maybe your phone maybe listening to you afterall

[HomerJ]

came across this,

wouldnt supprise me but on the reddit thread someone says it may not be true so,

Marketing firm admits using your own phone to listen in on your conversations

Cox Media Group admitted that its “Active Listening” software uses AI to “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations.”

nypost.com

Shocking leak suggests your phone is listening to your conversations

Leaked pitch deck from alleged Facebook marketing partner Cox Media Group explains how they use your phone's microphone to listen to what you say and serve you targeted ads.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Bombshell leak confirms your phone may be listening to you – and telling Google

The 'Active Listening' service detailed in a leaked slideshow by a major marking firm reportedly listens in to microphones on smartphones, laptops and home assistant devices

www.mirror.co.uk

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1f7kwup

 

[Scoped Badger]

I can be talking about golden rabbits wearing bow ties and three minutes later I can an advert about buying one.

You’ll never convince me that our phones don’t affect that. Just wish they’d use it for some good instead.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I know there are certain apps like any from Meta / Facebook, and Twitter since Musk took over, any voice assistant like Alexa or Siri, and I suspect now any AI service (which are just modern voice assistants).

All of those will continuously monitor both camera, microphone and location on a mobile handset.

I don’t care how much they say they don’t do it, they do. Facebook literally multiple times per year are fined for being found to be lying about user data, and it's because they fines don't even come close to the amount of revenue they generate in breaking international and regional laws.

And I fully expect it's happening weather you're actively using the app or not.

This is why I was so heavily against WhatsApp (any Meta app) and always used Signal. Signal is by the original developers of WhatsApp, they sold WhatsApp to Facebook in 2014 on certain terms and Facebook broke all those terms, so the devs left Facebook and started Signal. https://thenextweb.com/news/neeraj-arora-whatsapp-sale-facebook-regret-analysis

Telegram is severely compromised also: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...ixel-and-samsung-galaxy-telegram-app-warning/

Always be wary of "Freemium" model apps and services. There is no such thing as free, they have to generate revenue. If they're freemium, then it's by advertising and selling your data. The only exceptions to this are apps under the GNU General Public License (GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix") which is the license model that all open source stuff falls under

This is why Apples upcoming AppleAI is going to be so attractive, all AI processing is on device rather than server side and paid for as part of the hardware cost. So amongst the options, it's going to be the most secure from a leak standpoint, and also because they don't gather and sell data. Although there will be the option to use an externally processed AI tool which is OpenAI GPT4o, this can be fully disabled, and if used, has to be agreed each time, and specifically selected over on board processing on AppleAI.

 

[TonyCarter]

Well I don't think mine is, as none of the most common things I talking about have ever been advertised to me.

(i.e. Heather Graham, Monica Belluci, Euromillions Win - the rest is 'fertiliser')

But I don't even have Siri enabled on my Mac, iPhone, iPad.

 

[SimonPeters116]

I know there are certain apps like any from Meta / Facebook, and Twitter since Musk took over, any voice assistant like Alexa or Siri, and I suspect now any AI service (which are just modern voice assistants).

All of those will continuously monitor both camera, microphone and location on a mobile handset.

I don’t care how much they say they don’t do it, they do. Facebook literally multiple times per year are fined for being found to be lying about user data, and it's because they fines don't even come close to the amount of revenue they generate in breaking international and regional laws.

And I fully expect it's happening weather you're actively using the app or not.

This is why I was so heavily against WhatsApp (any Meta app) and always used Signal. Signal is by the original developers of WhatsApp, they sold WhatsApp to Facebook in 2014 on certain terms and Facebook broke all those terms, so the devs left Facebook and started Signal. https://thenextweb.com/news/neeraj-arora-whatsapp-sale-facebook-regret-analysis

Telegram is severely compromised also: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...ixel-and-samsung-galaxy-telegram-app-warning/

Always be wary of "Freemium" model apps and services. There is no such thing as free, they have to generate revenue. If they're freemium, then it's by advertising and selling your data. The only exceptions to this are apps under the GNU General Public License (GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix") which is the license model that all open source stuff falls under

This is why Apples upcoming AppleAI is going to be so attractive, all AI processing is on device rather than server side and paid for as part of the hardware cost. So amongst the options, it's going to be the most secure from a leak standpoint, and also because they don't gather and sell data. Although there will be the option to use an externally processed AI tool which is OpenAI GPT4o, this can be fully disabled, and if used, has to be agreed each time, and specifically selected over on board processing on AppleAI.

I've never even heard of Signal. After a quick look at the site, it looks interesting.
Is it any good?

I don't have any Smart Speaker, nor do I want one. They have to be listening to you at all times, otherwise how are they going to hear you say "Smart Speaker, what time is it?". And if they are listening to you at all times, Google, Amazon, Meta etc are going to monetise what you say, even if that's only teaching their chat-bots how to chat more humanlike.
Even if I had one, it would be bored to tears most of the time 😀 I live alone, and as I'm a longish distance truck driver, I can be away from home all week, several weeks in a row, home at weekends in between. But I'm often out of the house, or if I'm in, I'm reading or on my computer. So all it would hear was me swearing at my game, because my body dodged the wrong way and got itself killed, or something similar 😆
I do use Faceache, Messenger and Whatsapp. But I only use Whatsapp for a family group, because the family said so.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I've never even heard of Signal.

Really good, would highly recommend it, has far better voice and video calling than WhatsApp so I use it for people abroad for free calls over wifi.

You can even mask your phone number if you ever wanted to, not that it's something I've ever had to do as I only chat with people I know.

Fully encrypted.

Far far better for actual privacy than any of the other chat apps.

 

[SimonPeters116]

Really good, would highly recommend it, has far better voice and video calling than WhatsApp so I use it for people abroad for free calls over wifi.

You can even mask your phone number if you ever wanted to, not that it's something I've ever had to do as I only chat with people I know.

Fully encrypted.

Far far better for actual privacy than any of the other chat apps.

That sounds good.

I have a friend in Ukraine. They can't use many apps, like Messenger or Whatsapp. Government restrictions I think, but I'll look into that. Signal might be just the thing. It might also be blocked as well though. I'll have to find out.
Then I'll have to learn to speak Ukrainian 😆

 

[SpyderTracks]

That sounds good.

I have a friend in Ukraine. They can't use many apps, like Messenger or Whatsapp. Government restrictions I think, but I'll look into that. Signal might be just the thing. It might also be blocked as well though. I'll have to find out.
Then I'll have to learn to speak Ukrainian 😆

It's blocked in Russia but not Ukraine AFAIK

But as with any blocked communications, you'd just need a decent VPN to bypass the blocks.

To learn Ukranian I always found I was fluent in most languages after a litre of vodka.

 

[SpyderTracks]

That sounds good.

I have a friend in Ukraine. They can't use many apps, like Messenger or Whatsapp. Government restrictions I think, but I'll look into that. Signal might be just the thing. It might also be blocked as well though. I'll have to find out.
Then I'll have to learn to speak Ukrainian 😆

Interesting, wasn't aware of this, this is taken from the Wikipedia entry on Signal

Blocking​

Countries where Signal's domain fronting is enabled by default
Countries where Signal is blocked (March 2021)
In December 2016, Egypt blocked access to Signal.[215] In response, Signal's developers added domain fronting to their service.[216] This allows Signal users in a specific country to circumvent censorship by making it look like they are connecting to a different internet-based service.[216][217]As of May 2022, Signal's domain fronting is enabled by default in Egypt, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Iran, Cuba, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.[218]

And more on Signals specific Domain Fronting:

How countries attempt to block Signal Private Messenger App around the world

This report shares OONI measurements on the blocking of the Signal Private Messenger app in Iran, China, Cuba, and Uzbekistan.

ooni.org

So it looks like it may be able to bypass any blocks

 

[SimonPeters116]

Interesting, wasn't aware of this, this is taken from the Wikipedia entry on Signal

Blocking​

Countries where Signal's domain fronting is enabled by default
Countries where Signal is blocked (March 2021)
In December 2016, Egypt blocked access to Signal.[215] In response, Signal's developers added domain fronting to their service.[216] This allows Signal users in a specific country to circumvent censorship by making it look like they are connecting to a different internet-based service.[216][217]As of May 2022, Signal's domain fronting is enabled by default in Egypt, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Iran, Cuba, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.[218]

And more on Signals specific Domain Fronting:

How countries attempt to block Signal Private Messenger App around the world

This report shares OONI measurements on the blocking of the Signal Private Messenger app in Iran, China, Cuba, and Uzbekistan.

ooni.org

So it looks like it may be able to bypass any blocks

That's interesting stuff.