[oxymoran]

Yes, but if you carry around a smartphone it’s kind of a moot point. Unfortunately, I think pervasive surveillance is inevitable. Perhaps when video and audio evidence becomes completely unreliable due to deepfakes type shenanigans it will actually be a positive because it will make all the surveillance data worthless? Maybe they are the the answer to each other’s problems?

[mindslight]

Only a "smart" phone full of surveillance software from Google, Apple, et al. If your pocket computer is running software under your control, then apart from baseband malware [0], you're only leaking your location data - a far cry from continual audio surveillance.

[0] Who knows how prevalent this is, especially with the popularity of defective by design integrated Qualcomm chipsets etc. But at least this is at the level of national governments, rather than agile consumer companies with stated missions of datamining as much as they can for economic advantage.

[Johnny555]

Yes, but if you carry around a smartphone it’s kind of a moot point

That's what I tell people when they ask how I can stand having an Echo listening to me in my house -- and then he took out his phone and used Siri to look up the privacy problems. He didn't understand the irony even when I pointed it out.

[losteric]

Well I'm unhappy about cellphone tracking too.

Why is that problem justification for bending over to the expanding surveillance state?

[Johnny555]

You can be unhappy about it, but don't use Siri on your phone to tell my why an Echo in my livingroom is the problem.