[Technology] Does Your Phone Spy on You?ř

[marlowe]

Test it.

Say golf club or toaster or something similar near to your phone a few times each day and see what happens.

I've already suggested that but not toasters as we recently bought one which involved a bit of internet research. Golf on the other hand would be ideal as it is something neither I nor my wife have the slightest interest in.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I wonder how long it will be until an Alexa is taken to court as a witness to murder or some other dark crime?

Down the pub the other night - one of the group who works as a barrister said that Hampshire police were celebrating that very day as they had proven the guilt of a suspect in a murder using Alexa (or equivalent). It wasn't quite "Alexa - who did it?" but Alexa has to listen to all conversations (otherwise how would it know when "Alexa" is called?) and these conversations are recorded and held. They got access to the conversations in the house and it was all there.

Now that's not definite beyond a conversation in a pub from a person in the know - but it all sounds plausible.

 

[middletoenail]

It's not the targeted ads which are the issue. It's how they acquired the information in the first place to be able to target those ads, which was to listen to someone's private conversation in the privacy and sanctuary of their own home which they were totally oblivious to.

The other issue is the information gained could be used for far more insidious purposes by more totalitarian regimes against their citizens, the repurcussions of which could be far more serious than a targeted ad.

For instance in this country we are free to criticise our monarch or prime minister both publicly and privately. In certain countries the mere criticism of their head of state by any individual carries severe penalties. As a consequence the citizens of those countries would take the sensible precaution of not publicly making any such critical comments but may be less cautious in the privacy of their own homes with their nearest and dearest and those who they trust implicitly.

In the past without them being the subject of actual specific targeted bugging any such "careless talk" would have been relatively risk free but it now appears that everyone with a mobile phone is automatically a target and susceptible to such invasive surveillance and potentially extremely serious repurcussions..

https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-03...s-will-punish-you-insulting-their-heads-state

Blimey, bit of a drama queen, no?

One of the reasons why this country doesn't have ID cards is because of this faux scaremongering.

 

[schmunk]

Down the pub the other night - one of the group who works as a barrister said that Hampshire police were celebrating that very day as they had proven the guilt of a suspect in a murder using Alexa (or equivalent). It wasn't quite "Alexa - who did it?" but Alexa has to listen to all conversations (otherwise how would it know when "Alexa" is called?) and these conversations are recorded and held. They got access to the conversations in the house and it was all there.

Now that's not definite beyond a conversation in a pub from a person in the know - but it all sounds plausible.

Alexa / Google Assistant / Siri do not as such listen to all conversations. They are constantly listening for their key word, but they don't record or transmit anything until that is detected. The above pub conversation is apocryphal at best.

In fact - was it actually New Hampshire...? https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/14/amazon-echo-recordings-judge-murder-case/

 

[maffew]

I wonder how long it will be until an Alexa is taken to court as a witness to murder or some other dark crime?

I believe this has already happened. I dont think alexa went to court herself but voice data captured was used in a murder case in US.

We are already way passed Big brother as predicted by the great prophet George Orwell. Surveillance cameras technology legally monitoring our lip reading in public in progress. Madness. I was only chatting with someone today about the first internet of things device being a coke machine in the 80s connected to arpanet. They joked back then it would be funny and tidiculous to put a fridge or toaster connected to some kind of network
30 years on an 7 billion devices later...

Its insane whats happened to the world. Anyone remember watching tomorrows world in the 80s and 90s? Impossible inventions it seemed, they werent even close!!!!

i know a couple of people in some top security shit. Dont say much, as they cant, but the levels apparently of the data flying around and going under the oceans about us all is even more obscence than we, most of us, can imagine. Brexit wont help either

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Alexa / Google Assistant / Siri do not as such listen to all conversations. They are constantly listening for their key word, but they don't record or transmit anything until that is detected. The above pub conversation is apocryphal at best.

In fact - was it actually New Hampshire...? https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/14/amazon-echo-recordings-judge-murder-case/

The chap is a bit of a bull-shitter to be honest. That is re-assuring.

(you're not a bull-shitter are you ? ............. joke ,,,,,,)

 

[maffew]

If anyone thinks alexa isnt listening to you except when you wake her up, you might want to read your privacy ts and cs, and your automatic opt in to assist with product improvements.

Then turn the security up. And to be totally sure unplug

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Fortunately that's not how it works.

Smart speakers will make very short recordings all the time they are on, lasting only a second or two, then they are deleted. Built into the system are algorithms analysing the recording for one thing only - the wake word, eg "Alexa" or "OK Google"

Only when the device is activated with the wake word will it make longer recordings, which it will upload to the server to be analysed and for the AI to respond.

It would of course be as remarkable as it is scary for every smart device in the world to be constantly recording and uploading while they are switched on, but they're not... and it's quite easy to prove by analysing the upload data of the devices.

cheers my friend.

 

[marlowe]

Blimey, bit of a drama queen, no?

One of the reasons why this country doesn't have ID cards is because of this faux scaremongering.

I could only be accused of faux scaremongering if the mass surveillance and control of it's citizens by a totalitarian state had never happened nor was ever likely to happen. But try broadening your rather insular perspective and look at what has happened historically in the wider world and to do that you only have to look as far as Europe.

I'm not talking simply from the perspective of UK citizens who have always enjoyed the priviledge of freedom of expression. Life exists beyond our shores and that life isn't always as liberal and tolerant as the one we enjoy and take for granted.

Look what happened in East Germany throughout the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. The Stasi were specifically established for the mass surveillance of East German citizens which extended to bugging people in their homes. This was done without the technology that exists today but it was still carried out with relatively primitive equipment on an extremely wide scale.

East German citizens lived in perpetual fear of the state and the prospect of a knock at their door to be taken away for interrogation or worse. Imagine how much more effective the Stasi's methods would have been with the technology that exists today and how that would have impacted on the lives and welfare of its citizens.

There was nothing "faux" about what the citizens of East Germany went through throughout those 40 years.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_East_Germany

 

[AmexRuislip]

I wonder how long it will be until an Alexa is taken to court as a witness to murder or some other dark crime?

I wonder if anyone who has Alexa, has asked her about dwarf porn and had any results

 

[Coldeanseagull]

So they're listening to me? Probably why when I go to a dodgy streaming site, I occasionally get bombarded with naked lady ads........I really shouldn't bookmark these

I've come to accept keyworded, targeted ads, annoying at times but not enough to dig a bunker. However, when I start getting messages from JW's, I'll start taking the spy threat more seriously

 

[maffew]

One of the reasons why this country doesn't have ID cards is because of this faux scaremongering.

Is it? Im genuinely interested to hear what this is based on

 

[Guinness Boy]

I've already suggested that but not toasters as we recently bought one which involved a bit of internet research. Golf on the other hand would be ideal as it is something neither I nor my wife have the slightest interest in.

Except you’ve now posted the key word “golf” in to a thread on the internet - one where more than one other user has also used the word “golf”.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[marlowe]

Except you’ve now posted the key word “g***” in to a thread on the internet - one where more than one other user has also used the word “g***”.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That did occur to me but I did it on my phone not my wife's so any such ads would surely be targeted at my phone not hers. Anyway we've already had an evening talking about g*** and all things g*** related, a subject neither of us are remotely interested in. I'd hate to think that had all been wasted. If it works then to confirm we'll try again but with something I haven't previously posted online.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Your Phone Is Listening and it's Not Paranoia

 

[Tokyohands]

I don't so much mind being targeted by ads for things I might be interested in, what annoys me is when I get bombarded by ads for stuff i've just recently bought.

 

[Reagulls]

I wonder if anyone who has Alexa, has asked her about dwarf porn and had any results

Ask her what is welsh for 100 100 100 100
***MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO CHILDREN PRESENT OR ADULTS THAT ARE OFFENDED BY STRONG SWEAR WORDS!!***

 

[Bakero]

The official La Liga was found to be spying on users recently. The mic was being used to detect whether the user was in a bar that was showing matches illegally. They got fined quarter of a milion euros. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...at-spied-on-illegal-bar-screenings-of-matches

 

[Braggfan]

The official La Liga was found to be spying on users recently. The mic was being used to detect whether the user was in a bar that was showing matches illegally. They got fined quarter of a milion euros. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...at-spied-on-illegal-bar-screenings-of-matches

Already mentioned that

 

[Rogero]

It's fair to say that we are all spied on to greater or lesser extents, the threads of historical data be it searches, places and purchases all adds up and contributes to your own personal electronic footprint. They know where you have been and they know where you are going !

A small example, Mrs V lives with me but we are not actually married so do not share a surname, just an address, she sells hardly worn dresses on E-bay sometimes and I sometimes buy items of fishing tackle from E-bay on occasions. We do not have a single, joint account, we have separate laptops and phones and I would not even know how to open her phone and use it and she, the same with me. She was gobsmacked the other day when she used her phone to go to E-Bay and said to me " Have you been looking at Fishing Lures again ? " I said I might have been ….. well she said " Fishing lures have come straight up on MY E-bay account as recently viewed items " ?

There you have it, E-bay has linked my search to her address and suggested that is what she was thinking of looking for. No amount of tin foil can prevent this !

IP address?