Comment on Marketer sparks panic with claims it uses smart devices to eavesdrop on people

thezeesystem@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• noodlejetski@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s solid proof there always hearing us.

  there was actually a research performed a few years ago that didn’t find any of several thousand tested apps to listen on you (some of the scummy ones were caught recording screens, on the other hand). also, the company mentioned in the posted article admits that their claims were exaggerated.

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• c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s a solid anecdote, for sure.

  Absolutely not “proof” though. Unless you made absolutely sure to not accidentally look at a photo on social media of a baby for too long, or scrolled too slowly past a YouTube reel aimed at kids, or listened to a baby shark trap remix on Spotify.

  We have LLM models that can give you (mostly) accurate data on how to do a given task based purely on their ability to guess which word comes next from the sources being fed to it, and you don’t think algorithms exist to extrapolate your potential buying habits based on the aforementioned data points?

  I’ve gotten very specific targeted ads before that were completely wrong, just because I’d watched like one YouTube video about the hobby or something. It’s really just a prediction algorithm based on the troves of data our use of digital devices gives them.

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  • Takumidesh@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Or happened to be in the same place as someone who is looking up this type of thing (for example coworkers, or patrons of a park you visit often.)

    In reality, the other data that can be gathered is more useful and easier to work with than trying to parse audio and video all the time.

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    • c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Plus you’d absolutely see that traffic on your network, especially if you lived in an area where you only get like 5Mb/s down.

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• Waldowal@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Uh dude, your girlfriend is pregnant

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• rosymind@leminal.space ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I know people say they there are studies, etc, but I agree with you. My husband and I both don’t like Taco Bell. There were zero searches for it, we never talked about it, etc. So we decided to test it. We started saying Taco Bell multiple times in different sentences.

  Guess what suggested options popped up when we hit “T” into google or maps? Yup. Taco Bell

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  • c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Definitely not because most people use Maps for locating a restaurant, which most likely you do as well. Not because taco bell is the most common restaurant that begins with “T.”

    Nothing about these comments even hints at establishing the controls necessary to get accurate data on your phone mic spying on you. It’s all anecdotal and based on the knowledge about what information apps are able to scrape, seems like none of you guys really understand what they have access to.

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  • Kid_Thunder@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I just press 'T' into google maps and Taco Bell is on there. I haven't been there in years nor can I recall even talking about it in a very long time.

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    • rosymind@leminal.space ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      All right, fair. Maybe Taco Bell wasn’t the best test. I’ll keep that in mind for the next time

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  • lolcatnip@reddthat.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Or, you know, Taco Bell pays to be promoted.

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    • rosymind@leminal.space ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Fair point

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  • wagoner@infosec.pub ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What came up before you test when you typed in T?

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    • rosymind@leminal.space ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It was a year or two ago, I can’t recall. But probably something like Target

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• yamanii@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  A popular podcast in brazil did the “bowl experiment”, where everyone of the members talked about wanting to buy a bowl but only using their voice, they all started receiving ads for bowls, and I bet you never received a bowl ad since it’s not a thing people often search for online.

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• Thermal_shocked@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I have ads blocked on nearly everything, but when I was at a client where they are not blocked, I got an ad for something I was talking about the week before. Don’t remember it, but it happened exactly as you said.

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