Google "listening" to you

eqwjewoiujqorj

lazybones32 wrote: »

It's quite recent that I was given a smartphone but every app wants access to my pictures, microphone, camera, etc. Fcuk that and fcuk them. Dunno if big brother is listening but someone is...

Put LineageOS on your phone and use open source apps from FDroid.

frillyleaf

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

I'll be honest with you, I pay such little attention to the ads I see online that they could have entire teams listening into everythign I say and then having committees to carefully select that ads to show me, and I wouldn't even notice a thing.

Generally I am the same. But this add was visible on my phone so I couldn't not see it even if I tried , it filled my screen so it was impossible not to see It was just really odd as I have noticed this a few times in the last week and I don't use internet much as I have no wifi on my phone. Really odd!

Django99

The big industry in the tech sector at the moment is "big data", which is basically farming all the data that's collected by smart phones and other devices. Big money to made in making this data useful.

screamer

That's very sneaky. I have no recorded audio. I think it's a case that we have to be more mindful and careful of our own personal data, and the sneaky ways used to get access to it.

Discodog

My phone occasionally responds to the tv. Quite weird to have you phone asking if you said something.

RockSalto

And then you have eejits who can't wait to spend 130e on a listening device made by the worlds biggest advertising company to put in their homes.

https://www.google.ie/amp/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/circuitbreaker/2017/3/16/14948696/google-home-assistant-advertising-beauty-and-the-beast

Beyondgone

There are quite a few bad lads out there doing some very hard looking at their own and everyone elses phone right now, lol.:D

Basically, if you've had a conversation you regarded as private and one or other party had a smartphone with them..was it private?? There's going to be a lot of whisperring done.. think about it. Even while driving and someone in the car is just holding a phone looking at Facebook while everyone else "chats" - is the phone listening? Lol.. There's something to be thinking about for the future lads.. :pac:

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Beyondgone

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Depends where "they" move the goalposts of "anything" to. Or if you suddenly do decide to get up to "anything".

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Beyondgone

Patww79 wrote: »

Nothing that anyone is interested in anyway. Google knows exactly where I am and what I'm saying at all times and I'm quite comfortable with that.

Which is great.

My point, and my only point, is there must be a lot of people, who possibly aren't "quite comfortable with that" for whatever reasons, doing some hard thinking right now. Me personally, I'm not too bothered. I'm fairly dull. As an example though, if I worked for say "the Kinahans", well then I'd be quite bothered. A lot, possibly, bothered. Not everyone lives the same life shocker, eh?

myshirt

Yes, they are listening, but the data is encrypted, protected, and anonymised. Microsoft done it with the Kinect 10 years ago.

I am convinced they will be whispering adverts into your ear mid phone call next.

Beyondgone

myshirt wrote: »

Yes, they are listening, but the data is encrypted, protected, and anonymised. Microsoft done it with the Kinect 10 years ago.

I am convinced they will be whispering adverts into your ear mid phone call next.

Doubtful. That would defeat the entire purpose. If I'm interested in buying a woodworking dust extractor (I am btw :pac::D) then what's the point if that data, once collected, isn't tagged directly to me as an individual? The tag may not be "Beyondgone", it may well be "Consumer 45264413312" or some such, but you can be sure it's a direct tag.

Riesen_Meal

People who don't read the terms and conditions then tick the boxes to give their information are surprised when the services start working?

They most likely have android devices either a tablet, a phone, or chrome browser installed and have now only began worrying about them now listening to you for advertising purposes - that's how Google make their money...

I use such a range of Google products consistently that I have no issues at all with it - I trade my information for their service's, that's usually how transactions work, except it's not for monetary purposes, it's information instead, and I'm okay with that...

OU812

Snotaul Goodman wrote: »

Matt Cooper had some marketing guru on one day. Apparently, the GPS on your phone is so accurate that it can tell what aisle you're in/what product you're looking at or spending time around in the likes of Tesco etc. Big Brother then pushes ad's for that product to your FB account or whatever. Don't know how true that is but I heard it on the radio so...

That's bull. Maybe if your phone had a missile guidance system built in (& even they're not 100% accurate). Military grade GPS is effective to about three feet, phone GPS to about 20 feet.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Beyondgone

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I know. But what if you personally didn't scroll through, or hit agree, or even have a phone - but the chap you're talking with did? It's just food for thought, nothing more, nothing less.

EGriff

You can turn off the always listening feature, if you don't then your​ phone is always listening for the phrase "Ok Google/hey Siri". Mine only has recordings from when I hit the button, or at least that's what they tell me.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Beyondgone

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Bless. I think we may be coming at this from too disparate angles ever to see each others point.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Beyondgone

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

We covered this. What if I opt out but the other chap has opted in. But I still want to speak about private matters? It isn't much of a leap to think that if Google or Apple or whomever are capable of listening to conversations "for marketing" that others, i.e The Authorities are capable of accessing that data quite easily, should they feel the need. If you get my drift, which you apparently aren't yet.

Or even if neither opted in, but it gets used anyway "because it can".. Not alone are you now carrying a tracker, willingly, but you're also carrying your own personal bug. Lol. Headmelter depending on what side of the tracks you work on.

Beyondgone

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

No need for the personals.:( Me thinking your view is sweet and innocent reflects worse on me than it does on you. Or is that some sort of acronym that the younger generation uses these days? I dunno. I'll have to ask Siri.

no...wait..

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yeah, well ya see I am - and ****ing lots of it... >D

OU812

OU812 wrote: »

That's bull. Maybe if your phone had a missile guidance system built in (& even they're not 100% accurate). Military grade GPS is effective to about three feet, phone GPS to about 20 feet.

Tesco aisles are bigger than 20 feet though

chasm

"No Activity" I have voice switched off in my google search settings on my phone (under both "from google app" and "from any screen" headings) so not sure if that is the reason? I also have all activity, like youtube history, set to "pause" in my google settings so there is nothing to show under any of the settings.

Heighway61

Speaking of privacy etc... An external hard drive I have plugged into my PC has a blue light that is solid when it's not being accessed and flashes when it is. If the light is solid due to no access for a while and then I open facebook, the light starts flashing.

batistuta9

Victor wrote: »

If you are reading a web page with Google Chrome and you think "I need to check who that person is" or "I need to what that word means", as you start typing the word, Google is 'too quick' to prompt the word you are looking for.

Explain that one.

That's a feature of chrome, you can turn it off.
Prefetch pages or something it's called

Victor

batistuta9 wrote: »

That's a feature of chrome, you can turn it off.
Prefetch pages or something it's called

Just because you turn it off, does it stop reading your pages.

batistuta9

Victor wrote: »

Just because you turn it off, does it stop reading your pages.

What you've described sounded to me like the prefetch pages feature, it'll download the related links in articles etc.

A different think than what they're doing or not with your search terms