DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Your phone is listening to you

I have never, ever, not even once, searched on line for contractor/handman liability insurance. Ever.

I had a meeting at church tonight where a discussion was held about finding someone to work odd jobs for the church. Someone mentioned it would be nice if the individual had their own liability insurance. I replied "it'll be tough to find someone qualified, to work part time, even at $20 an hour, that would pay their own liability insurance."

Guess what ad I just had pop up on my face book page? "Liability Insurance for Contractors and Handymen".

Again, I have NEVER searched for ANY insurance on line, on my desk top, ever, let alone on my phone. (3g Iphone 4's aren't conducive to internet connections)

Yet that ad, that I've never in my life seen before, pops up on face book just 2 hour after a meeting at church where those words were used?

I was sitting at the bar talking to my friend with my phone in my purse. It suddenly started talking alexa-style to google whatever we were talking about.

This happened twice.

It's creepy.

Turn off ad personalization in Google.

I thought this was just part of the agreement we had to get super computers in our pockets.

Are you sure?

Good question.

j/c

My ancient flip top just ignores me...perfect!

Yes, it IS listening. Constantly.
ALL. THE. TIME.

So are all in-home "assistant" devices, and anything else you have that is voice-controlled. Likely, even your newer TV's.

This same thing happened to someone at work. I was telling him about smart vent registers, and mentioned 2 by name. He has never heard of this (much less punched it into his phone), but there were the ads a couple hours later.

It's fairly well-known that Facebook does this (actively listens via your phone), but I have no doubt others (Google) do as well.

That's the thing. I know face book does. If I post something about going golfing, next thing you know I'm getting all kinds of golf ads on face book. I get that.

But, this was me, with my 3g Iphone 4, that I haven't used to get on line in years! Literally, years.

I don't do face book on it.........actually, let me clarify what I DO do on my phone, it will be simpler: I make calls and receive calls, and I text.

Your iPhone 4 has a microphone. It listens to you.

Go into 'settings' then 'privacy' and then 'microphone'.

This should show whether or not your microphone is turned on and any apps that are also listening to you.

Turn them off.

All of the major internet platforms listen, and they all sell their data to large data wholesalers. There are MASSIVE databases out there where businesses have over 1,000 points of data on *EVERYONE*. With this data, they can tie you - specifically - to almost any online action you perform. They know more about you than most of your family, and as a result of this, they can sell exceptionally targeted ads. They know your politics, they know your car preferences, they know what clothes you like, and they know which porn sites you visit. They can sell your name, address, email address, Facebook account, etc.. .to anyone seeking lists, and it will all be based on the data they have gathered on you and what the buyer of the lists is looking to target.

Here is a fascinating article on that subject just showing how much data your phone collects on you and sells.

Not even just listening to you but by tracking your every movement and then selling that information for advertising purposes etc..

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/10/business/location-data-privacy-apps.html

Yeah... I'm not talking about posting. I'm talking about talking out loud when your phone is within earshot. Facebook (specifically, the app) on your phone does it. Apparently Google also (somehow) does it on your phone. The smart speakers with the smart assistants also do it (listen to you and log).


I'll put it this way... whenever an app on my phone asks me for permission, I have a VERY long internal conversation on whether I want to grant it that permission.

Yeah! So!
Why the heck! Do we still have to fill out a Census form every 10 years!

In 1990 people told me, there was a super computer, in Europe, called the "beast" that was able, to hold 100,thousand, pages of information,
on everybody who had "ever" lived. So..

But yeah, we have to fill out a Census form? Give me a break!

Did that. It says: Applications that have requested access to the microphone will appear here.

And there's nothing.

I guess lucky for me. I don't go to porn sites.


(now watch, porn sites will start showing up)

I complain about Apple all the time, they've never said a word Though I'm sure they love the significantly higher number of complaints I have about Microsoft products (well, mostly Word) though.

It’s about time somebody listened to me!!

Seriously, I get this quite a bit with ads. It’s always strange, even if it happens often

I feel reminded of the part of the movie "White men Can't Jump" where they are talking about hearing Jimmy Hendricks or just listening to him.

jc

The most dangerous part of your phone is GPS. The listening won't hurt you, but GPS let's others know where you are in real time. If you need to be worried about something that would be what I would worry about.

Cool now if I could find a way to get the smell of my farts, to get to them along with the sound, I will consider my life complete.

If you're phone is set to wake up via voice, then it is always listening, you can turn that off.

Of course you then cannot use wake up commands like "hey Siri" or "Hey Google" to activate your phone.

It's not just real-time. Your locations are among the data points logged and sold. Whomever makes your phone knows exactly the places you go and how often, and so does anyone that wants to buy that information.

Conspiracy theorists be like


"16 And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name"

except none of this is just theory. It is absolute known fact.

The only real unknowns are to what extent the devices continue to listen & monitor even after you turn off all settings and opt-out of all services.... which, I suspect, they still listen quite a bit AND still track your location data. They also use their own data - e.g. which cell towers you connect to - to track your location.

fantastic tune.

12-bar blues in 7/4 time.

Your phone is listening to you?

Yes. So is:

Siri
Alexa (on or off)
Your computer
Your computer's camera which you might not even use

etc., etc., etc.

The only entity that doesn't really listen to you are politicians.

I'll add, perhaps for some, your spouse/significant other after awhile.

Beat me to this comment.

Fixed it for you.

*edit*
Guess I should read a few more posts before firing off a quip.

Just watch the social dilemma and you'll see what we're really up against..

I had a nice talk with my phone tonight. It's actually quite the conversationalist.

Before I start talking to my phone on a regular basis, I’m holding out for my phone to be able to host a seance. I want to ask my dad what he was thinking marrying a woman who was so short that I wasn’t able to make it to 6’ tall.

I still look up to you buddy

I love ya bud!

I'm sure there's an app for that

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=seance&hl=en