331–340 of 361 posts
What you actually talk about with people (excluding maybe the proffesional stuff) is mundane stuff you see on your screens, newspapers, billboards, etc.
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1) App stores the trailing two minutes of speech in memory. 2) If the app detects a consumption-related trigger word, the related conversation is flagged for transmission to the server. 3) Flagged audio block is converted to text. Consumption related verbs ("buy", "purchase", etc) are identified. The syntax of the sentence clearly indicates which noun is the target of a given consumption-related verb ("new car", "poo…
Where's the proof that this is happening? Lots of people run network traffic sniffers to see what apps are doing. Lots of people decompile apps. Lots of people at companies leak details of bad things they are doing. Why has nobody been able to demonstrate this beyond anecdotes about talking about swimming pools and then getting adverts for swimming pool stuff?
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I have a suspicion it’s not Facebook or Google listening in, but rather other third party apps. In fact it’s not even the third party apps but the libraries/frameworks they use to show ads.
Android shows when an app is using the microphone with a green indicator in the upper right corner -- I'm assuming iOS has something similar. How would apps get around this?
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Yup - having worked at Google Display Ads (arguably the epicenter of such talk), I personally only ever witnessed people walking the walk, privacy-wise. The threats to our privacy are quite public and not at all illegal; IMO data brokers and 3P browser trackers are at the top of the list, but all of Google’s known ills are there too (location tracking, exchange monopolization, allowing predatory advertisers, gestures…
Well said. I've worked in adtech and this aligns with my experience. Alphabet probably wouldn't even make that much more money compared to its current ad program. There's no shortage of supply in display advertising.
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Android shows when an app is using the microphone with a green indicator in the upper right corner -- I'm assuming iOS has something similar. How would apps get around this?
How "hey siri" or "hey google" trigger phrases would work if they aren't listening?
Those chips do not log or transmit the audio they have access to.
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Where's the proof that this is happening? Lots of people run network traffic sniffers to see what apps are doing. Lots of people decompile apps. Lots of people at companies leak details of bad things they are doing. Why has nobody been able to demonstrate this beyond anecdotes about talking about swimming pools and then getting adverts for swimming pool stuff?
There will be no proof until somebody inside Apple who is in on the scam decides to grow a conscience and blow the whistle. Then they will be dismissed as a "disgruntled employee". Decompiling Siri probably will get you a lot of attention from very expensive lawyers that will make your life very interesting for a long while.
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I spent a long time running an adtech program. The biggest secret is how basic most advertising systems really are.
Just because most adtech is the equivalent of Internet billboards on the side of the highway doesn't mean these systems aren't in place. You don't even need a very complex system when the entire device platform is designed to spy on you. Take a look at this for example: https://www.theverge.com/23293687/amazon-irobot-acquisition-... Even simple ad systems are a huge privacy threat. Add to that audio, location, and ev…
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you make a very convincing argument. /s
Isn't it obvious? When someone talks a lot and most of those talks have zero relevant meaning or substance, then it's someone who is a shill.
There is a couple months where he is on every podcast. Then he is gone again.
You know who else does this, every other author on the planet. When a book is coming out, then suddenly the authors are on every podcast or show, talk, debate, anything they can manage to get on. Its a blitz.
You know what else happens on a book tour, they tend to give a highlight of the book. They don't sit there reading off references and citations. They give a streamlined high level idea of what the book is about, but not all of it, because they want people to go buy it.
One thing that is rarely discussed in relation to this urban myth is that it is widely believe and yet it doesn't actually effect the behavior of most believers. That is one of the major reasons why most companies and many governments don't care about privacy, the public doesn't really care about it either. People will of course choose privacy over no privacy with all else being equal, but privacy is the first thing…