Google's AI now listens to your English language phone conversations

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨btaf45@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://security.googleblog.com/2025/03/new-ai-powered-scam-detection-features.html

More than half of Americans reported receiving at least one scam call per day in 2024. To combat the rise of sophisticated conversational scams that deceive victims over the course of a phone call, we introduced Scam Detection late last year to U.S.-based English-speaking Phone by Google public beta users on Pixel phones.

We use AI models processed on-device to analyze conversations in real-time and warn users of potential scams. If a caller, for example, tries to get you to provide payment via gift cards to complete a delivery, Scam Detection will alert you through audio and haptic notifications and display a warning on your phone that the call may be a scam.

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lupusblackfur@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No, no, Fuck You, no!!

I will have no phone that employs “Counterfeit Conciousness” to listen to every fucking word of every fucking conversation leading to (among others):

Further training

Data retention somewhere (waiting to be hacked)

Possible reports to LEO (or worse)

…whatever else I can’t think of just now…

Fuck right off with this.

This solidifies for me I will never own a Pixel phone.

And, if this becomes ubiquitous in Android, I’ll have to rethink that, too.

Doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily go to iOS; more likely completely rethink having a phone at all.

Fuck Google entirely. Don’t be Evil my ass.

🙄 🤡 🖕 🖕
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- null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Additionally, just fucking stop scammers from using fucking gift cards.
  
  Surely it’s not that hard to detect that a gift card sold in Australia is being activated in Russia.
  
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  - CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The gift card people have absolutely no motivation to fix this problem. They are making bank.
    
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- muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  This solidifies for me I will never own a Pixel phone.
  
  Sounds like a pixel phone is exactly what u want just u want GrapheneOS on it.
  
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  - jnod4@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Never recc that again, Linux phone or nothing
    
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- rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Fuck Android. Run Calyx or Graphene. it’s not difficult for any PC enthusiast.
  
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  - desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    unfortunately both of those have a very small list of supported devices.
    
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  - Goretantath@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Can’t back up everything on my phone without root and cant root without wiping the phone so…
    
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  - macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Still based on garbage android. Android is just shit pilled on shit.
    
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- UnderFreyja@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I mean, I would own a pixel phone… with linux on it…
  
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- vivendi@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  We got baited by piece of shit journos
  
  It’s a local model. It doesn’t send data over.
  
  If they want call data they can buy it straight from service providers anyway
  
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  - btaf45@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    We got baited by piece of shit journos
    
    It’s an official announcement written by Google.
    
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- shekau@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Pixel is the only device that is supported by GrapheneOS (sadly), so you can own Pixel just for installing grapheneOS on it.
  
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- bob_omb_battlefield@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Since it’s processed on device they don’t (necessarily) need to transmit and store your conversations in some central location. I guess theoretically this could be done in a secure way.
  
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- MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Counterfeit consciousness
  
  I like that
  
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- fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  So, it’s on device, which ch negates many of the above worries. Does that change things? I’m all good with private AI, personally. Slippery slope and all, though…
  
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- AtariDump@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily go to iOS; more likely completely rethink having a phone at all.
  
  Man cuts off nose to spite face; news at 11
  
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unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

on device scam detection

I know I’ll be downvoted into oblivion as I can hardly believe I’ve formed this opinion myself, but tbh this is a good application for some of this AI tech.

Anecdotally, a friend of mine grew up well-off; from an immigrant family but their parents were educated and in a lucrative profession so he always went to private schools etc. Fast forward to about 10 years after all the kids moved out; the parents had divorced amicably and his mom had a sizeable retirement along with the payout she had from the divorce. In the 7 figures - she never had to worry about money.

Anywho, mom ran into some medical issues so the kids had to get involved with her finances again, as she couldn’t do it herself. Turns out that over the course of months or years, mom had been getting scammed to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars at a time, to the point where she had actually taken out a mortgage on the home she previously owned outright. They’re still sorting things out but the number he has tossed out in the past is ~$1.4M that got wired overseas and is just… gone now.

So yes, I probably won’t turn this feature on myself, but for the tens of millions of uneducated and inept people out there, this could genuinely make a difference in avoiding some catastrophic outcomes. It certainly isn’t a perfect solution, but I suspect my friend would rate it as much better than nothing, and I would argue that this falls short of being “strictly evil”.

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- kipo@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah Google claims it’s not recording, storing or being sent the conversations or sharing them with anyone, and that this is all done ‘on-device’.
  
  The thing is, I don’t trust them. At all.
  
  Maybe the terms and conditions will silently change. Maybe their definitions of “recording” and “save” will change. Maybe they’re blatantly lying and are willing to pay a fine if they get caught.
  
  Google’s whole business model is harvesting and selling people’s data, so I have to assume the worst intentions.
  
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  - dev_null@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They could also spy on you without providing this feature at all. I get not trusting Google, and you shouldn’t be using a Google Pixel in that case. But in the event that you are using a Google Pixel, this optional feature is only a positive. If Pixels spy on you, then they are doing it with this or without it.
    
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- BossDj@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I took my dad for cancer radiation treatment. While in the waiting room, this little old lady came in. I saw her struggling to remove a necklace and offered to help. She had really tangled herself in it trying to get it on (definitely in a “chemo brain” mind fog).
  
  She answered her phone, and I heard a very obvious scam on the other line. I tried telling her, and at first she tried to explain to me that I was wrong, it was some kind helpful people. I took the phone from her and confirmed it was a scam. I told the staff at the clinic but that was about all I figured I could do.
  
  This Ai maybe could have helped. Maybe.
  
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  - homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Chemo and alzheimer patients and their families are targets for that reason. Privacy was already a joke before DOGE copied it all off for Elmos Next Reich
    
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- Quik@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I agree this feature enabled by default so people tech literate enough can just turn it off would be great for several people I know, just not from Google.
  
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- jaxxed@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This AI tech, smat-home, cloud compute etc would all be amazing if we could trust that it wasn’t built to harvest us.
  
  We, the people, have become the Commons.
  
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- Godric@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  My usernote for you contains the phrase “privacy-illiterate”, but this is a good take, assuming data isnt sent back. You’ve been upgraded, lol
  
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plz1@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Nice, wholesale illegal wire tapping. It’s OK, it’s legal because it’s AI and Google is totally not storing any recordings. They say this is all on-device, but that’s an “oops” or equivalent from them hoovering up recordings of every phone call you use one of their ~~surveillance endpoints~~ phones on.

heavy /s

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- grue@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What do you mean, “illegal?” If the phone user consents to turning it on, that makes it legal.
  
  I hate to defend Google, but I will absolutely defend single-party consent for recording. Don’t like it? Don’t fucking call me in the first place.
  
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  - gopher@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    In many places call recording (or indeed processing of personal information which is highly likely to be present in phone calls) requires consent to be legal. I highly doubt this kind of processing is legal in the EU without both parties consenting.
    
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  - plz1@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I read that it’s “opt out” not “opt in”.
    
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FauxPseudo@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Jokes on them. I don’t have phone conversations

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- morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  and when i do, they’re not in English
  
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  - FauxPseudo@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Or at least not in conversational English. Me “The cheese is old and moldy.” Wife “Roses eggs” Me “Bach unaccounted.”
    
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greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Yup… Time to go back to graphene OS. Just been lazy about putting it on this phone.

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- double_quack@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Reading this from GOS. Tapping freedom
  
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  - greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Ugh I know I have it on my old phone. ADHD just being a cunt lately. Makes it hard to life lol
    
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- dev_null@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You should absolutely use GrapheneOS, but why would this optional offline feature sway you to it?
  
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- BossDj@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Same
  
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btaf45@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s pretty easy to imagine all the ways this technology can because a nightmare. Maybe Russia puts AI spies on your phone that listen to see if you say anything bad about Putin to the person you are talking to and then pings their police. Fuck you google for creating this technology.

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- gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  this AI will always be running constantly draining your battery anyway
  
  It’s part of the phone app and only engages when you get a call, my god the lack of understanding on a feature that’s been out for years now in this thread is actually crazy
  
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  - btaf45@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s not been out for years.
    
    New AI-Powered Scam Detection Features to Help Protect You on Android
    
    March 4, 2025
    
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sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m so tired of this. It feels like an onslaught.

Back in 2008 or whatever I let Google handle my voicemails, and I enjoyed the convenience of the machine-transcriptions.

Now I wonder if my voicemails are being studied and trained on or whatever.

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- LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah I just about had a meltdown trying to disable all the AI collection that Samsung phones come with nowadays. Phones are more like data harvesting engines than devices of utility. It’s gotten so much worse over the past 5 years. I mean it was never good but it’s making the internet nearly unusable if you want any kind of privacy.
  
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  - PolarKraken@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Completely agree about watching the privacy destruction ramp up significantly in recent years. The one silver lining is that deciding how much and what to allow for myself and my children is just a lot easier, and even in less abusive scenarios, less smartphone use is good for basically all of us.
    
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southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
So, wait, Google can record calls, but we can’t?

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- homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Member when they sucked up everyone’s wifi passwords and the world was like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  
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  - user91@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    WiFi passwords? I think you mean SSIDs (wifi name).
    
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- dev_null@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  They calls are not recorded, are they? They are transcribed live.
  
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  - southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s effectively the same thing.
    
    Whether or not the recording is kept or not, it’s using the same function.
    
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atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Part of the reason I haven’t yet moved away from Google services in my pixel is because of the call screening and anti-spam features. I screen unknown callers pretty much all the time so Google is listening if they call me anyway. I’m fine with that, knowing A. That the callers get a heads up that they’re talking to an AI and being recorded and B. That the ones who are human and trying to scam me generally don’t call back once they know the line is being actively recorded.

There’s no feature parity for this on any of the rooms I would move to. Taking it a step further is unnecessary for me, and I’ll probably opt out. But I can fully understand why someone might want it (for their elderly family members for instance).

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- feyded1020@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  So far as I know, if your device uses their Gemini Nano LLM, it doesn’t reach back to their servers at all unless you OPT IN to the ‘Help service inprove’.
  
  This feature though and a few other calling features has made me switch from iPhone single handedly, I was receiving 6-10 spam calls a day, now I see none because they’re screened in the background. It’s fantastic. I’m hooked on these Pixel features and only hope more move to becoming on device features with the ability to opt in to sending certain things off device.
  
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  - atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    So, I have several legacy Google Assistant compatible devices that do not work with Google’s new AI. As a result I haven’t switched over to Gemini for pretty much anything and I probably won’t. I’m currently building a Home Assistant system to take the place of Google Assistant when it finally sunsets but the going is slow (I have limited time to dedicate to that specifically at the moment). But for phone specific use, I’m taking the wait and see approach.
    
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- pyr0ball@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You can get most of these features with a Google voice number and use it on any forwarded number
  
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  - atrielienz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I have a Google voice number. You actually can’t. You can get spam filtering which works sort of but definitely not in the same way. I have never had a Voice call use Google’s call screening on graphene os for instance because it doesn’t work. I have graphene os running on a pixel 8 pro for the purposes of seeing what works and doesn’t work to see if I can ever daily drive it. I like graphene os a lot but rely too much on certain Google specific android features and that’s what my first comment was generally talking about.
    
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Ledericas@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
when i had a pixel5a, i would get multiple scam calls a day without fail, and almost always at the exact same time. with my new non-pixel, non-samsung and non-iphone i dont get as many as before.

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- Obelix@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That really doesn’t make any sense at all
  
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- overload@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I had a pixel 5 for 4 years and this wasn’t my personal experience.
  
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- Texas_Hangover@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I just looked up OP12R. Looks cool but comes with android. Are you using a different OS?
  
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UnpopularCrow@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The article claims that 1 trillion dollars was lost to scams in 2024 “based on research from GASA.org”. I cannot for the life of me figure out where this number comes from. Going to that website they say it’s based on ~53,000 surveys. I think they took the survey results, took the average amount of money the surveys claimed people lost and multiplied it by the total population of Earth or some nonsense shit. Their reports are blocked behind registration, which I’m not willing to do to find out their report is bullshit. Misinformation at its finest right here.

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Sunflier@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Great, more AI bloat from Google. How do I disable?

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- Dozzi92@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Disable? No. But call everyone and everything cunts to poison the AI? Works for me
  
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- FriendBesto@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Try removing via ADB, maybe?
  
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pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Kinda cool, on device and hopefully doesn’t call back to Google then I’m fine with it

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solrize@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
WTF. What could possibly go wrong. Flip phone here I come.

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Showroom7561@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

We use AI models processed on-device

If it’s opt-in, and the processing is done on-device, then I have no reason to be outraged.

But the skeptic in me asks “what’s in it for google?”.

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thatradomguy@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Ah, but what if I use a British accent? Got em

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whereisk@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Most people here: Yes, I bought an advertiser’s device, hooked up in a million ways to that advertiser’s services, who’s well known for monitoring every aspect of the life of every person they can, but how dare they monitor this part?

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thorhop@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Dumb as I am, I have a Pixel… the good thing though? Graphene OS is an option.

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saltesc@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Americans still actively use telephony services?

I just don’t use the Phone and SMS apps. Haven’t for years. It’s old tech that’s only used by bits and scammers.

Get with the times.

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fluxion@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Give me call screening and filtering options so we can ignore the calls in the first place

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01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
In some countries and, (if not mistaken) states in USA, if an AI is listening to a conversation, both parties must be made aware. If they don’t notify the other end, they’ll be violating regulations. Privacy erosion and manipulation likelihood aside, this is a terrible idea.

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Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Deciding to install GrapheneOS is constantly validated for me! But I never want to give Google money ever again.

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Gammelfisch@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
More AI testing…

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MunkysUnkEnz0@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Spam protection is turned on automatically, and you’ll be notified when this happens. You can turn it off anytime in your settings:

Open Google Messages . At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initials.

Tap Messages settings and then Spam protection. You’ll only find “Spam protection” if it’s available on your device. Turn Enable spam protection on or off.

I’m not seeing in my message settings. Anyone else?

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can@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

If enabled, Scam Detection will beep at the start and during the call to notify participants the feature is on. You can turn off Scam Detection at any time, during an individual call or for all future calls.

Scammers will quickly catch on then the real trick will be to just play that beep without any of the ai stuff.

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jaykrown@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This isn’t really anything new. signal.org

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Lootboblin@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Now? they’ve been listening to you for years and not only in english.

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hoss@lemmynsfw.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I have graphing OS. I still get a ton of spam phone calls a day.

I’m apparently not enough of a software developer to figure out how to use SpamBlocker app. Anybody have any suggestions?

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catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That’s fine. I’m just not going to enable it.

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capuccino@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Híjole

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