What I want to know is why when I’m talking to my wife in the car about buying new shoes do I get a YouTube ad that evening about new shoes, when I never got that kind of ad before.
Are our phones listening to us while we talk in the car, and then ads are generated from that?
I’d really like to know the answer to that question.
Some people like the option where they just say “Hey Google” (or whatever) and then the phone talks back to them, so they’re always listening so they can hear that initiation sequence. This old article from Vice describes what I’m speaking of.
Personally I’d like the ability to turn that feature off, so I have to explicitly enable the microphone to have Google listen to what I’m saying.
I’ll refer you to the Vice article that has been linked in this conversation above.
The mic is always hot, and neither you or I know what exactly is being stored locally and then sent in batch later on, or sent in real time. Only Google does.
But you see you’re wrong. We know how on device wake words work. I’m sorry, your vice article from 2018 is out of date.
Edit: I think I get it. You don’t know the difference between someone saying a microphone is always on (hot) for processing a wake word vs saying the microphone is always on (hot) for data collection. It’s two very different concepts. We know how wake words are processed. It’s done on chip in the device. Nothing is being sent across the internet.
We also have monitored cell phones when using wake words. There’s no network connectivity happening during that processing time. It’s easy to check.
Of course that doesn’t mean it will never happen in the future or that devices haven’t already been made to do so. We do know consumer cell phones do not appear to be doing this. Again, it would be obvious with suspicious battery drain and network activity.
You don’t know the difference between someone saying a microphone is always on (hot) for processing a wake word vs saying the microphone is always on (hot) for data collection.
No, I’m very aware of the distinction, my career was as a computer programmer, and have worked with hardware as well, and I’m very aware of technology, and have an Android certification.
You were just assuming one thing that I was saying, when I was actually saying a general thing.
The mic is hot by default. It has to listen for the activation sequence.
What I’m suggesting is that while that mic is hot it’s also gathering other data and storing it locally, and then it sends it off in a batch with other traffic later on, so it’s not detectable from someone who’s monitoring network traffic from the device.
Temporally, you’re assuming that all eavesdropping is transmitted in real time, where I am not.
What I want to know is why when I’m talking to my wife in the car about buying new shoes do I get a YouTube ad that evening about new shoes, when I never got that kind of ad before.
Are our phones listening to us while we talk in the car, and then ads are generated from that?
I’d really like to know the answer to that question.
Edit: fixed typo, shoes, not shows.
Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
I highly doubt phones are always listening. Surely at some point by now there would be proof.
There’s no evidence of extra network activity ( your data would be through the roof ).
There’s no evidence of battery drain.
This is of course the phone OS we are talking about. Software like TikTok or Meta could / be when allowed to by the user.
But, they already are.
Some people like the option where they just say “Hey Google” (or whatever) and then the phone talks back to them, so they’re always listening so they can hear that initiation sequence. This old article from Vice describes what I’m speaking of.
Personally I’d like the ability to turn that feature off, so I have to explicitly enable the microphone to have Google listen to what I’m saying.
Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Not in the context of this
postthread.“ Always listening ” would suggest they are recording at all times in a way that can be used for advertising.
It’s already well understood wake words are processed on device.
I’ll refer you to the Vice article that has been linked in this conversation above.
The mic is always hot, and neither you or I know what exactly is being stored locally and then sent in batch later on, or sent in real time. Only Google does.
Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
But you see you’re wrong. We know how on device wake words work. I’m sorry, your vice article from 2018 is out of date.
Edit: I think I get it. You don’t know the difference between someone saying a microphone is always on (hot) for processing a wake word vs saying the microphone is always on (hot) for data collection. It’s two very different concepts. We know how wake words are processed. It’s done on chip in the device. Nothing is being sent across the internet.
We also have monitored cell phones when using wake words. There’s no network connectivity happening during that processing time. It’s easy to check.
Of course that doesn’t mean it will never happen in the future or that devices haven’t already been made to do so. We do know consumer cell phones do not appear to be doing this. Again, it would be obvious with suspicious battery drain and network activity.
No, I’m very aware of the distinction, my career was as a computer programmer, and have worked with hardware as well, and I’m very aware of technology, and have an Android certification.
You were just assuming one thing that I was saying, when I was actually saying a general thing.
The mic is hot by default. It has to listen for the activation sequence.
What I’m suggesting is that while that mic is hot it’s also gathering other data and storing it locally, and then it sends it off in a batch with other traffic later on, so it’s not detectable from someone who’s monitoring network traffic from the device.
Temporally, you’re assuming that all eavesdropping is transmitted in real time, where I am not.
Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)