Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is your smartphone listening to you?

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 120 posts

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#71

Post by ibudiallo »

Not that long ago, I had an experience with this[1]. I'm currently running a test with my old phone to confirm that it is listening to me. I have an old android phone, with the microphone disabled (tape on the input)

Every once in a while, I will have the tape removed and say a few keywords, then disable it. My hope is to see if I will receive any advertising in with these niche keywords. It's only been a week so far, but I will update the post if there is anything.

(Note I have create a new google account just for it.)

[1]: http://idiallo.com/blog/be-mindful-with-ad-targeting (disclaimer: my blog)

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#72

Post by _audakel »

trakout wrote: post #19
cle wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you trust DVasive isn't itself malicious?

Isn't DVasive software founded by John McAfee? I'd trust it based purely off his personality. He's kinda crazy (in a good or bad way, depends on who you are), and he'd probably make a lot of noise if he found out his app was malicious.

Thats all is based on if he is somehow still involved with the technical details enough to figure it out. Most likely whoever put it in won't be talking about it to him.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#73

Post by treebeard901 »

sukilot wrote: post #67
ddebernardy wrote: post #18

> Facebook also told the BBC it does not allow brands to target advertising based around microphone data and it never shares data with third parties without consent. This and the follow-up paragraph read like: > Facebook monitors background noise already without using it themselves for advertisement targetting purposes, but will share the data with third parties if you miss a privacy setting. /tinfoil

Are you intentionally changing the scope of terms in your misparaphrase? FB doesn't share data, it uses data for targeting, and it doesn't target by mic data.

If we accept that facebook is monitoring your microphone, and they are not targeting ads based on the mic data, then what is the point of having it monitor your microphone to begin with?

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#74

Post by PhantomGremlin »

dredmorbius wrote: post #37
logicallee wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Google were serious about granular permissions in Android it would allow you to choose from three options: "allow", "block", "pretend to allow" for every requested permission, where the third would be described as "Your app will be given permission but will not have actual access unless you grant it." Then later you could have a pop-up "This app is requesting access to your camera. You have previously chosen to gi…

Google's Android permissions model, application ecosystem, and vendor partnerships are utterly and irredeemably broken.

Not from the point of view of Google's business model.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#75

Post by hatmatrix »

ddebernardy wrote: post #18

> Facebook also told the BBC it does not allow brands to target advertising based around microphone data and it never shares data with third parties without consent. This and the follow-up paragraph read like: > Facebook monitors background noise already without using it themselves for advertisement targetting purposes, but will share the data with third parties if you miss a privacy setting. /tinfoil

> It said Facebook ads are based only around information shared by members on the social network and their net surfing habits elsewhere.

so...cookies?

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#76

Post by edwintorok »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #12
jimhefferon wrote: post #4

If a vendor provided a physical switch with which I could turn off the mic, that would be a feature that I at least would consider very attractive.

That's in my proposal for a secure or private phone that I drop on people trying to build one. Hopefully it will get in a successful product at some point. Need one for mic, front camera, rear camera, and radios. Might compromise to have a physical switch for mic and radios with something inside phone (eg a jumper) to turn off others. I want to be sure I can cut actual power to mic and wireless, though.

See slide 30 on this Neo900 presentation: http://neo900.org/stuff/ohsw2014/ohsw2014.pdf

Also see the various kill switches on the block diagram (GPS kill, modem monitor, mic not directly attached to modem (so you could probably send fake audio/silence),etc: http://neo900.org/stuff/block-diagrams/neo900/neo900.html

See slides 16 through 23 here for some details on the modem/audio monitoring/separation: http://neo900.org/stuff/cccamp15/ccc2015talk/talk.pdf

Would this meet some of your criteria? If there is something missing you can discuss with the people involved (on IRC usually): http://neo900.org/contact

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#77

Post by RobertoG »

jimhefferon wrote: post #4

If a vendor provided a physical switch with which I could turn off the mic, that would be a feature that I at least would consider very attractive.

Yes, but maybe this is too ambitious. Maybe, for now, we should be happy if we can remove the battery.

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#78

Post by tdurden »

internaut wrote: post #6
jimhefferon wrote: post #4

If a vendor provided a physical switch with which I could turn off the mic, that would be a feature that I at least would consider very attractive.

After Snowden I just took a pliers to my laptop and ripped out the mic and webcam. It felt great.

Your solution is more foolproof, but Micro Snitch[1] is worth looking at - same company behind Little Snitch.

[1] https://www.obdev.at/products/microsnitch/index.html

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#79

Post by nshm »

stephengillie wrote: post #3

I'd be interested to see low-power voice recognition. My PowerShiri demo uses ~12% CPU on a Core2 Duo laptop when it's listening.

You need to try CMUSphinx http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net. In keyword spotting mode it is very lightweight. Python example is here: https://github.com/cmusphinx/pocketsphinx/blob/master/swig/p...

Re: Is your smartphone listening to you?

#80

Post by jacquesm »

digi_owl wrote: post #69
nickpsecurity wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean it's a soft-switch that tells you it does that. You have no idea if the radio is actually running at any time or not. That plus their reliability issues are why I don't like soft-switches.

Well in my case there is no sim in the slot, so i can't say i care.

It still has an ID (IMEI).
Post reply on HN