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So it turns out your phone is eavesdropping on you

Iain

I saw an article today that confirmed what I have suspected for years now - mobile phones have been monitoring us and using the info to sell to advertisers:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr4rvr495rgo

Apple has agreed to pay $95m (£77m) to settle a court case alleging some of its devices were listening to people without their permission.

The tech giant was accused of eavesdropping on its customers through its virtual assistant Siri.

I remember testing this about 5 years ago to prove it to my wife as she was skeptical - I kept adding into our conversatons that we should got to Disneyland (I warned her I would do this as a test as it is somewhere we have no interest in going to) and sure enough we started to get adverts appearing after a week about the park.

I suspect the other big players (Microsoft, Google etc) are also up to this but are much better at hiding it or have added wording in their Terms and Conditions to allow it.

It is more than a little concerning.

Parents

  • I wonder if having no smart phone listening to me is one of the reasons why my internet searches end up with such random results?

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    if your computer has no microphone (these are often a part of an external webcam as I think you said you have a desktop PC) so you will be insulated from this sort of intrusion.

    It means you will be targetted based on what you have searched for before, the websites you have visited in the past and what you have written about online (posts and emails) as these are the most common sources of data mining by the big tech companies.

    Could it be you have eclectic tastes and that is consusing the computer? Maybe it's your accent LOL.

  • in reply to Iain

    Ohh yes my accent, its a right mixture, growing up in the southeast but having lived all over the country, I'm a right mix and it changes depending on who I'm talking too. Computers can't cope with Welsh, I heard the automated screen in the doctors the other week trying to pronounce Myfanwy, I think that name gave it a chip fart.

    I currently have a lap top, I dont' know if it has a mic, I don't tend to talk when I'm around it other than to swear at it.

    The thing is I'm not targetted by things I've looked for before, I doubt I'd have a problem if it was, but for some reason it thinks I want sports stuff, air fryers and tech gadgets, maybe it wants me to buy things it can listen to me on?

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  • in reply to Iain

    Ohh yes my accent, its a right mixture, growing up in the southeast but having lived all over the country, I'm a right mix and it changes depending on who I'm talking too. Computers can't cope with Welsh, I heard the automated screen in the doctors the other week trying to pronounce Myfanwy, I think that name gave it a chip fart.

    I currently have a lap top, I dont' know if it has a mic, I don't tend to talk when I'm around it other than to swear at it.

    The thing is I'm not targetted by things I've looked for before, I doubt I'd have a problem if it was, but for some reason it thinks I want sports stuff, air fryers and tech gadgets, maybe it wants me to buy things it can listen to me on?

Children
  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Most computers can’t cope with many regional accents, including many regional Irish accents either, depending on what part of Ireland you are from - it really struggles with the working-class Dublin accent, the Donegal Accent, the Meath INavan & Kells) accent, the Louth (Drogheda and Dundalk) accent, the Westmeath (Mullingar & Athlone) Offaly (Tullamore) Laois (Portlaoise) the Limerick accent, the Cork accent and the Kerry accent