Your Phone Isn’t Eavesdropping on You to Show You Ads (It’s Worse Than That)

Submitted ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨jsomae@lemmy.ml⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://lifehacker.com/what-people-are-getting-wrong-this-week-phone-surveill-1850658089

I changed the title from “Spying” to “Eavesdropping” because the article actually directly supports that it is “spying” on you, just not listening.

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

AugustWest@lemm.ee ⁨49⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
I am not downplaying the phone spying on me, I imagine it is.

But ads are the least of my concerns. I see less ads now than at any other time in my life.

So how do I know if it happening to me?

source
JayleneSlide@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
Anecdote: (a little background) I don’t typically deal with narcissistic people; I’m not troubled by narcissists in my life. My tech life is pretty well locked down, but it could always be better (working on it). And my YouTube suggestions are tightly, carefully curated to topics pertinent to my professional and personal projects.

I had an utter piece of shit contractor working for me on a project; he was a grifting, conniving, manipulative shitbag. When I outright fired his ass, he first got all self-righteous then tried to play the victim, but I wasn’t playing any of his games. My phone was sitting on the workbench next to me.

The next day, I opened YouTube because an engineer I know told me he dropped a new video on software we recently discussed. There among my suggestions were a bunch of videos on how to deal with narcissists. So somehow, in only talking with the contractor (he doesn’t use email, text, or other electronic communications), YouTube decided I was curious about dealing with narcissism. I’m morbidly curious how YouTube made that decision, and whether it was audio or “we know you’re associating with this guy who we identify as a problematic narcissist and here are some resources.”

Now, I’m just some douchecanoe on the internet and you should probably dismiss me based on that alone. But GODDAMN, the data points sure do pile up quickly on how deeply we’re being surveilled.

source
thezeesystem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨52⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
I occasionally do fun little experiments with others and there phones (with contest) where we find a subject we both have absolutely no interest in, and we figure it out without any electronics at all around, like our back and what not, then we agree to not do anything with our electronics about it at all and only talk to each other about it by our phones, and every fucking time we both start to get add recommendations about whatever we was talking about.

Had a past friend who was asexual and aromantic and never really cared or looked into paternity tests and baby stuff (because like why?) and after a few days of randomly talking about it they got tons of adds targeted for pregnant women (they was trans non binary but was afab)

So from my limited tests, it absolutely does spy on us

source
thedruid@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
So this article is suspect. It says that we’re not being recorded so some distance advertiser can run ads, yet Alphonso was caught doing just that.

Do better “journalists”

source
- CameronDev@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Alphonso is listening for TV sound signatures, which while definitely intrusive and privacy invading, is not the same as 24/7 listening for voice-to-text purposes.
  
  They would only need to listen for a second or so to determine what channel you are on, instead of all the time, so there is a massive difference in scope.
  
  They are effectively shazaming your TV.
  
  Still creepy and invasive, but not 24/7 recording invasive.
  
  source
- TORFdot0@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Unless you are aware of further developments than I am, Alphonso required permissions and provided a consent dialog so it could not be considered spying or eavesdropping.
  
  source
clonedhuman@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Article littered with affiliate links.

And it also doesn’t make sense.

source
- EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I think I get what it’s saying? It’s saying that while your phone isn’t directly listening to your conversations in any meaningful way they collect crazy amounts of other data on basically everyone and can piece it together in such a way that they can make some scary accurate guesses as to the kind of ads to serve you based on what their systems have gathered your interests are and where/with whom you spend your time.
  
  I’m not entirely sure. They didn’t really seem to present much more than speculation on it.
  
  source
  - Jack_Burton@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    A while back on Reddit I saw a post asking about this stuff. Companies don’t need to “listen” anymore, they have much more sophisticated options now. This example will use 3 people: A (wife) B (husband) and C (wife’s old friend from school).
    
    The question: A goes to the store without B, and runs into C, who proceeds to tell A about this cool gaming chair he just got. After the conversation, A puts the interaction aside and never mentions it to B. B later gets ads for the gaming chair. If B never had any interaction whatsoever about the chair, and A never even talked about it to B, how does B get the ads?
    
    The answer: A goes to the store, and her phone knows this through location data. The algorithm knows A is at the store, and now picks up that C is also at the same store. The algo then finds a connection through social media that A and C know each other, and maybe even knows spending habits and sees A and C buy similar things. The odds are good that A and C will interact at the store.
    
    C has been searching about this gaming chair for months, has just recently bought it, and talks about it constantly on socials. Odds are good that if A and C interact, C will talk about the chair.
    
    A has no interest in gaming or tech, but B does. The algo knows A and B are married, and B would be interested in the chair C just bought. There is now a vector to send ads from the interaction of A and C directly to B, even though A never mentioned anything about the chair to B, and B has never even met C.
    
    source
  - deranger@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    This is what I’ve been saying for years. You don’t need to listen to someone’s microphone to serve eerily relevant ads. I’ve heard people commonly discussing how they talked about something and saw an ad for it later. You’re already being tracked everywhere and a bit of confirmation bias is all you need to focus in on the times it works. It’s like that story of the prenatal vitamins being recommended to that woman who didn’t realize she’s pregnant.
    
    This isn’t to say that I don’t believe someone can’t possibly turn on the mic in a targeted attack, but few of us are having conversations that are that important. It’s way easier to target you other ways using data that’s much more available.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - Pheonixdown@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    See, people say that ad companies can use all this information they gather to better serve targeted advertising, but that’s just not my anecdotal experience.
    
    I get served ads all the time in languages I don’t speak, for VERY specific job related audiences that I’m not even close to related to, state politics that I’ve never lived in, services that I’m already actively subscribed to, just the worst targeting ever.
    
    If I have to get advertised to, I’d so much rather get an ad that could actually be at all relevant to my life, or even some generic ad over the total misses.
    
    Like, if you’re going through the trouble to do all this shady shit to get my data at least be good at it using it…
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I mean, what’s the point of collecting all that data if there is no use to it. Why offering you a points program that seemingly gives you free stuff for tracking your purchases if there is no benefit to the company. I’d say unless it’s a hugely incompetent company, they don’t collect so much data on people for no reason whatsoever.
    
    And its been going on for decades with some people having handed in their info to various companies, many if them maybe even connected at some level the different dots on people, for the entire time. And that’s all for nothing so now those companies also need to record you 24/7? Which is an even bigger amount of data to be stored exactly where? Also needs a massive amount of filtering, because really, how meaningful are everyday conversations of people.
    
    source
pHr34kY@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I stopped reading when it started suggesting VPNs. Your’re far more likely to be profiled by a VPN provider than your ISP.

source
- Excrubulent@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I live in a country where our ISPs are required by law to keep a record of our internet metadata. When ISPs have been subpoenaed in the past ths answer has often been “we don’t keep that data”.
  
  So in that case we’re looking at a likelihood of 1 vs less than 1. So you’re wrong there.
  
  Plus, I would love to hear your source on these probabilities you proclaim. Can you share how you know this?
  
  You said “far more likely”, so one assumes you have the numbers.
  
  source
  - joshcodes@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    There are definitely some VPN providers to worry about.
    
    VPNs are a security tool but they don’t protect people as much as they think. They hide DNS traffic your ISP would have received, so that your ISP can’t tell everyone which cuckold or affair site you access (except you probably forgot to turn the VPN on one time or another so…)
    
    Your ISP can still see IP addresses you connect to, they forward all your traffic. Good opsec is a nightmare. Ad blocking does more for less cost than getting a VPN will ever do (except for certain human rights circumstances but I’d wager they’re actually going to be careful).
    
    My personal tip is use DNS over HTTPS/TLS where possible, and don’t use Cloudflare or Google. Ad an ad blocker and it’s far easier to setup and way more cost effective than VPN.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
Almacca@aussie.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
[deleted]
source
- thedruid@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I don’t give a damn if I miss out on the coolest thing ever. Spying on us is wrong. That’s how we got Donny. By letting the elite do what they want.
  
  source