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Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

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Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#221

Post by patrakov »

mindcrash wrote: post #85

Way back then I exposed massive data collection from Twitter by Google which made it possible to plot locations at which you used Twitter in Google Maps by simply putting your Twitter handle into the search field. Somehow they knew about these locations even when you opted out of sharing location data with Twitter (I checked) -- so this was only possible by Twitter privately providing this information to Google. This…

Is this your experiment? https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy https://www.geocreepy.com/

Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#222

Post by saagarjha »

DrillShopper wrote: post #205
kelnos wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us want to be able to cross the country in an afternoon, and not have to spend days on a slow, uncomfortable train to make the same trip. I don't think that's unreasonable.

Private and charter aviation exists and is free from those constraints.

Some of us are not billionaires.

Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#223

Post by dangus »

teeray wrote: post #218
dangus wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally not compelled in this case, the TSA signage says that the image capture is completely optional. More generally, having your stuff screened for security to get on a commercial plane isn't a 4th amendment violation, the word "unreasonable" is right there in the amendment for a reason. You're in public in an enclosed flying object bringing your goods onto someone else's plane with 100+ strangers aboard, it is…

Image capture is optional, your other option is something possibly unpleasant and may make you miss your flight

That is not the other option at all. The other option is essentially just the traditional screening process.

> Standard ID credential verification is in place – Travelers who decide not to participate in the use of facial recognition technology will receive an alternative ID credential check by the TSO at the podium. The traveler will not experience any negative consequences for choosing not to participate. There is no issue and no delay with a traveler exercising their rights to not participate in the automated biometrics matching technology.

My goodness this thread is just the most annoying tinfoil hat thread I've seen all day. Y'all are spending too much time online.

Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#224

Post by saagarjha »

tsoukase wrote: post #170
bentt wrote: post #157

One time my wife and I had a random conversation, utterly random, about cat hamster wheels. Like, why doesn't that exist? I got an ad for it the next day (it exists). I don't believe that my phone is not listening to me and I challenge you to choose a random word out of the dictionary and say it 100 times in front of your phone.

A few times per year I similarly have a conversation with my wife at night (lastly about a hair type) and the next morning a corresponding ad was presented at her at Facebook (shampoo). Only her Android phone was at the room (open, logged in Facebook in Chrome, no app). I definitely believe they hear us but they trigger the action with care and selectively, so as not to get caught (eg to low tech people, when the ad…

People have! They haven't found anything yet.

Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#225

Post by celeritascelery »

alpaca128 wrote: post #204
torben-friis wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not even sure that’s possible for some sites. A few years ago I tried to create a separate digital footprint from scratch (just an experiment out of boredom when my isp offered a second number for free). I used an ultra cheap never before used android phone and set it up outside my home. Google went nuts. All sorts of captchas, security checks and attempts to link me to other information popping up on every step.…

Apple secretly linked my account to my >15 year old inactive account as well as another random account that isn't even mine. Nothing happened of it until I let my iPhone sync its settings to a new iPad. The iPad spammed a password input form for my old account that blocked all other UI elements. It didn't accept any password even after a password reset. Took me an hour to make the tablet usable again. The password fo…

I had this same issue. About once a week it would prompt me for the password for an old Apple ID. I eventually started over from scratch to work around the issue.

Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#226

Post by bananaboy »

simonw wrote: post #56
number6 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A swan can't stop a hurricane

OK wow that actually fits here. https://simonwillison.net/2025/Apr/23/meaning-slop/

Searching for that phrase now shows your blog post as the top reference, and the AI overview now says it's a "nonsensical phrase used to illustrate how search engines can generate misleading or fabricated explanations for arbitrary inputs"! :O

Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#227

Post by Spooky23 »

DrillShopper wrote: post #171
bsimpson wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a crime that were compelled to concede our 4th Amendment rights in order to travel.

Amtrak and Greyhound do not require those biometrics, nor does renting a car and driving (or driving your own).

You can also walk. Lovers of freedom can walk from Manhattan to LA in 40-50 days. Of course if you look “wrong”, you’ll probably get rounded up in some flyover town.

Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#228

Post by dalf »

This partly explains why the recommendations I receive don't feel like mine. Multiple times, it's been obvious that the suggestions were pulled from other profiles and I could even tell whose.

My hypothesis

* The algorithms have linked my account to some others.

* They then serve me the embeddings extracted from those profiles. The near-real-time nature of this has crossed my mind more than once.

It's really unsettling, and afterwards I feel uneasy about any recommendations (all Google services, Netflix seems problematic too, not Amazon).

YouTube seems to have some hidden knobs for tuning this behaviour: after multiple negative feedbacks, the problematic content disappeared from my front page. However, the recommendations on the right-hand side of individual videos remain problematic, and the automatic playlists of YouTube Music are still strangely disturbing (even after multiple negative feedbacks).

Re: Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

#230

Post by caminanteblanco »

bsimpson wrote: post #145
LgWoodenBadger wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s similar with the TSA facial recognition photos. “We delete your photo immediately” but what they don’t say is that they don’t delete the biometrics from that photo.

It's a crime that were compelled to concede our 4th Amendment rights in order to travel.

It literally says right on the facial recognition sign that you're free to opt out, just let the TSA employee know
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