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by ruthie_cohen
923 days ago
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If such a capability existed, it would have been made public by now. It would require the complicity of Apple, Samsung, Google et al. There has not been a single shred of evidence produced to support yearslong claims of devices constantly listening in on you. Intelligence services spend huge money to purchase compromises from private companies, or produce them in house. If they could simply compel a tech company to utilise this supposed technology, they would obtain a warrant to do so. All of the ‘targeted advertising’ anecdotes on here can easily be chalked up to confirmation bias. I have a pretty solid understanding of the western IC and I can fairly confidently say that if this technology existed it would be used constantly as it supersedes a typical phone surveillance warrant. I am a privacy advocate, but this is not one I’ve been especially concerned about. |
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It requires NO cooperation on the part of Apple, Google etc.
For smartphones it just requires allowing microphone access to some app; there are troves of apps with legitimate needs to access the microphone (voice chat in games, voice notes...); and many people accept all the permission requests they're offered, in any case.
Whether this access is allowed when the app is in the background depends on the OS version, the permissions the user grants and some other conditions (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64306994/access-micropho... , https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/106415).
Active microphone indicators have been introduced in Android 12 and iOS 14; many people still have older versions; those who don't might not care about them; and everything is still possible when an app with legitimate microphone usage reasons is in the foreground.
On other devices (such as smart tvs) there are often even less problems.
Most of all, there ARE well known services that use microphones to report on ads reach, and the one object of this thread only goes further by detecting arbitrary (pre-chosen) words:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/business/media/alphonso-a... (Alphonso is now lgads.tv)
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/ftc-android-developers-...
And again, this cmg offering exists, and is openly advertised by a reputable company; why so many people just want to ignore its existence, is beyond me.