Comment on Hundreds of smartphone apps are monitoring users through their microphones
mr_pip@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
is this still a surprise to anyone here?
I remember a bunch of people freaking out about this a few years ago.amd an equal number telling them they were paranoid.
You can talk about stuff and your phone will just magically start suggesting related items. Why would anyone be surprised the monitoring device in their pocket is monitoring them?
Anyone whos said anything outloud and then immediately got an ad should know by now that its some conspiracy, its easily testable by not searching something and just talking about it while having an app open, the more obvious one they track is dms, if I dm someone something (text based not posts) ill get ads or posts related to it.
Im assuming they target your wifi too, because my ads change to reflect what I do on other devices too
Not helpful
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yes.
Not to you or me, but there are tons of people, even here, that are absolutely incredulous towards the idea that its possible.
GiveOver@feddit.uk 2 months ago
I’m part of those people. The usual argument is that everybody’s phone is listening all the time, without agreeing to permissions or showing the mic notification or anything like that. I’ve never seen any proof of that. This article is about a bunch of shovelware apps (Pool 3D, Beer pong: Trickshot, Honey Quest etc) that aren’t even listed anymore. There’s nothing about them skirting permissions or hiding the notification.
People see the headline and assume it’s Facebook et al.
socsa@piefed.social 2 months ago
I mean it implies that these apps are both violating permissions (in many cases) and the android visual indication of an active microphone. So far I have seen no actual proof that this is the case. Mic activity is logged. You can debunk this yourself easily.