John Vibes
The Free Thought Project
For years, smartphone users have been growing increasingly suspicious that their devices are listening to them to feed them advertisements and to “enhance their experience” on third-party apps. Companies like Google and Facebook have consistently denied these claims, saying that targeted ads and messages are merely a coincidence, and that data for these services are taken in other ways.
However, earlier this year during the Cambridge Analytica scandal we began to see some of the first hints that our phones may actually be listening to us.
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie says that they have probably been listening all along. During an appearance before the UK parliament, Wylie said, “There’s audio that could be useful just in terms of, are you in an office environment, are you outside, are you watching TV, what are you doing right now?”
Since the scandal, experts who have studied this possibility began revealing their surprising results.
In a recent interview with Vice, Dr. Peter Hannay, the senior security consultant for the cybersecurity firm Asterisk, explained how third-party apps exploit a loophole to gather the voice data from your phone.
Hannay said that while your microphone is always on, your voice data is only sent out to other parties if you say specific trigger words such as “Hey Siri” or “OK Google,” but there is a catch. Third-party apps often ask to gain access to voice data in their user agreements to “enhance the experience” of their products.
Read more
The Free Thought Project
For years, smartphone users have been growing increasingly suspicious that their devices are listening to them to feed them advertisements and to “enhance their experience” on third-party apps. Companies like Google and Facebook have consistently denied these claims, saying that targeted ads and messages are merely a coincidence, and that data for these services are taken in other ways.
However, earlier this year during the Cambridge Analytica scandal we began to see some of the first hints that our phones may actually be listening to us.
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie says that they have probably been listening all along. During an appearance before the UK parliament, Wylie said, “There’s audio that could be useful just in terms of, are you in an office environment, are you outside, are you watching TV, what are you doing right now?”
Since the scandal, experts who have studied this possibility began revealing their surprising results.
In a recent interview with Vice, Dr. Peter Hannay, the senior security consultant for the cybersecurity firm Asterisk, explained how third-party apps exploit a loophole to gather the voice data from your phone.
Hannay said that while your microphone is always on, your voice data is only sent out to other parties if you say specific trigger words such as “Hey Siri” or “OK Google,” but there is a catch. Third-party apps often ask to gain access to voice data in their user agreements to “enhance the experience” of their products.
Read more
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