those around you to the extent it felt akin to spying.
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/100282/facebook-partner-admits-smartphone-microphones-listen-to-people-talk-serve-better-ads/index.html
They do listen.
I use an extension to remove all cookies, so the site just shows the usual random crap. I'll log in when I'm ready to order.
Same happened to me and my mom discussing new bedsheets and covers a xouple years ago. I just started getting adds for them.