Is my phone listening to me?
Discussion
Ok. I know it isn’t. It must be just coincidence but this afternoon I was talking with colleagues about onomatopoeias in different languages. For the first time in ages I decided to watch a podcast by a Japanese YouTuber, which has come up on my YouTube feed…and the topic was onomatopoeias in Japanese!
Where did I put the tin foil…
Where did I put the tin foil…
Facebook spying on conversations https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
If you're on a newer version of Android it shows a notification on-screen when any app is accessing the microphone (including Goggle Assistant).
If your phone's mic isn't showing active when it shouldn't be then it's not that. What it is worth knowing is that big corporations' data mining and algorithms are extremely accurate at profiling you so it may just be that....or coincidence.
If your phone's mic isn't showing active when it shouldn't be then it's not that. What it is worth knowing is that big corporations' data mining and algorithms are extremely accurate at profiling you so it may just be that....or coincidence.
Skeptisk said:
Ok. I know it isn’t. It must be just coincidence but this afternoon I was talking with colleagues about onomatopoeias in different languages. For the first time in ages I decided to watch a podcast by a Japanese YouTuber, which has come up on my YouTube feed…and the topic was onomatopoeias in Japanese!
Where did I put the tin foil…
Coincidences happen.Where did I put the tin foil…
I don't know what options you've set on data sharing but worth checking. Not that you can do much about it.
I'd normally say nowt to worry about but onomatopoeias in Japanese is quite niche
.At the same time, it's onomatopoeias in Japanese, you're safe.
It's not just your phone that's out to get you.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11899217/...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11899217/...
I'm fairly confident it's listening.
I was sat round a table outside a pub a couple of weeks ago in Coventry. My wife was asking her brother where he was looking at moving. Both him and his wife talked about Keresley (because he thought it was a place they were looking and his wife looked aghast and said definitely not). It came up a couple of times as a joke. There was no googling houses or places (apart from the next pub I wanted to go to).
That night what advert pops up... Houses in Keresley.
I was sat round a table outside a pub a couple of weeks ago in Coventry. My wife was asking her brother where he was looking at moving. Both him and his wife talked about Keresley (because he thought it was a place they were looking and his wife looked aghast and said definitely not). It came up a couple of times as a joke. There was no googling houses or places (apart from the next pub I wanted to go to).
That night what advert pops up... Houses in Keresley.
remedy said:
I'm fairly confident it's listening.
I was sat round a table outside a pub a couple of weeks ago in Coventry. My wife was asking her brother where he was looking at moving. Both him and his wife talked about Keresley (because he thought it was a place they were looking and his wife looked aghast and said definitely not). It came up a couple of times as a joke. There was no googling houses or places (apart from the next pub I wanted to go to).
That night what advert pops up... Houses in Keresley.
Are they on Facebook or other social media? Could houses in Keresley have come up in such conversations? Did they do an internet search? Did you open an app that had location permissions?I was sat round a table outside a pub a couple of weeks ago in Coventry. My wife was asking her brother where he was looking at moving. Both him and his wife talked about Keresley (because he thought it was a place they were looking and his wife looked aghast and said definitely not). It came up a couple of times as a joke. There was no googling houses or places (apart from the next pub I wanted to go to).
That night what advert pops up... Houses in Keresley.
Your phone can be used as a listening device without you knowing, it’s in the gsm specification, but not by Facebook or similar.
People are more easily profiled than they think and the algorithms are not out to get you. They just want money. But with cross site data sharing it’s easy to wonder how did they know that?
There's an emerging type of nutter that we can call the 'Listening Phone Deniers'; those who believe no such thing occurs in the face of abundant evidence that it does. I'll add to the evidence.
Was recently working in St Lucia. Was sat in the bar with a colleague one evening and got chatting about Clarkson Farm and then Farming in general. My colleague is Scottish and lives in Hungary. He nips off to the loo so I hop on Facebook to discover my feed full of adverts for Farming Machinery, Farming services and the like. Oddly, all of these were for companies in Scotland (I live in Essex). Colleague returns to find his Facebook feed similarly populated with Farming related adverts from companies in Austria, Hungary.....and Essex. This to me suggest not only are they listening, the phones are talking to each other (and not always getting it right).
Was recently working in St Lucia. Was sat in the bar with a colleague one evening and got chatting about Clarkson Farm and then Farming in general. My colleague is Scottish and lives in Hungary. He nips off to the loo so I hop on Facebook to discover my feed full of adverts for Farming Machinery, Farming services and the like. Oddly, all of these were for companies in Scotland (I live in Essex). Colleague returns to find his Facebook feed similarly populated with Farming related adverts from companies in Austria, Hungary.....and Essex. This to me suggest not only are they listening, the phones are talking to each other (and not always getting it right).
Could just be shadow profiles and location tracking.
You have to ask the other party what they were searching for?
What they were searching for could pop up on your phone if your devices showed they were in proximity, and you are both in each others contact lists on whatsapp for instance.
You don’t have to be a genius to work out, two ppl in the same location at the same time on each others contact lists. When they are together, one of them searches for waffle toasters, they might be talking about waffle toasters?
Or one of them was searching for waffle toasters every night for a week, on waffle toaster forums, looking at reviews of waffle toasters. He meets someone, they are mutually on each others contact lists.. He/ she *might* start talking about waffle toasters?
Or someone is intently searching for waffle toasters but is whatsapping you on the side? Facebook don’t know the content of the message, but they know almost everything else about those messages. Who sent who what, to whom, when, how many messages etc. It wouldn’t be a stretch for them to assume you might be chatting about waffle toasters?
After I turned off location tracking on my phone, and went through all the privacy settings, spooky coincidences stopped. Try an online privacy guide and spend 30 mins configuring your devices if this worries you.
I also use duckduckgo as my primary browser, that has quashed even more tracking.
You have to ask the other party what they were searching for?
What they were searching for could pop up on your phone if your devices showed they were in proximity, and you are both in each others contact lists on whatsapp for instance.
You don’t have to be a genius to work out, two ppl in the same location at the same time on each others contact lists. When they are together, one of them searches for waffle toasters, they might be talking about waffle toasters?
Or one of them was searching for waffle toasters every night for a week, on waffle toaster forums, looking at reviews of waffle toasters. He meets someone, they are mutually on each others contact lists.. He/ she *might* start talking about waffle toasters?
Or someone is intently searching for waffle toasters but is whatsapping you on the side? Facebook don’t know the content of the message, but they know almost everything else about those messages. Who sent who what, to whom, when, how many messages etc. It wouldn’t be a stretch for them to assume you might be chatting about waffle toasters?
After I turned off location tracking on my phone, and went through all the privacy settings, spooky coincidences stopped. Try an online privacy guide and spend 30 mins configuring your devices if this worries you.
I also use duckduckgo as my primary browser, that has quashed even more tracking.
Edited by wyson on Wednesday 5th April 07:39
StevieBee said:
There's an emerging type of nutter that we can call the 'Listening Phone Deniers'; those who believe no such thing occurs in the face of abundant evidence that it does. I'll add to the evidence.
Was recently working in St Lucia. Was sat in the bar with a colleague one evening and got chatting about Clarkson Farm and then Farming in general. My colleague is Scottish and lives in Hungary. He nips off to the loo so I hop on Facebook to discover my feed full of adverts for Farming Machinery, Farming services and the like. Oddly, all of these were for companies in Scotland (I live in Essex). Colleague returns to find his Facebook feed similarly populated with Farming related adverts from companies in Austria, Hungary.....and Essex. This to me suggest not only are they listening, the phones are talking to each other (and not always getting it right).
There’s an emerging type of nutter that’s technically illiterate but thinks they can criticise those who aren’t.Was recently working in St Lucia. Was sat in the bar with a colleague one evening and got chatting about Clarkson Farm and then Farming in general. My colleague is Scottish and lives in Hungary. He nips off to the loo so I hop on Facebook to discover my feed full of adverts for Farming Machinery, Farming services and the like. Oddly, all of these were for companies in Scotland (I live in Essex). Colleague returns to find his Facebook feed similarly populated with Farming related adverts from companies in Austria, Hungary.....and Essex. This to me suggest not only are they listening, the phones are talking to each other (and not always getting it right).
See also every other internet conspiracy theorist.
I’d love you to explain how you think your phones were talking to each other. Knowing what I know I know they weren’t. But make me laugh.
This to me suggests you don’t understand Facebook and should probably delete that app. I wouldn’t have it on my phone. You were both on Facebook in the same location.
Funk said:
If you're on a newer version of Android it shows a notification on-screen when any app is accessing the microphone (including Goggle Assistant).
If your phone's mic isn't showing active when it shouldn't be then it's not that. What it is worth knowing is that big corporations' data mining and algorithms are extremely accurate at profiling you so it may just be that....or coincidence.
In that example the notification should be on permanently as it's always listening for "Hey Google"If your phone's mic isn't showing active when it shouldn't be then it's not that. What it is worth knowing is that big corporations' data mining and algorithms are extremely accurate at profiling you so it may just be that....or coincidence.
wyson said:
Could just be shadow profiles and location tracking.
You have to ask the other party what they were searching for?
What they were searching for could pop up on your phone if your devices showed they were in proximity, and you are both in each others contact lists on whatsapp for instance.
After I turned off location tracking on my phone, and went through all the privacy settings, spooky coincidences stopped. Try an online privacy guide and spend 30 mins configuring your devices if this worries you.
I also use duckduckgo as my primary browser, that has quashed even more tracking.
Precisely. Additional options are use private/incognito mode when browsing and stick to the browser rather than dedicated apps.You have to ask the other party what they were searching for?
What they were searching for could pop up on your phone if your devices showed they were in proximity, and you are both in each others contact lists on whatsapp for instance.
After I turned off location tracking on my phone, and went through all the privacy settings, spooky coincidences stopped. Try an online privacy guide and spend 30 mins configuring your devices if this worries you.
I also use duckduckgo as my primary browser, that has quashed even more tracking.
Edited by wyson on Wednesday 5th April 07:11
You can go too far with the tinfoil and you can’t control what your circle of friends do. I know I’ve been shadow profiled and there’s not much I can do about it. But I’ll not lose sleep over it either.
Edited by cheesejunkie on Wednesday 5th April 07:30
cheesejunkie said:
People are more easily profiled than they think
This is a big part of it. People all think they are individuals, but in reality the vast majority watch the same TV shows, follow the same sports, eat in the same franchised outlets, drink the same lager or supermarket plonk, wear the same clothing brands, holiday in the same places and drive the same cars.cheesejunkie said:
Are they on Facebook or other social media? Could houses in Keresley have come up in such conversations? Did they do an internet search? Did you open an app that had location permissions?
Your phone can be used as a listening device without you knowing, it’s in the gsm specification, but not by Facebook or similar.
People are more easily profiled than they think and the algorithms are not out to get you. They just want money. But with cross site data sharing it’s easy to wonder how did they know that?
But the point was that no one searched for houses in Keresley because the sis in law was correcting my brother in law who got the place name wrong.Your phone can be used as a listening device without you knowing, it’s in the gsm specification, but not by Facebook or similar.
People are more easily profiled than they think and the algorithms are not out to get you. They just want money. But with cross site data sharing it’s easy to wonder how did they know that?
It was just a place name that came up as a joke and then Facebook started asking me if I was interested in seeing houses there's, later that night.
StevieBee said:
There's an emerging type of nutter that we can call the 'Listening Phone Deniers'; those who believe no such thing occurs in the face of abundant evidence that it does. I'll add to the evidence.
Was recently working in St Lucia. Was sat in the bar with a colleague one evening and got chatting about Clarkson Farm and then Farming in general. My colleague is Scottish and lives in Hungary. He nips off to the loo so I hop on Facebook to discover my feed full of adverts for Farming Machinery, Farming services and the like. Oddly, all of these were for companies in Scotland (I live in Essex). Colleague returns to find his Facebook feed similarly populated with Farming related adverts from companies in Austria, Hungary.....and Essex. This to me suggest not only are they listening, the phones are talking to each other (and not always getting it right).
The phone isn't listening, but behavioural advertising certainly accounts for geolocation ( / colocation) - publicly so, there's no subterfuge or need to guess about that.Was recently working in St Lucia. Was sat in the bar with a colleague one evening and got chatting about Clarkson Farm and then Farming in general. My colleague is Scottish and lives in Hungary. He nips off to the loo so I hop on Facebook to discover my feed full of adverts for Farming Machinery, Farming services and the like. Oddly, all of these were for companies in Scotland (I live in Essex). Colleague returns to find his Facebook feed similarly populated with Farming related adverts from companies in Austria, Hungary.....and Essex. This to me suggest not only are they listening, the phones are talking to each other (and not always getting it right).
We can all remember a few occasions where an advert pops up for EXACTLY what we've just been talking about. And disregard the thousands of hours of phone use where that... hasn't happened. Such is the human need to establish a correlation.
Edited by iphonedyou on Wednesday 5th April 10:10
remedy said:
cheesejunkie said:
Are they on Facebook or other social media? Could houses in Keresley have come up in such conversations? Did they do an internet search? Did you open an app that had location permissions?
Your phone can be used as a listening device without you knowing, it’s in the gsm specification, but not by Facebook or similar.
People are more easily profiled than they think and the algorithms are not out to get you. They just want money. But with cross site data sharing it’s easy to wonder how did they know that?
But the point was that no one searched for houses in Keresley because the sis in law was correcting my brother in law who got the place name wrong.Your phone can be used as a listening device without you knowing, it’s in the gsm specification, but not by Facebook or similar.
People are more easily profiled than they think and the algorithms are not out to get you. They just want money. But with cross site data sharing it’s easy to wonder how did they know that?
It was just a place name that came up as a joke and then Facebook started asking me if I was interested in seeing houses there's, later that night.
As you’re a Facebook user, no idea how frequent, it will know you, know your friends and know you’re in the same location. It’s extremely unlikely your friends have not hinted at a house move on a Facebook app. Houses are available in Keresley etc.
Like I said I don’t know the specifics but those ads didn’t start appearing because your phone was listening to the conversation.
Take a step back and think about it. What would be required to allow every app on your phone to listen to you at all times? There are easier ways and we’re not that interesting
.I have an account but haven't posted since feb 2020.
My bro in law hasn't posted since 2015
My sister in law rarely posts and only shows walks or gets tagged.
The conversation at the pub was the first time this was raised.
Sorry, I don't mean to be argumentative, it's just not a simple missed communication connection, in my mind.
My bro in law hasn't posted since 2015
My sister in law rarely posts and only shows walks or gets tagged.
The conversation at the pub was the first time this was raised.
Sorry, I don't mean to be argumentative, it's just not a simple missed communication connection, in my mind.
remedy said:
I have an account but haven't posted since feb 2020.
My bro in law hasn't posted since 2015
My sister in law rarely posts and only shows walks or gets tagged.
The conversation at the pub was the first time this was raised.
Sorry, I don't mean to be argumentative, it's just not a simple missed communication connection, in my mind.
Understood. I’m not meaning to be argumentative either. I’m enjoying the conversation and speaking from some knowledge but it’s not my specialty. I do some work in ML and have plenty of telco experience.My bro in law hasn't posted since 2015
My sister in law rarely posts and only shows walks or gets tagged.
The conversation at the pub was the first time this was raised.
Sorry, I don't mean to be argumentative, it's just not a simple missed communication connection, in my mind.
You’ll have Facebook connections. You don’t know what every one of them are doing. Guess who does? Not Facebook employees, but the ML that’s reading everything and can make connections based on multiple sources of information including if you opened the app, went to the website, or clicked on something, you don’t need to post or be an active contributor. If you’ve background refresh enabled they’ll abuse it too, I don’t know if it’s still true but Facebook used to be a huge battery hog for doing so. But they can’t take control of the microphone in the background unlike government organisations.
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