That’s monitoring you and your closests’ other behavior, as well as monitoring then nudging you towards wanting certain things. The ad itself is the last nudge in that chain that tries to go “you wanted this, don’t you?” after all of the other thinking it’s making a case for your life being better with it.
my wife and I had been married for 2 years. been together for close to 10.
not once did we EVER say “Adirondack Chair”. Just never came up in conversation. we were broke as fuck and couldn’t afford something as superfluous as one of those.
One day, were driving down the road home and see one on the side of he road.
what’s that?
looks like an Adirondack Chair
Adirondack Chair? For free?
yeah, it looks broken though.
we get home go inside. I sit down to veg on my phone on the sofa. what does Amazon put in my “things you like” feed? mother fuckin Adirondack Chairs. Google news feeds? Adirondack Chairs on sale.
My wife had YouTube videos that were reviewing Adirondack Chairs.
this was ten years ago. Imagine what they’re doing now…
This is stuff they could’ve gotten from location-data, or if your wifi was on, as you drive through different peoples’ wifi connections (both seeing where you’ve been, and hooking the data from you into data of people in your area to form connections of what’s trending and what they can get you to think about)
I’m not saying they’re not mass-surveilling in the most efficient ways they can, but hot-mic while sounding frightening, is the least useful tool ever for their means, and as has already been mentioned in this thread, android auto locks out that permission now anyway, making this a bad focus in the sense that it is not over just cause they can’t get to your microphone.
I tested this with my Facebook app in 2013. Found a Spanish radio station, set my phone down next to it overnight, and for several weeks I was seeing ads exclusively in Spanish. Deleted the app the first day I saw them in Spanish, and deleted my account not long after that.
My wife still uses them after 5 years together and me pointing out all the times it’s obviously eavesdropping on us, and she’s even been creeped out by it before. Still uses it…
Unless my microphone and camera have physical switches, I will assume they are being used. Those little “your camera and microphone are off” icons in the corner of the screen don’t reassure me.
This has been tested and proven time and time again. Google and Apple give apps a method to access the mic that the OS can allow or deny. This is what the apps are supposed to use.
Facebook doesn’t use that method for passive monitoring, only for active engagement. Don’t looks like it’s working when you go the use the thing and it’s disabled but it’s still listening to you.
If you must use such a social network, never ever ever use the mobile app. Use the website or don’t use the service at all.
I’ve read about this phenomenon in the past. Generally it’s found that due to audio processing cost and the sheer amount of other data easily gathered, there’s no reason for them to snoop with your microphone because other data is so readily available, much easier to process, store and ship.
I read about that recently as well. There is a problem though. Your phone can turn your voice into text instantly. It’s a feature built in to your keyboard. They could turn the audio into text and then transmit the text only. Saves much data that way.
Honestly these days they could process the audio on your phone with a small audio classification machine learning model, although nowadays phone os’s show if the mic is in use
Bullshit. The amount of times I’ve had random conversations about odd topics for the very first time with my wife and the fucking subject appears in a FB add three hours later.
Tap on one of those “while in use” apps. You’ll see there is no option “allowed all the time.” It doesn’t exist.
“while in use” is top level, and changes to “while using the app” when you actually look at the permission. They really mean when the app is running. And many often run in the background.
Not only on iOS. I use Android and my microphone is always off unless I allow a specific app to use it, and even then, I have the option of only allowing it for that one time. Including the phone app.
A little pop up comes up saying something about “getting the most out of your phone” with the option to turn the mic on for the app that’s requesting it (phone app). Only turns on for the call. Just gotta tap the screen once.
I keep the mic and camera options at the top of my quick-… whatever they call them… options, so if I need either one for something else, it’s super easy to turn off/on.
Android shows a little green logo in the top right if the mic and/or camera is on as well. So if I ever do enable them, it’s easy to remember to turn them off again.
It works great for me. I’m using a Pixel with stock Android, so I can only speak to how it behaves on my phone. I know sometimes carriers add/change shit.
I did this but stopped because if I pick up the phone locked, I have to unlock it to turn mic on and answer the call. So I just make sure to allow mic access only to apps that really need it
Because it is software-based access control, it is impossible to guarantee that access really has been disabled. Thanks to Apple’s design, we now live in a world where users are not supposed to detach batteries or physically turn off microphones and cameras; it’s all software-controlled. The problem is that software can be hacked and have backdoors. Also, thanks to Apple’s smart design, users can no longer upgrade the memory sticks on their Mac Minis and MacBooks. Why do I say it is all Apple’s fault? Unfortunately, other manufacturers copy these design ideas…
But… they can’t access the microphone without the user explicitly allowing
Tell that to Facebook. Shit, I’ll talk about something with my wife and see ads about it ten minutes later. Been happening for years.
That’s monitoring you and your closests’ other behavior, as well as monitoring then nudging you towards wanting certain things. The ad itself is the last nudge in that chain that tries to go “you wanted this, don’t you?” after all of the other thinking it’s making a case for your life being better with it.
my wife and I had been married for 2 years. been together for close to 10.
not once did we EVER say “Adirondack Chair”. Just never came up in conversation. we were broke as fuck and couldn’t afford something as superfluous as one of those.
One day, were driving down the road home and see one on the side of he road.
we get home go inside. I sit down to veg on my phone on the sofa. what does Amazon put in my “things you like” feed? mother fuckin Adirondack Chairs. Google news feeds? Adirondack Chairs on sale.
My wife had YouTube videos that were reviewing Adirondack Chairs.
this was ten years ago. Imagine what they’re doing now…
This is stuff they could’ve gotten from location-data, or if your wifi was on, as you drive through different peoples’ wifi connections (both seeing where you’ve been, and hooking the data from you into data of people in your area to form connections of what’s trending and what they can get you to think about)
I’m not saying they’re not mass-surveilling in the most efficient ways they can, but hot-mic while sounding frightening, is the least useful tool ever for their means, and as has already been mentioned in this thread, android auto locks out that permission now anyway, making this a bad focus in the sense that it is not over just cause they can’t get to your microphone.
I tested this with my Facebook app in 2013. Found a Spanish radio station, set my phone down next to it overnight, and for several weeks I was seeing ads exclusively in Spanish. Deleted the app the first day I saw them in Spanish, and deleted my account not long after that.
My wife still uses them after 5 years together and me pointing out all the times it’s obviously eavesdropping on us, and she’s even been creeped out by it before. Still uses it…
Unless my microphone and camera have physical switches, I will assume they are being used. Those little “your camera and microphone are off” icons in the corner of the screen don’t reassure me.
Did you receive the Spanish radio signal over the traditional airwaves or streaming. Was it a digital radio, as those can also be tracked.
It was a stereo from 1987.
Ye Olde Analog airwaves, no fancy digital nonsense.
This has been tested and proven time and time again. Google and Apple give apps a method to access the mic that the OS can allow or deny. This is what the apps are supposed to use.
Facebook doesn’t use that method for passive monitoring, only for active engagement. Don’t looks like it’s working when you go the use the thing and it’s disabled but it’s still listening to you.
If you must use such a social network, never ever ever use the mobile app. Use the website or don’t use the service at all.
It’s more likely that your wife or someone nearby was further researching the same topic you were talking about.
Facebook and other ad companies use your location, relationships, and other data they already had on you to serve you relevant ads.
At this stage, they know more about you than the government, or your wife.
I’ve read about this phenomenon in the past. Generally it’s found that due to audio processing cost and the sheer amount of other data easily gathered, there’s no reason for them to snoop with your microphone because other data is so readily available, much easier to process, store and ship.
I read about that recently as well. There is a problem though. Your phone can turn your voice into text instantly. It’s a feature built in to your keyboard. They could turn the audio into text and then transmit the text only. Saves much data that way.
Honestly these days they could process the audio on your phone with a small audio classification machine learning model, although nowadays phone os’s show if the mic is in use
Bullshit. The amount of times I’ve had random conversations about odd topics for the very first time with my wife and the fucking subject appears in a FB add three hours later.
Nope, go peddle your corpo propaganda elsewhere.
Only on iOS. Also a lot of apps can present valid uses for microphone access, which prompts users to allow unlimited malicious use
I can be absolutely certain no apps can access my mic in the background. Even when in the foreground, there is a hot-mic indicator.
Here’s the misleading part:
Tap on one of those “while in use” apps. You’ll see there is no option “allowed all the time.” It doesn’t exist.
“while in use” is top level, and changes to “while using the app” when you actually look at the permission. They really mean when the app is running. And many often run in the background.
Theoretically if mic gets accessed it should be lighting the indicator. Not sure if that’s how it actually works though.
Not only on iOS. I use Android and my microphone is always off unless I allow a specific app to use it, and even then, I have the option of only allowing it for that one time. Including the phone app.
Mic and camera are always off.
What happens when you answer the phone?
A little pop up comes up saying something about “getting the most out of your phone” with the option to turn the mic on for the app that’s requesting it (phone app). Only turns on for the call. Just gotta tap the screen once.
I keep the mic and camera options at the top of my quick-… whatever they call them… options, so if I need either one for something else, it’s super easy to turn off/on.
Android shows a little green logo in the top right if the mic and/or camera is on as well. So if I ever do enable them, it’s easy to remember to turn them off again.
Thanks I’m gonna try it out for a while
It works great for me. I’m using a Pixel with stock Android, so I can only speak to how it behaves on my phone. I know sometimes carriers add/change shit.
Check out GrapheneOS
I did this but stopped because if I pick up the phone locked, I have to unlock it to turn mic on and answer the call. So I just make sure to allow mic access only to apps that really need it
Because it is software-based access control, it is impossible to guarantee that access really has been disabled. Thanks to Apple’s design, we now live in a world where users are not supposed to detach batteries or physically turn off microphones and cameras; it’s all software-controlled. The problem is that software can be hacked and have backdoors. Also, thanks to Apple’s smart design, users can no longer upgrade the memory sticks on their Mac Minis and MacBooks. Why do I say it is all Apple’s fault? Unfortunately, other manufacturers copy these design ideas…