I Phone Listening?
- Thread starter nmkid
- Start date
And they can see you
urbanrifleman
Site $$ Sponsor
If any God-fearing gun owner still has the Facebook app on their phone, or even belongs to Facebook at this point, I would question their judgment.
Artificial Intelligence can be good but it also can be bad.
jghoghunter
Gold $$ Contributor
Bad in ways we can't even imagine YET
dcali
Bullet Maker
They don't listen. There is no way to hide it from people with technical skill, and the cost of processing that much data in hopes that it finds some glimpse of an idea that you might want to buy something isn't worth it, even if people did't care. If you need further proof, try to find a company who sells the data or capability - you won't because nobody does it.
The creepy part is not that they're listening (as I said - they aren't), it's that they don't have to.
The creepy part is not that they're listening (as I said - they aren't), it's that they don't have to.
urbanrifleman
Site $$ Sponsor
There's no such thing as artificial intelligence. There is programming. Some of it is more clever than others. Machines cannot think. No matter what those people tell you, they lie. Machines cannot think they simply regurgitate what they've been taught.
urbanrifleman
Site $$ Sponsor
Seriously?
I know for a fact that they are listening and recording the data. The NSA has been talking about doing this for 30 years. This is nothing new. They changed the laws after 9/11 specifically so they could do it. And now these companies are building massive server farms so they can store all the data and sell it. A simple search on Google will show you that that is true.
Ned Ludd
Silver $$ Contributor
Is my phone listening to me? Yes — here’s why and how to stop it
Is my phone listening to me? Yes. Read more about why your phone listens to you and what you can do to stop it.
jackieschmidt
Gold $$ Contributor
A few nights ago, we were out with some friends having supper. Since we are all up in age, the conversation revolved around some health problems elderly people are plagued with.
Wthin 5 minutes my Wife and Sister in Law both started receiving unsolicited text on their “smart phones” concerning everything from support hose to funeral plans.
you better believe “they” are listening.
Wthin 5 minutes my Wife and Sister in Law both started receiving unsolicited text on their “smart phones” concerning everything from support hose to funeral plans.
you better believe “they” are listening.
CharlieNC
Gold $$ Contributor
How do you explain pop ups within five minutes of discussing an obscure topic? It's happened numerous times.
urbanrifleman
Site $$ Sponsor
Zuckerberg went in front of Congress and admitted they were mining and selling the data to a third party. They have admitted they are doing it. No one went to jail. No one even got arrested.
You bet your ass they're doing it.
urbanrifleman
Site $$ Sponsor
The Cambridge Analytica scandal changed the world – but it didn't change Facebook
A year after devastating revelations of data misuse, Mark Zuckerberg still hasn’t fulfilled his promises to reform
jghoghunter
Gold $$ Contributor
They are listening and saving it. It has already been to court where Alexa recordings have put guys in jail for spousal abuse and break ins where the conversations were recorded and actually helped the victim in the break in.
dcali
Bullet Maker
A combination of very good data from other sources and confirmation bias. I worked in the online ad business for a few years. I've run ads and bought ads. Trust me. Nobody is listening to you through your phone to sell you stuff. Privacy issues aside, it's just not cost effective.
Think about it. How many times has this happened? It's happened to me several times over the past year or so. Certainly less than ten. Are we to believe that those ten impressions are worth the cost of sending and processing a year's worth of audio data? There is just no way. Online ads served up the normal way are expensive as it is. Why would you go about making such a convoluted system to drive people to your online ads when you can just infer the same thing from other data sources? There are a million better signals for online ads that can be obtained far more cheaply and are very effective. AI is very good at finding connections between concepts and people. That's how it's being done.
Processing audio is computationally expensive at scale. You either have to do it on the user's device, or you have to send it to be processed on a server somewhere. Either way is easily seen by anyone looking. It's just not happening. Is there not one single credible whistle blower who can point to these systems? Who is buying/using the data? The lawsuits would be swift and huge. Ever seen terms of service that state that they might be listening to you without your permission to let an app use your microphone?
Just because it can be done (and it absolutely can), doesn't mean it makes sense to do it. This would be the most inefficient, convoluted, expensive, politically fraught way of serving ads that I can imagine.
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dcali
Bullet Maker
That's an entirely different matter than companies listening to you 24/7 just in case they find some hint that you might want to buy something. Apples and oranges. Governments spy in many ways, often against their own citizens in ways I certainly do not approve of. But companies aren't doing this to sell you stuff on amazon. It's just not a smart way to go about it.
Edit:
And does Apple/Google/Amazon listen to you with their virtual assistant products (Siri, Alexa, etc)? Yes. That's what they're supposed to do, and they can't work if they don't. Are they sending up every conversation to spy on you? No. They're just listening for a keyword, and *then* sending the data. So yeah, they're going to sell you stuff based on what you tell their devices to do. But that's no different than what's going on with your web browser. If you intentionally tell someone to listen to you, you sort of get what you get.
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dcali
Bullet Maker
One more thing - try it. I've sat there and talked about all manner of stuff that could be sold to me on purpose. "I've been looking for a blue shirt to buy". Stuff like that - stuff that has nothing to do with anything I'd actually buy, and would have no connection to anyone I know. Nothing happened. No ads.
urbanrifleman
Site $$ Sponsor
No, apparently it isn't. Did you see the Zuckerberg article? They are doing it.
The "public private partnership" has changed everything.
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