Your phone is listening to you all the time

[DisneyOma]

I actually am wondering how that works. Do you have a pager or something? How do you drive places without Google maps? How do people reach you when you aren't at home?

People can leave messages on our answering machine too. A woman asked me for my cellphone number once, I gave her my home phone number and told her she could leave me a message. She got really upset about that, thought I was being rude! I don't give out my cell phone number to too many people, and I don't answer it if I don't know the number; it's that simple.

Also, I love to use paper maps, and written directions.

 

[Ben E N]

While it is entirely possible, but highly unlikely, that your phone is listening in on you (sorry, but you are just not that interesting), it is much more likely that Google has just set up amazing algorithms.
The dollar figure $543 that was cited in the "proof" that the phone was listening was a hugely specific number. All it would take is 10 other people watching the same show to type in the same question for Google to recognize a definite pattern and start the auto fill process when that figure gets entered. The same thing happened for me and the number was never said aloud.
The scary part of it is how much it leads us all to live in a bubble. Do enough searches for "Barack Obama was from Kenya", and Google will recognize a pattern in your searches and start to anticipate it, leading you to believe what you are searching for is more true than it really is.

 

[Searc]

While it is entirely possible, but highly unlikely, that your phone is listening in on you (sorry, but you are just not that interesting), it is much more likely that Google has just set up amazing algorithms.

I've had it happen too many times to be a coincidence. Happened again today, in fact. My sister brought up state pillows at lunch (phone sitting on table in front of me), something I have honestly never thought about, let alone searched for on any computer.

I now have an ad in my FB feed for state pillows. Who even knew there was such a thing?

 

[sam_gordon]

My Google Maps doesn't do that. I think it's "pretending" to routinely not know where I am, as I'm always inputting an address 3 streets away from me as my start location. Which is kind of ridiculous of me, as all my Gmail correspondence, auto-fill in forms and my Android phone all list me at my real address. Google Maps is probably waiting for me to one day list my real address, then it will go, "Hello! Can we NOW use this as your start location, instead of pretending dumb, that we don't know where you ARE?"


I think it was GMA, a few months ago, which did a blurb on how Android phones know EXACTLY where you are and where you are going and how you get there, even if you have the Google/Android location services & apps turned off on your phones. (People know Google owns Android, right? ) The GMA reporter did a test. The reporter had her locations OFF on her phone. Yet, her Android phone logged (to Google) that she was precisely at an address and that she was walking to her next location. (I don't quite remember HOW she knew Google knew this.) Then she got on a bike to her second location, and it knew she was on a bike (or something riding at that speed.) And when she got in a car, it told Google that she was traveling in an automobile of some sort. Google headquarters said it only tracks that stuff, even though it tells us our location function is off, for it's own data research advancements. Sure it is.

I saw on the local news about a month ago, where a missing woman's last known location was at some stranger's house. She had been abducted, taken in a car, and that house was the last known location before the phone went dead. The person living there is now "a person of interest" by the police. So, there are some times when having the location function is a good thing. Same thing with the iPhone's "Find A Friend" app did the same thing to find some missing people.

I think I put in a "home" address on my Google account. It's public knowledge anyway, who cares? Anyway, I don't always start from home. Sometimes I start from work (or elsewhere).

I remember a number of years ago when people mainly relied on stand alone GPS's... there was an internet craze about not putting your "home" address in the GPS, because if someone steals your car, the GPS will lead them straight to your house, and they know you're not there. But that failed the logic test twice... A) The car's registration (if not other papers) would have the address the car belongs to and B) While the thief would know the car's driver isn't there, they wouldn't know that someone else isn't. "Hiding" from Google (or FB, Apple, whatever), seems about as pointless as not putting a real home address in a GPS.

I'm guessing others don't like it, but I also think Google Maps "Timeline" feature is pretty cool. If I could find a way to link pictures with that, that would be awesome!

 

[fla4fun]

I actually am wondering how that works. Do you have a pager or something? How do you drive places without Google maps? How do people reach you when you aren't at home?

I have a smart phone, but it’s prepaid and for emergencies only. It is almost always turned off, so I don’t give out the number to anyone. My friends/family know when I am at work and know when I am at home and I have voicemail on both of those landlines. My car has a decent navigation system and I still know how to use a paper map if I need to (I have always loved maps, especially antique ones). Even when I am at Disney the phone is usually off. If I need to use MDE I turn it on, or if I want to take photos, but that’s it. I have had a cell phone for more than 20 years, but it’s not something I need to be connected to 24/7.

Sometimes I really enjoy NOT being connected.

 

[Ben E N]

I've had it happen too many times to be a coincidence. Happened again today, in fact. My sister brought up state pillows at lunch (phone sitting on table in front of me), something I have honestly never thought about, let alone searched for on any computer.

I now have an ad in my FB feed for state pillows. Who even knew there was such a thing?

I will give you that Facebook may be up to something. Every example like yours that I have come across involves facebook. That and the fact that the app download is huge tells me that there is more than they are letting on on their surface.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

Exactly. The world did exist before 1995. Yes, most people use these modern technologies, but you don't have to.

I remember as a kid/teen deck handing on my fathers shrimp boat navigating by a compass, channel markers, and lights on shore. I remember when we first got a LORAN and it was amazing. I think in the late 80’s maybe early 90’s they changed over to the GPS system and we had to relocate every hang on the bottom and theirs only one way you do that, by snagging it with your net and saving the coordinates. You generally hang up on stormy nights, it was a fun year.

 

[Klayfish]

I remember as a kid/teen deck handing on my fathers shrimp boat navigating by a compass, channel markers, and lights on shore. I remember when we first got a LORAN and it was amazing. I think in the late 80’s maybe early 90’s they changed over to the GPS system and we had to relocate every hang on the bottom and theirs only one way you do that, by snagging it with your net and saving the coordinates. You generally hang up on stormy nights, it was a fun year.

Ah yes, I love old time "back in the day" before technology stories. My story, relevant to this thread...when I was in my late teens my friends and I used to play a driving game. We'd have a 5 county map in the car. We'd start at his house and get lost on purpose. We'd just make random rights, lefts, whatever for a good long while just exploring the area. We'd then try pull up the map to figure out where the heck we were and how to get back...with some adventures along the way.

 

[Geoff_M]

As I've read, people are not "crazy" and your phone can be "listening" to you. BUT, except for explicit searches that come after trigger phrases like "Hey, Google..." what your phone "hears" doesn't really go beyond your phone, at least verbatim. So, for example, if you're heard saying "California" and "vacation" in close proximity, your phone might then feed this information to analytical engines and you then might see ads for California vacation destinations popping up in your Facebook feeds or you might see similar ads while browsing the web. None of this would mean that Google, Facebook, etc. has recordings of your conversations stored somewhere.

I'm not really concerned about things like this because I know what an incredible headache and cost it would be for Google, Facebook, etc. to store full audio for our conversations. There's also the question of the actual value of such recordings. Once your phone has gleaned what products or services you might be interested in, there's really not much else worth mining in the conversation.

But, on a slightly different angle, it is rather interesting that Google and Amazon both record and store the audio of each command or search that you explicitly issue to your Google Home or Amazon Alexa. You can actually use the Google Home app to go back and actually playback any of the recent commands you've given your Home. I admit it's find of weird to be able to hear yourself saying "OK Google, turn off the bedroom light" a few days after the fact. Google says that it uses the recordings to try and determine on their end if the command actually executed lines up with the actual audio in an effort to try and improve their voice command system. We use Google Home, but my friend who uses Alexa said that he's found the same thing with their system.

 

[FastPasser.]

We use Google Home, but my friend who uses Alexa said that he's found the same thing with their system.

On Alexa, you can opt out of Amazon using your recordings.

 

[Geoff_M]

On Alexa, you can opt out of Amazon using your recordings.

The same is true with Google, but if they want to keep me saying: " Hey Google, what time does Lowe's close today?" that's their problem.

 

[Imzadi]

You guys heard last week that this news story was released about how THOUSANDS of Amazon workers have been listening on Alexa users' conversations:

http://time.com/5568815/amazon-workers-listen-to-alexa/

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

Ah yes, I love old time "back in the day" before technology stories. My story, relevant to this thread...when I was in my late teens my friends and I used to play a driving game. We'd have a 5 county map in the car. We'd start at his house and get lost on purpose. We'd just make random rights, lefts, whatever for a good long while just exploring the area. We'd then try pull up the map to figure out where the heck we were and how to get back...with some adventures along the way.

As teens we had CB radios in our trucks, that’s how we would communicate pre beepers and cell phones. We use to play hide and seek in the cars giving clues over the air, those were good times.

 

[wenrob]

You guys heard last week that this news story was released about how THOUSANDS of Amazon workers have been listening on Alexa users' conversations:

http://time.com/5568815/amazon-workers-listen-to-alexa/

This story says they’re listening to user recordings not user conversations. They’re different things. Alexa doesn’t record everything happening in your house, it records commands you give it. In my house that would be things like “Alexa, announce dinner” or “Alexa, lights off.” If you say “Alexa” or something like it (though I’ve yet to have that happen) Alexa will respond and wait for YOUR response. These people aren’t hanging around listening to random conversations in thousands of homes, they’re listening to recordings people have given them permission to listen to so they can try and improve reliability. I personally opted out of it which is probably why I can’t get “her” to turn off my daughter’s TV.

 

[UncleMike101]

My Wife and I were at Costco a few weeks ago.
We were looking at Breathe Right Nasal Strips.
She said. "How much are the Breathe Right Strips at Sams?"
I pulled out my phone.
Hit the Sams app.
And the Sams site came up to the Breathe Right Nasal Strips page.
Freaked her out!!
I guess I'll turn my phone off until I need to call someone...................

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I'm surprised not a single person has mentioned Cortana. If you have a Win 10 computer, then you have Cortana on your computer, listening in or tracking stuff on your computer, unless you disabled it. That was the FIRST setting I changed when upgraded to Win 10.

I also don't use any new Microsoft apps on my computer. I found what would have been a nifty note-taking app pre-installed. (Not the old Notepad or Wordpad programs.) I was about to use it, when I read in the app/program's description that if I type in an address, I could click on it to see how easily Bing (Microsoft's Search engine), will be able to bring up a map of the address for me. Meaning it's MONITORING what I'm typing!

The only reason I decided I wanted a note-taking / To Do list on my computer was because I had been writing one out to myself in my Gmail. I usually compose an email of my To Do list in Gmail, yet never send it to myself. It just stays a Draft that I constantly edit. When shopping, if I have forgotten to print it out, I can just go to my Gmail while in the store and read the Draft of my To-Do list.

Usually, I have a list for just the dollar store. I usually need some knick-knack from there so I have a list. The list had always said just "Dollar Store" at the top. One time, I needed stuff from a generic Dollar Store and stuff that I know I would find at a specific Dollar Tree store I was heading to. So I added to the list "Dollar Tree." The next day, I'm on YouTube. In the past, I had seen various videos on my YouTube Home page recommending some different "Dollar Store Hacks" videos. But, that day, it was suddenly "Dollar Tree Hacks." And I knew it was too coincidental. Now, I know Google owns YouTube. I also know Google culls our emails to tailor some Google Ads for me. However, I had set the Google Ads setting to NOT find me tailored ads. And I didn't know that Google would be culling UNSENT/Drafts of emails. This stuff was still only in the thought process. Not sent or received emails. And I didn't know it would be "sharing" the data to a completely different website, regardless that Google owns it. I felt that was a real invasion of privacy.

So, I decided to now write as many documents as possible on my computer that are not kept on some Cloud, where someone could read, cull, hack, while it's being "stored" there. And certainly not some program, that also culls info and sends it to Microsoft, Bing, some map app, etc., without my knowledge.

I own an Android smartphone. And I do use Gmail and Google Maps extensively. Yet, I don't want BOTH Google AND Microsoft to be keeping tabs on me in some way. Nor Alexa or Siri or Cortana or Julie or Jack, etc.

I was going to bring up the computer. One time (and so far, only ONE time) a few weeks ago, I was talking to DH about something (I don't remember what it was). Neither of our phones were in the room, and my laptop, while closed and powered off, was sitting right next to me. Once we were done talking, I powered on and signed onto Facebook, only to find a sponsored ad regarding the exact thing about which we were speaking. I even mentioned it to DH, something like, "Wow, I guess the computer was listening to us..." I never use Cortana, and I thought I disabled it, but I guess I didn't!

 

[clutter]

I just rode up the elevator with my boss. She mentioned that her medication is kicking in, and her hot flashes are getting better. Come in, turn on my laptop, and Facebook is presenting me with an article about hot flashes.

 

[jsmith]

Privacy, the kind your grandparents enjoyed where things were truly confidential and people could drop off the map, is a thing of the past. Even without your phone "listening" to you, and even if you do not utilize social media of any kind or even a web connected device of any kind, if you see a physician, have a drivers license, car insurance or a bank account you exist electronically. The only way to have that kind of privacy is to live off the grid, transport with horse and buggy and pay only in cash or goods-and never see a physician. I am not overly fond of electronic stuff-and I am always very careful-and I still have a digital footprint.-I hate it.

 

[ponyboy]

As for people getting in touch with you, they can leave a message at your landline

You have a landline???

 

[ponyboy]

As in Google has a tracking code on EVERY webpage called, "Google Analytics" which tracks every page one visits.

Google Analytics is only on web pages that the creators put it on. Which yeah, is almost all of them but not every one. Not everybody uses google analytics. It's a free program that provides analytical data of what's going on with the website. What pages users like. How long users stay. How many visits the website and each page get.

I've used it myself and all of that analytical data is a must if you ever sell a website so the buyer can estimate how much ad revenue will be generated.