Yep, it happens, and it’s often a shitstorm, but often so minor as to go unnoticed.
For example, for years people have said “phones aren’t listening to you, you’re just imagining it because [all the reasons mentioned in this thread]”. And then Google settles a lawsuit for $68 million which claims they were listening.
The details are important, though. First, of course Google denies all the claims, and is just paying because it’s cheaper to pay than to defend. That’s what they all say, and I’m sure sometimes it’s true, but $68 million seems like it would pay for lots of lawyers.
Second, these aren’t claims of having phones, smart speakers, or thermostats listening all the time. The claim is that the device would miss-hear their trigger word, “hey google”, and then record and save whatever came next. What was recorded would then be used for advertising.
TVs, refrigerators, cars, and all kinds of other devices are also spying on users, and selling the data. Often the actual collection of data is disclosed in the long user agreements nobody reads, but what happens to the data after that is usually secret. Sometimes, allegedly, the data is sold to governments that do not have our best interests in mind.
Yeah, those details make all the difference. False accepts are a far cry from listening to you 24/7, so I stand by saying that 24/7 surveillance doesn’t happen because those are very different things. False accepts fall into the “bugs and whatnot” category, making it a fuckup not a shitstorm.
I think it’s the fact that Google’s lawyers know what an uphill battle it would be to convince jurors that they aren’t eavesdropping all the time on purpose. That they are seems to be the null hypothesis, even if there is no evidence of it. I mean, just look at the many threads here on this board where plenty of people assume it’s happening, but probably will never be convinced that it doesn’t happen. $68 million is a bargain.
TVs, refrigerators, etc are their own kettle of fish.
I first found Privacy Badger worked well, however it disrupted many sites, such as any that required a field to be filled in or entered (such as a button). At first I thought there was something wrong with the sites I was visiting. Then figured out it was Privacy Badger. I eventually uninstalled it because it was occurring too frequently. I still use Privacy Essentials along with uBlock.
Am i the only one here who loves the “what’s playing” feature? I often wonder what the name of that song is.
I kinda decided that i sold my soul to Google when i bought my first smart phone. So far, Google has paid me fairly well for my soul. I’m sad about the enshitification, but not so much that I’m giving up my smart phone.
I, too, like the now playing feature. It is also moving to be its own app, which will hopefully make it easier to bring up than whatever contortions I have to do to see it now.
Google claims it is using an on-device database, and never sends audio or conversations to Google. Requesting more information about a song, or manually identifying a song does send information about that song to Google.
They might be lying. If you genuinely believe they are lying about what happens with the audio data used to identify music, then there is no reason to believe any of the privacy claims and disclosures from Google/Apple. That just elicits smug replies from all of the “I don’t even own a TV smart phone” people, which no one wants to hear.
That’s great! I have the same difficulties you describe.
Our phones are always listening, if only for their “wake up” words (“Hey Google” ). And they do send a certain amount of info back home, like your location and what network you are on. I feel like the bandwidth and processing power needed to serve you ads based on what words you mention near your phone wouldn’t be worth it. People say an awful lot of words, and most aren’t related to stuff you might buy. But i turned off a lot of features not because turning them off reduced what Google knows about me, but because turning them off makes my interactions with Google less creepy. (For instance, it used to tell me what the traffic would be like if i drive home from work at my regular commute time. But i took the train, so it was a very high ratio of creepy to helpful. My husband has Google suck airline ticket info out of Gmail and add it to his calendar, which is also a little creepy, but very helpful. But i don’t use Gmail, do my actually benefits were small. Anyway, my phone certainly still knows where i am, where i live, and what time i usually commute. But i don’t need it to remind me that it knows those things.)
For me it was installed automatically with the March, 5 update. It is called “Now Playing” in my app list. I didn’t see it when I first got the update, but it is there now, probably because I was originally looking for “What’s Playing”. It is a builtin app, in that it can only be disabled, not uninstalled.
There is now an option to link it to a music app, so I can go through my history and play a song on Apple Music with a single click.
Anyway, this is a fun and somewhat useful feature that I don’t feel impacts my privacy anymore than just carrying the phone does, so I leave it enabled.
I do run ad blockers in Mobile Firefox, use an external ad and tracking blocking DNS at all times, and use a VPN at all times I’m not on my home or work wifi; I definitely always use a VPN when using mobile data.