My previous employer - a multi-billion dollar internet search company would secretly listen to people’s conversation via their mobile devices then place ads on the same devices (e.g in the browser search results or at the start of videos) based on keywords from the conversations, this had to be kept hidden of course and this large well-known company shall remain nameless.
Can you explain more, because the way this is written I’m not sure how they would do that technically.
Assuming this is Google, I could maybe see it with things like Gmail. Text is easy to scan and ads in things like Youtube videos are dynamic so they could be doing that. Same with something like Microsoft and Outlook.com.
But listening to actual conversations (as in phone calls) at a large scale and then using that to put dynamic ads in videos or search results seems impossible to do at scale.
Ah, well if it isn’t the exact reason I sold my google nest/ mesh routers the same day that I bought them! Imagine voluntarily placing microphones around your home owned by some shady corporation.
They had a physical off switch for the microphone, but could still somehow remind you that your mic was disabled when you talked to it. Cool. Very cool.
That requires on-device AI to avoid suspission from mobile data usage and OS admin rights to hide the <microphone in use> light, or a “excuse” to why its on.
Even if you cant name them, go ahead and let others, connect to tor, create an account with a burner email service and post their insites on the matter.
Dont forget, they can hold all the physical buttons at once until the screen goes black, and head to the local library
Also, try out a de-googled pixel somtime (graphine,lineageos,etc…)
You sure about that? because if it’s Google, that particular method of doing this would be easily discovered.
Also, the scary part isn’t that they could do this by listening to your phone, the scary part is that they DON’T need to listen to your phone to do exactly that. Much easier to identify multiple devices coming from the same network (both physical and social), and then figuring out query interests, and then send ads down the same pipelines.
Yeah, people who believe that Google is listening in to their conversations just to sell ads really don’t understand a) how pointless that is considering how much they already know about you from the stuff you voluntarily give them, and b) why it’s legally not even something they’d consider. If they were doing it and someone discovered proof then the company would be sued out of business. Why would they risk the damage to their rep and finances just to sell ads, when they can already sell ads accurately based on data they’ve legally acquired
And not to mention the amount of storage and processing power it would take to record everyone’s conversations, 24/7.
If they were doing it and someone discovered proof then the company would be sued out of business.
Are there any examples of large companies being sued out of business for something like privacy breach? I may be mistaken, because it’s one of the common conspiracies that large companies are listening though your mic, but weren’t there actually cases like that? With sometihng like FB or Alexa or whatever?
There have been multiple lawsuits about Apple, Google, and Amazon invading our privacy. Here is an example where Amazon is paying a settlement because employees were listening to private recordings of customers:
Regardless, there are multiple reasons why they wouldn’t / aren’t listening in, and maybe 1 reason they would - to target you with ads? Why would they bother? Hell, my Google Home can’t even understand me when I explicitly talk to it to ask it something. Even if they could listen in to everything, they wouldn’t get any accuracy.
People just find it a fun conspiracy theory. But if you sit back and think about it for longer then 10 seconds you realise how ludicrously unlikely it is
Can confirm. Used to work for Google. There is no way in hell they would ever do this. Management would absolutely not allow it. Anyone who disobeyed management and did it anyway would get fired. Legal concerns aside, way too much risk to Google’s brand.
My previous employer - a multi-billion dollar internet search company would secretly listen to people’s conversation via their mobile devices then place ads on the same devices (e.g in the browser search results or at the start of videos) based on keywords from the conversations, this had to be kept hidden of course and this large well-known company shall remain nameless.
Can you explain more, because the way this is written I’m not sure how they would do that technically.
Assuming this is Google, I could maybe see it with things like Gmail. Text is easy to scan and ads in things like Youtube videos are dynamic so they could be doing that. Same with something like Microsoft and Outlook.com.
But listening to actual conversations (as in phone calls) at a large scale and then using that to put dynamic ads in videos or search results seems impossible to do at scale.
I can’t explain more because I just made the whole thing up. That’s right, I told a lie on the internet
Can I Google their name?
Is it the one that reminds you when your microphone is off when you say the key phrase?
Ah, well if it isn’t the exact reason I sold my google nest/ mesh routers the same day that I bought them! Imagine voluntarily placing microphones around your home owned by some shady corporation.
They had a physical off switch for the microphone, but could still somehow remind you that your mic was disabled when you talked to it. Cool. Very cool.
Does it rhyme with “Frugal”
It could also rhyme with Blamazon
It could also rhyme with ‘my cock soft’
i think calling bing a search engine is an insult to the term search engine.
Depends, if you’re looking for porn it’s quite good. Or so I’ve heard.
That requires on-device AI to avoid suspission from mobile data usage and OS admin rights to hide the <microphone in use> light, or a “excuse” to why its on.
Even if you cant name them, go ahead and let others, connect to tor, create an account with a burner email service and post their insites on the matter.
Dont forget, they can hold all the physical buttons at once until the screen goes black, and head to the local library
Also, try out a de-googled pixel somtime (graphine,lineageos,etc…)
Is there something I can do to prevent this from happening? I don’t want to ditch my smartphone and use a fliphone tho
grapheneOS.org
You sure about that? because if it’s Google, that particular method of doing this would be easily discovered.
Also, the scary part isn’t that they could do this by listening to your phone, the scary part is that they DON’T need to listen to your phone to do exactly that. Much easier to identify multiple devices coming from the same network (both physical and social), and then figuring out query interests, and then send ads down the same pipelines.
Yeah, people who believe that Google is listening in to their conversations just to sell ads really don’t understand a) how pointless that is considering how much they already know about you from the stuff you voluntarily give them, and b) why it’s legally not even something they’d consider. If they were doing it and someone discovered proof then the company would be sued out of business. Why would they risk the damage to their rep and finances just to sell ads, when they can already sell ads accurately based on data they’ve legally acquired
And not to mention the amount of storage and processing power it would take to record everyone’s conversations, 24/7.
Are there any examples of large companies being sued out of business for something like privacy breach? I may be mistaken, because it’s one of the common conspiracies that large companies are listening though your mic, but weren’t there actually cases like that? With sometihng like FB or Alexa or whatever?
There have been multiple lawsuits about Apple, Google, and Amazon invading our privacy. Here is an example where Amazon is paying a settlement because employees were listening to private recordings of customers:
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/01/1179381126/amazon-alexa-ring-settlement
Google being sued out of business? By the AMERICAN “justice” system, criminal or civil?
If you truly believe that would ever happen, I have a mountain chalet in Florida to sell you.
Ok, heavily fined then.
Regardless, there are multiple reasons why they wouldn’t / aren’t listening in, and maybe 1 reason they would - to target you with ads? Why would they bother? Hell, my Google Home can’t even understand me when I explicitly talk to it to ask it something. Even if they could listen in to everything, they wouldn’t get any accuracy.
People just find it a fun conspiracy theory. But if you sit back and think about it for longer then 10 seconds you realise how ludicrously unlikely it is
Can confirm. Used to work for Google. There is no way in hell they would ever do this. Management would absolutely not allow it. Anyone who disobeyed management and did it anyway would get fired. Legal concerns aside, way too much risk to Google’s brand.