This isn’t sattire, it’s hell that we’ve normalized. The constant surveillance is way more thorough and insidious than anyone wants to know, and it’s so difficult to avoid that nobody wants to find out because it’s effectively hopeless.
That being said, the attained hopelessness around having privacy is so widespread I don’t feel like we’ll ever even try to stop it.
I still find it crazy. I was watching a show with a friend that displayed where people were from and one guy was from Canada, specifically Alberta. Being Canadian myself, I had the legal requirement to point out another Canadian and said “Hey, that guy’s from Alberta!” To which my friend said “I’ve been to Alberta.” I replied “I haven’t.” That was that. A few minutes later he’s scrolling through social media and tells me he’s getting a bunch of tourism ads for travelling to Alberta. He thought it was funny but honestly that just creeps me out.
What if we had said something we didn’t want everyone to know? What if we were from a country where being gay was illegal, and we mentioned something gay in the presence of a phone, and now we’re flagged as gay by these companies. The government then demands consumer information from them and now they have a list of gay people. It sounds paranoid, but the current US government really shows how quickly things can go from being socially acceptable to criteria for being sent to a concentration camp.
Any of the people in here saying there’s no proof that apps access your microphone don’t understand that you don’t need microphone access to listen in. Something on your phone has mic access, so all an app needs is access to your RAM. If not your phone, your tv. Or any voice activated device nearby. Microphones are not ears, they can be significantly more sensitive.
Or an even simpler possibility, the companies are lying because there is no consequence.
Yes there is. I track all data on my home network and on my phone. I can see exactly how many times every app on my own phone tries to access my microphone and camera, and how much data is being sent from my friends devices when supposedly not in use, and even supposedly turned off.
Anecdotally , on the rare occasion I use a computer without my general ad defenses, the only ads I see relate to the most recent conversations I’ve had with one particular friend in person.
So you are saying that apps on your phone can access your microphone without your permission? Wouldn’t you want to report that to Google or Apple or whoever made your phone’s OS?
Also, how did your individual phone become relevant for the assumption that this is a widespread phenomenon?
Finally, it’s great that you log your app activity, but you are aware that the scientist in the study I cited examined 17620 apps and found not a single instance of the app turning on audio and sending the data?
I’m saying they try to. My specific version of e/os traps apps in a box and lies to their data requests if they pretend they need a permission I won’t give them.
Even without a specific app having mic access, it has RAM access, so if any other app does have mic access, the data can be skimmed as it’s passing through.
Facebook has been, and is currently being fined for ignoring privacy laws, and is known to have profiles on people who don’t use their services. How do they build those profiles if you never gave them permission?
This isn’t sattire, it’s hell that we’ve normalized. The constant surveillance is way more thorough and insidious than anyone wants to know, and it’s so difficult to avoid that nobody wants to find out because it’s effectively hopeless.
That being said, the attained hopelessness around having privacy is so widespread I don’t feel like we’ll ever even try to stop it.
I still find it crazy. I was watching a show with a friend that displayed where people were from and one guy was from Canada, specifically Alberta. Being Canadian myself, I had the legal requirement to point out another Canadian and said “Hey, that guy’s from Alberta!” To which my friend said “I’ve been to Alberta.” I replied “I haven’t.” That was that. A few minutes later he’s scrolling through social media and tells me he’s getting a bunch of tourism ads for travelling to Alberta. He thought it was funny but honestly that just creeps me out.
What if we had said something we didn’t want everyone to know? What if we were from a country where being gay was illegal, and we mentioned something gay in the presence of a phone, and now we’re flagged as gay by these companies. The government then demands consumer information from them and now they have a list of gay people. It sounds paranoid, but the current US government really shows how quickly things can go from being socially acceptable to criteria for being sent to a concentration camp.
Any of the people in here saying there’s no proof that apps access your microphone don’t understand that you don’t need microphone access to listen in. Something on your phone has mic access, so all an app needs is access to your RAM. If not your phone, your tv. Or any voice activated device nearby. Microphones are not ears, they can be significantly more sensitive.
Or an even simpler possibility, the companies are lying because there is no consequence.
It’s actually not. There is no evidence that smartphones listening to users is a widespread phenomenon.
Yes there is. I track all data on my home network and on my phone. I can see exactly how many times every app on my own phone tries to access my microphone and camera, and how much data is being sent from my friends devices when supposedly not in use, and even supposedly turned off.
Anecdotally , on the rare occasion I use a computer without my general ad defenses, the only ads I see relate to the most recent conversations I’ve had with one particular friend in person.
So you are saying that apps on your phone can access your microphone without your permission? Wouldn’t you want to report that to Google or Apple or whoever made your phone’s OS?
Also, how did your individual phone become relevant for the assumption that this is a widespread phenomenon?
Finally, it’s great that you log your app activity, but you are aware that the scientist in the study I cited examined 17620 apps and found not a single instance of the app turning on audio and sending the data?
I’m saying they try to. My specific version of e/os traps apps in a box and lies to their data requests if they pretend they need a permission I won’t give them.
Even without a specific app having mic access, it has RAM access, so if any other app does have mic access, the data can be skimmed as it’s passing through.
Facebook has been, and is currently being fined for ignoring privacy laws, and is known to have profiles on people who don’t use their services. How do they build those profiles if you never gave them permission?