Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Android Microphone Snooping (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So I had a verbal conversation with a coworker yesterday and now I'm getting fed very specific ads. No possible way it's accidental. I have most of the microphone access to apps limited, I have Google assistant turned off and no VPA setup in my home. I use a Oneplus 9 pro, does anyone have recommendations on how to further root cause this or just par for the course for using any standard android OS? Have other folks had similar experience after locking down their stock phones?

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (24 children)

The amount of battery used and data that your phone would be sending if it was constantly recording and sending the data to Google would be very obvious

Its more likely that Google and Co have just profiled you really well and or you searched for that specific topic before. Or that topic was an ad that you clicked on in the past or that you slowed down when scrolling to look at

Newer android version notify you in the top right when your microphone is active and you should also be able to see when the last time, down to the minute, that any app accessed the mic in settings

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

It's most likely a cause and effect reversal, in my opinion.

The conversation was happening because of the ads, not the other way around. Advertising works. It manipulates us into changing behavior, even without us realizing.

A real conversation makes you think about the thing being advertised, leading to you notice what would otherwise be totally below-the-radar things. People don't like to imagine they have been manipulated, so the conspiracy of the listening phone seems preferable.

Block all ads. All the time. They are bad for us.

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