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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

#111

Post by VerdisQuo5678 »

o11c wrote: post #27
wiseowise wrote: post #10

> There is no easy way to close this privacy opening Sure there is. Hide screenshot taking behind permission and slap down hard apps that refuse to operate without them.

It says "screenshots of themselves". The application is responsible for rendering the screen in the first place so it fundamentally doesn't need a permission. Now, what could reasonably be a permission is "access the internet", but our overlords don't approve of that thought. (Contrast this to web pages, which do not render themselves and thus can sensibly be blocked from screenshotting)

Doesnt android already have a "network" permission? On some roms you can enable it/disable it on install of the app even

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

#113

Post by quijoteuniv »

« The article posits that the uncanny relevance of some ads is due to sophisticated data collection methods. Companies analyze user behavior, online activity, and social interactions to predict interests, making it seem as though devices are listening.

In essence, while smartphones may not be actively eavesdropping, the depth and breadth of data analytics employed by tech companies can create the illusion of such practices.»

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

#114

Post by leumon »

> Even though these ad algorithms are not nearly perfect (try to pay attention to how often you are served ads that are entirely irrelevant to your interests), the simple fact that they are so eerily correct even some of the time is the real conspiracy here.

This could be intentional. Having too many accurate ads is having a bad effect, because you then enter the uncanny valley of noticing what the data collectors all know about you.

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

#115

Post by kjkjadksj »

quijoteuniv wrote: post #113

« The article posits that the uncanny relevance of some ads is due to sophisticated data collection methods. Companies analyze user behavior, online activity, and social interactions to predict interests, making it seem as though devices are listening. In essence, while smartphones may not be actively eavesdropping, the depth and breadth of data analytics employed by tech companies can create the illusion of such pra…

There has definitely been cases where I have not looked up an idea at all on my devices, only mentioned it in speech at home, and the highly targeted at shows up on mobile the next day or even that day. I would take the correlation theory if I actually left data to correlate.

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

#116

Post by perching_aix »

blurbleblurble wrote: post #107

The phone is listening. Services like Shazam and Alphonso are constantly fingerprinting audio from the mics and sending these fingerprints up for "matching". What are they matching against? Against key "content". To check if the fingerprints from your phone mic match the "content" they have to do some kind of nearest neighbor search. What if the fingerprints aren't super close but they're somewhat close? To "content"…

> The phone is listening. Services like Shazam and Alphonso are constantly fingerprinting audio from the mics and sending these fingerprints up for "matching".

Could you please provide a source for this?

Just on the outset this sounds pretty wild if true. In the settings I do not see any permissions associated with Shazam, and only when I open it do I see the usual microphone indicator light up.

I will say though, it is weird that it doesn't have associated permissions listed, because clearly it can access the mic at least when it's open.

Edit: nevermind, found it, was just super hidden. But yeah, says it can only access it when the app is "in use". Now can it auto launch? Apparently also yes, after boot. Otherwise idk. It's further interesting I cannot tweak any of these permissions.

Edit #2: now it says that notifications are enabled for it, but then i check, and they aren't. i exercise the toggle, now it doesn't say that anymore, and the mic permissions are no longer hidden? Samsung please...

No amount of years in tech will rid me of tech pains it seems.

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

#117

Post by keybored »

iPhone will tell me that I have a 25m drive to get to work. Literally why? I know where I work and how long it takes. I have done it enough times for it to learn what I do at 07:30 in the morning. Is it just flexing repeapetedly that it did a simple inference?

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

#119

Post by tiltowait »

leumon wrote: post #114

> Even though these ad algorithms are not nearly perfect (try to pay attention to how often you are served ads that are entirely irrelevant to your interests), the simple fact that they are so eerily correct even some of the time is the real conspiracy here. This could be intentional. Having too many accurate ads is having a bad effect, because you then enter the uncanny valley of noticing what the data collectors al…

Amazon often tries to show me a dress store. I’m a guy, and I’ve never bought women’s clothing. On the surface, the ad makes no sense and is irrelevant—but what if I end up wanting to buy a dress for someone else? Then I might remember that Amazon dress shop.

This (or simple error) seems more likely to me than a conspiracy to appear less creepy, though I suppose all three could be in play.

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

#120

Post by dist-epoch »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #77

At the time I am typing this, the title on the page is: ""Your phone isn’t secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing"" Which is presently also the title on this post. Then as I read it becomes clear that it is merely focusing on Facebook. However the confusion that may stem from "Your phone isn’t secretly listening to you" The blog post never attempts to establish that your phone is not listening to…

Phones today show in the status bar if the camera/microphone is active.
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