17h ago

I know Phones dont listen but....

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25882429

scarily... They don't need to to be this creepy, but even I'm a tad baffled by this.
Yesterday me and a few friends were at a pub quiz, of course no phones allowed, so none were used.
It came down to a tie break question of my team and another. "What is the run time of the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the ring" according to IMDb.
We answered and went about our day. Today my friend from my team messaged me - top post on his "today feed" is an article published 23 hours ago.....
Forgive the pointless red circle.... I didnt take the screenshot.
My friend isn't a privacy conscience person by any means, but he didnt open IMDb or google anything to do with the franchise and hasn't for many months prior. I'm aware its most likely an incredible coincidence, but when stuff like this happens I can easily understand why many people are convinced everyone's doom brick is listening to them....

Privacy @lemmy.ml

padlock4995 @lemmy.ml

17h ago

I know Phones dont listen but....

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19 comments

This is the power of data collection. This can be explained without mic's listening in, not that I think they aren't.
400 phones were all located in a bar at the same time, and a significant percentage of them googled 'LOTR run time' simultaneously. All 400 phones are now associated with a likely interest in LOTR movie. It's that simple.
Individual interaction with future LOTR test prompts confirms this association for their account and so on...
It is creepy how much data miners know about us whether we like it or not.
- of course no phones allowed, so none were used

There were teams, hence a bunch of phones within metres of each other, for an extended period of time.
"They" are fully aware of this, many times over. All it takes now is a single person in that cluster to google the topic. And now all those phones, however so briefly 'related', are smothered with the result.

Why do you think phones aren't listening? All of my anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that they absolutely will, depending on the apps installed.
I've been using LineageOS and GrapheneOS for maybe 8 years or so, and never have any social media / google apps installed, as well as ad / tracker blocking.
My friends, family, co-workers etc. are often served ads for very specific things immediately after we were talking about them. Toys, tools, kitchen equipment, even flights to countries or cities that were being discussed. All far too specific to be coincidence.
So while the phone itself may not be listening, apps can, depending on permissions etc.
- Why do you think phones aren't listening?
  So while the phone itself may not be listening
  Probably the same thing that makes you think they aren't. There's no evidence to suggest otherwise. My phone has an indicator for when the microphone is accessed, and it's never come on without good reason. I suppose it's possible the OS could be accessing it without tripping the indicator, but that's why you should use an open source OS.
- So while the phone itself may not be listening, apps can, depending on permissions etc.
  Yep. That's the best of my knowledge, today.
  I haven't seen any evidence that the operating system, itself, is listening.
  But we know that many free, and even some paid subscription apps (check out the permissions on Paramount Plus!) are watching the screen or listening to the microphone.
  We know these apps sell the data they collect to absolutely everyone.
  There's every reason to believe that collected screen, microphone (and possibly camera?) data then gets correlated with location data collected directly by Google.
  Source: I'm a Cybersecurity professional who knows waaay too much about the state of what is possible, and why.
  The why is mainly just Google and Meta using their influence for evil.

Makes me reconsider installing LineageOS on my phones
- If you have a supported device, GrapheneOS is the better choice because it supports relocking the bootloader with a signed ROM. This is integral to the Android security model. I don't have anything against LineageOS, just not something I recommend anyone daily drive because of the security risk.
  Definitely don't install /e/OS or IodéOS because they are substantially worse for security.
  Here is a comparison of Android ROMs: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
- Some manufacturers phones' can't even install ROMs. _{Fucking samsung...}
  It's a huge shame since the best phone on the market are pixels, and those are owned by google.
  Fairphones seem interesting though.

My Google News has my Lemmy comments in it so I know the Pixel keyboard is leaking. Like I'll reply to someone about a bench top power supply and there will be ads for them in my Google News.
- You should check out Heliboard and Florisboard for good alternatives.
  
  I really like the FUTO keyboard. It has everything I could ask for except for one giant dealbreaker: swipe is terrible. They're upfront about this and are even working to create an open swype dataset to make it better.
  So I just use GBoard with internet access disabled. The only thing I miss on there is speech to text, but I can switch over to Transcribro as needed.
  
  Or Unexpected Keyboard. I like that one.

Coincidence

"The walls have eyes, the walls have ears.."
They've almost become omnipotent in the tech space and nobody cares. They wouldn't care if they've managed to name every single detail about them, nor sell it and rat them out to the police.
All from a simple search engine...

But phones do indeed listen?
- [citation needed]
- The average phone is listening all the time. If someone is particularly careful what apps they install, and gets a bit lucky, then their phone isn't listening. That person is only being listened to by the phones of everyone else around them.

19 comments