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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

#251

Post by immibis »

torben-friis wrote: post #197
immibis wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't every site route every support request for every reason into the digital trash can? You're supposed to just make a new account, using as many mechanisms as possible to make sure the site can't link it to your old account.

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.…

That's the modern tech landscape for you. They really want to know who you are because they make more money that way. For a similar experience, try Tor Browser.

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

#252

Post by strogonoff »

alpaca128 wrote: post #201
Spooky23 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is so much time spent “debunking” audio recordings being shared with various entities it makes me more suspicious. Just like Facebook’s “we never sell your data (we just stalk you and sell ads using your data)”. I’m sure there’s a similar weasel excuse… “we never listen to your audio (but we do analyze it to improve quality assurance)”

> There is so much time spent “debunking” audio recordings being shared Not really. 99% of the time it's someone claiming that it happens. And it's always an anecdote, never clear proof that it happened. Let alone that it happened because of the audio and not web activity. And that the conversation was actually the cause for the ad and not the other way around. Is it technically possible? Sure. But if so many people…

I observed a clean experiment that showed a friend’s Google Pixel phone listening to us and adjusting news stories on Google app’s home screen.

However:

— IIRC the phone was unlocked,

— this only affected the news feed, and

— this was 5–6 years ago.

We 1) noted how Google app shows some selection of news after opening, 2) talked clearly for a minute about a very random and conspicuous topic in presence of the unlocked phone, and 3) demonstrated that the Google app showing an article relevant to the topic within a few minutes. The article was a few days old, too, so it was clearly boosted out of more recent stories.

The only reason it could be something other than the phone microphone is if I was misled by my friend steering us towards a predefined topic. However, that would require some extensive preparation to rule out the story appearing in the first step and would be very atypical for that person.

I recall seeing an article about Google admitting this and changing their policy to stop, but can’t seem to find it now. I imagine it was bad publicity, though to my friend it was a feature to see personalized content.

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

#253

Post by mindcrash »

patrakov wrote: post #221
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/

Mine was even creepier.

This one used data shared by the user (opt-in on sharing geolocation in the app or browser), which then is publically exposed through the API (like this feature says it would).

Mine doesn't give a shit, geolocation was shared even when turned off by the user in Twitter.

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

#254

Post by mindcrash »

gruez wrote: post #155
mindcrash wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See screenshot: https://xcancel.com/kpcuk/status/601451439215353857 Do note that at first it was assumed just Chrome was involved, but then people started to message me that they also saw it when using the apps, Firefox, Safari and other browsers aswell.

Sounds like they showing geoip for tweets/profiles?

IP isn't exposed by the Twitter API.

Also, sharing geolocation has been turned off by said user because reasons -- which make sense if you look at the location in the screenshot.

Geolocation has been turned off by me and others aswell.

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

#255

Post by mindcrash »

NikkiA wrote: post #136
hyperpape wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really indefensible to post this without linking to your research to show people what you found.

Tweets were geolocated, with a 'see tweets near me' page until about 14 years ago, so it's entirely feasible that at least some of that infrastructure has survived the feature being removed.

"Tweets near me" was based on people sharing geolocation with Twitter (one of the things you can opt-out of when setting up your profile).

I didn't share any geolocation with Twitter. At least not voluntarily.

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

#256

Post by patrakov »

mindcrash wrote: post #253
patrakov wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Mine was even creepier. This one used data shared by the user (opt-in on sharing geolocation in the app or browser), which then is publically exposed through the API (like this feature says it would). Mine doesn't give a shit, geolocation was shared even when turned off by the user in Twitter.

Sorry for misrepresenting the functionality of the original cree.py project.

What it does is download all photos that the user shared on Twitter, extract GPS tags from EXIF, and put markers on Google maps, annotated with these photos.

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

#257

Post by rahen »

gruez wrote: post #161
rahen wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These discussions seem to come up frequently lately. Both /e/OS and Lineage with microG provide good enough privacy for those who can't afford high-end smartphones like the Google Pixels. The ranking would probably be: - Pixel on GrapheneOS - Any Android smartphone on Lineage or /e/OS - iPhone on recent iOS (the best choice for technically illiterate people) People concerned with privacy should avoid stock Android ph…

>- Pixel on GrapheneOS >- Any Android smartphone on Lineage or /e/OS None of those operating systems does anything for tracking/advertising SDKs in apps, which is most of where the data leaks are coming from, not google/apple. Moreover unless you're willing to go no proprietary apps (ie. most apps people actually use), you'll need google play services, which means google can still collect data on you.

Those distributions either use neutered Google Play Services through a stub reimplementation (microG), or rely on sandboxing (GOS).

Either way, Google can only collect limited data on those distributions, and you have control over them. Concerning tracking applications, yes, some hygiene and good practices are necessary, the OS can only go so far.

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

#258

Post by number6 »

anenefan wrote: post #203
simonw wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

lol so it's getting that bad. Assigning meaning to random phrases is BS. If it keeps on going it'll start attributing meaning to misspelled words. LLMs are only as good or bad as they are created - or their function / parameters? Google got real sad mid 00s - it's all about the money now isn't it. Topic recently [1] re Google A.I. BSing. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43748171 ('Epistemological Slop: Lies,…

Isn't this how proverbs come to life? "Bobs your uncle" - all these proverbs are made up...

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

#259

Post by 93po »

arcfour wrote: post #239
caminanteblanco wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The TSA is - objectively, by their own audits - complete security theater. Why bother to defend them, exactly? Also, the spirit of the 4th Amendment is most certainly not "here, this is the easy way!" (yes, we are conducting mass surveillance but you can sort of opt out of one piece of it by going through a manual process over here that we will make you feel like you are burdening us by requesting)

correcting disinformation isn't defending something. do you want to live in a world where we dislike someone and so we just make up random terrible things about them that aren't true, and it's fine and encouraged because they're someone we dislike, and people aren't allowed to say "hey that's not actually true, at all"

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

#260

Post by paulcole »

intended wrote: post #237
paulcole wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m assuming like most friends you and your friends have nothing in common like interests, demographics, etc.? And I’m assuming you also made them aware of other ads you’d seen recently so they could see if those showed up as well?

Yep. They 100% do not share an interest in ear wax removal, or had a medical need of that nature. Why do you think I would put up a comment on HN of all places, with this degree of confidence. > tested with other ads… If I knew that this , was going to be needed to study, 5 years into the future, I would have conducted a double blind study. Sadly I could not, however, it’s still fun, so we can always replicate. The q…

I was kidding… Of course you and your friends share some demographics and interests—- making it unsurprising that you’d get similar ads.

> The question is, have you found a horrid ad yet? Side note, this was in the UK

The question is, why does it have to be a horrid ad? Does the phone only listen for things about horrid ads to show you?

You have to know that your phone isn’t listening to you right? That it’s just a coincidence and that when you’re told to be on the lookout for an earwax ad that you’re more likely to see one, right?

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