[Technology] Does Your Phone Spy on You?ř

[GOM]

Can you imagine the uproar if the government 20 years ago, or whenever, had said that we were going to be forced to have a personal tracker implanted in us that will not only track location but listen in on our conversations. Riots on the street possibly.

....and then we all went and did it voluntarily.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Does Your Phone Spy on You?

We've all recently become aware of how Amazon Alexa and Google Home apps have been used to invade people's privacy and listen in on their conversations, and those of us who don't use those apps probably thought we were immune from that insidious invasion of our privacy but that isn't actually the case.

In our household we don't use any of those apps or even use the voice search facility on our mobiles. But recently it came to my wife's realisation that she was being targeted by ads on her phone specific to things she had simply been talking about. To be clear I do not mean things she had been talking about on her phone but merely conversations she had had face to face with someone, and where her phone just happened to be in close proximity in the same room.

I had read about this phenomenon but never actually personally experienced it, or at least never been personally aware of it and assumed it was only experienced by those who left themselves exposed as a result of their lack of of vigilance in other areas via their choice of apps or use of social media. Until it personally happens to you you don't realise how real this capability is.

The ads that were subsequenty targeted at my wife were specific to the subject matter of her face to face conversations and were not specific to anything she had done online searches for or even talked about during a conversation directly on her phone.

Has anyone else become aware of this happening to them?

I worry where all this is heading in the future as we seem to be heading for a "Big Brother is watching you" scenario as this technology is gradually exploited for even more nefarious purposes than merely targeting us with ads. How long will it be before they are not merely listening to us in our own homes but also watching us without our knowledge via our camera phone apps?

This is potentially extremely dangerous technology and in the wrong hands, not necessarily (yet) in the UK, poses a serious threat to people's human rights, freedoms and welfare.

https://www.narcity.com/news/theres...-about-but-havent-actually-searched-up-online

Test it.

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

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Maybe Alexa wants to moonlight as The Lady Plumber, she is after a few tips.

 

[pasty]

Targeted ads hardly spying is it? If you went on YouTube and searched how to wire a plug my ad may appear if your in my target area.

Been around for years in various forms. I work in print as a data programmer and when composing documents like a credit card statement for example, ads are included in the document based on transactions within the data.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Test it.

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

Probably get a pop up.

 

[Braggfan]

In Spain, La Liga were fined after they were caught using their App to access the microphones on people's phones. They used it to determine if the owner of the app was watching football in a bar, and then they could work out if the bar was showing the football illegally.

 

[Eeyore]

The only time I got really pissed off was after my Dad's death. Over time I'd done a large amount of searching and viewing sites relating to funerals, processes and then probate work.

Facebook then started shoving death related stuff at me and then even asked me if I wanted to join and friends of an obscure graveyard group.

I started running a cookie deletion piece of software but it's like covering tracks really. The stuff keeps coming. Very intrusive.

 

[Seagull kimchi]

Why does anyone need a 'smart phone' when you are always less than an hour away from a computer of some sort?

Never had one - never needed done - never want one. (And yes I have a well paid job and function perfectly well without a smart phone.)

 

[crabface]

The only time I got really pissed off was after my Dad's death. Over time I'd done a large amount of searching and viewing sites relating to funerals, processes and then probate work.

Facebook then started shoving death related stuff at me and then even asked me if I wanted to join and friends of an obscure graveyard group.

I started running a cookie deletion piece of software but it's like covering tracks really. The stuff keeps coming. Very intrusive.

Not cookie or site browsing related but another example of how stupid facebook can be.

I had my profile picture as me and my Mum, my Mum has been through a series of strokes and come out the otherside. One day i logged in and facebook suggested i added a border to profile picture with the words "RIP Mum".

 

[Albion my Albion]

I was on the toilet reading this but now I've put my mobile face down by the wash sink.

 

[Eeyore]

Not cookie or site browsing related but another example of how stupid facebook can be.

I had my profile picture as me and my Mum, my Mum has been through a series of strokes and come out the otherside. One day i logged in and facebook suggested i added a border to profile picture with the words "RIP Mum".

That is seriously bad. Needs a complaint of some sort. Sorry to hear that experience.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

This is not new. Back in the 50's in the early days of TV plenty of people thought whoever was on TV could see them.

My grandmother always wore her hat when she watched the news.

(I may have misremembered this last bit but the first bit was definitely true, especially for older people)

 

[crabface]

That is seriously bad. Needs a complaint of some sort. Sorry to hear that experience.

I complained and heard nothing back, decided i was probably wasting my time following it up.

 

[studio150]

How long before PB uses this data to see who has used other people's tickets, or see who has shouted abuse at an Albion player for a misplaced pass or missing a sitter.

The queue outside his office on Monday will be long.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

Not an ad as such, but had quite a freaky coincidence today. Last night my wife went to a concert that was a celebration of Scottish musicians (don't ask) and one of the songs played was Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street. When she told me this morning I came out with the "Bob Holness played the sax solo on that" line. Got in to work later, fired up the computer, usual website trawl and on the BBC homepage was a big pic of Bob smiling with "Did Bob Holness really play sax on Baker Street?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise/five-pop-music-myths/z68w92p

 

[Gazwag]

Not an ad as such, but had quite a freaky coincidence today. Last night my wife went to a concert that was a celebration of Scottish musicians (don't ask) and one of the songs played was Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street. When she told me this morning I came out with the "Bob Holness played the sax solo on that" line. Got in to work later, fired up the computer, usual website trawl and on the BBC homepage was a big pic of Bob smiling with "Did Bob Holness really play sax on Baker Street?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/bring-the-noise/five-pop-music-myths/z68w92p

I had one of those yesterday, I was watching the Walking Dead on demand and saw an ad for their War of the World series (Fox one not BBC) so I thought I would check the planner to see if it was due to start soon. Pointless came on in the background as I started to type in a search and Richard Osman said "that is Olivia Wayne, Sky sports presenter and married to the son of Jeff Wayne who composed War of the Worlds"

 

[Icy Gull]

Yep, I bought some new glasses that are really unusual and have a pistachio tinge to the frame. One of the girls showed an interest as we were discussing glasses ( we know how to live on the edge in our office) and as I hadn’t collected them I showed her a stock photo of them on my ipad.

When she got home that evening she had an ad pop up on her iphone for EXACTLY the same glasses. Freaked her out a bit

 

[Daddies_Sauce]

When are you not spied on?

How many times a day are you caught on CCTV, security or ANP camera's? all you're banking activity is tracked (to prevent money laundering), txt and emails can also be accessed.

We've also had targeted ads for a subject/item we may be been talking about, by the home 'spies'

 

[Me and my Monkey]

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

"Alexa, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

"I'm sorry, I can't find 'Through the Hole Roof and Nutty Bar' by Charlie Puth in your Amazon music library."

 

[marlowe]

Targeted ads hardly spying is it? If you went on YouTube and searched how to wire a plug my ad may appear if your in my target area.

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