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Started By
Message
Is my phone spying on me?
Posted on 2/16/24 at 9:29 am
Posted on 2/16/24 at 9:29 am
I am not the most tech savvy guy in the world. 35 years ago I was, but things pass you by.
So now I have an Iphone and an Iwatch that I can barely figure out how to use and a car with an annoying display screen where I have to cycle through various screens to get it to do what I want (still haven't figured out how to manually tune the radio, if that is even possible). The car has a nav system that syncs with my phone and sometimes pre-programs destinations that it thinks I want to go to.
The other day I tell the wife I am going to Costco. I get in the car, start it up, and the route to Costco is programmed into the nav system. No idea how that happened unless the phone is listening to what I say.
Seems pretty creepy. Is there some other explanation for this?
So now I have an Iphone and an Iwatch that I can barely figure out how to use and a car with an annoying display screen where I have to cycle through various screens to get it to do what I want (still haven't figured out how to manually tune the radio, if that is even possible). The car has a nav system that syncs with my phone and sometimes pre-programs destinations that it thinks I want to go to.
The other day I tell the wife I am going to Costco. I get in the car, start it up, and the route to Costco is programmed into the nav system. No idea how that happened unless the phone is listening to what I say.
Seems pretty creepy. Is there some other explanation for this?
14
Posted on 2/16/24 at 9:32 am to Roscoe14
quote:Do you go there often? My common destinations always show up, and specific to a day/time where that is the most common.
I get in the car, start it up, and the route to Costco is programmed into the nav system.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 9:36 am to AlxTgr
quote:
Do you go there often?
No, probably less than once a week. There are places that I go a lot more often.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 9:47 am to Roscoe14
quote:
Is my phone spying on me?
Yes.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 9:50 am to Roscoe14
quote:By chance, does your wife happened to be named Siri?
The other day I tell the wife I am going to Costco. I get in the car, start it up, and the route to Costco is programmed into the nav system. No idea how that happened unless the phone is listening to what I say
Posted on 2/16/24 at 9:53 am to Roscoe14
quote:nope.
Seems pretty creepy. Is there some other explanation for this?
i had my phone sitting on the bar about 20 feet away from me and casually mentioned something to my wife on the other side of the room that was a COMPELTELY RANDOM AND OBSCURE topic.
later that evening i picked my phone up and that random thing was at the top of 'google now'.
no other explanation; the microphone is alive and listening. probably one of the 17,000 'opt out' checkboxes i forgot to tic.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 10:00 am to SlackMaster
quote:
By chance, does your wife happened to be named Siri?
No, but that's pretty funny.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 10:23 am to Roscoe14
quote:
No, probably less than once a week. There are places that I go a lot more often.
That is enough for your maps to figure out this is a place you tend to go to regularly enough. Which is also proof that your phone is listening/paying attention to you.
So to answer your question, yes it is.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 11:12 am to Roscoe14
A couple of years ago the wife and I had a neighbor over for drinks and snacks. We talked about various subjects, one of which was Dresden Germany. Our neighbor had visited that city the year before. We had a nice conversation about the city, and then moved on to other topics.
Next morning when I fired up my computer, the first thing that popped up was an ad for travel to Dresden. I had my iPhone in my pocket the entire time we visited with our neighbor so I have to assume my iPhone reported that conversation to whoever (or whatever).
Next morning when I fired up my computer, the first thing that popped up was an ad for travel to Dresden. I had my iPhone in my pocket the entire time we visited with our neighbor so I have to assume my iPhone reported that conversation to whoever (or whatever).
Posted on 2/16/24 at 11:53 am to blueridgeTiger
quote:
Next morning when I fired up my computer, the first thing that popped up was an ad for travel to Dresden. I had my iPhone in my pocket the entire time we visited with our neighbor so I have to assume my iPhone reported that conversation to whoever (or whatever).
yep.
every friend i talk to has had a similar experience.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 1:31 pm to Roscoe14
quote:
Is my phone spying on me?
100000% yes
Posted on 2/16/24 at 4:46 pm to Roscoe14
Yes it is and they state that in user agreements. Learn to lockdown the settings on your phone like running in the background and access to microphone along with disabling Siri if you want privacy while sacrificing convenience.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 5:56 pm to Roscoe14
It’s called significant locations feature on iOS. You can disable it in your location and privacy settings.
Basically the phone starts to learn where you are going, what days you are going, what times of day you are going there.
There was a season in life where every morning I got in my car it was routing to chick fila.
The other day it predicted we were going to Publix( we were going to a different grocery store) but it was a good guess it was our normal time we go to Publix.
All that rambling to say. Your phone based on the time of day you got in your vehicle or the day of the week plus time predicted you were going to Costco and it was correct.
Impressive and scary at the same time. Sometimes it’s wrong but when you have the phone with you everyday all the time tracking your location and the richest company on earth writing algorithms to predict your behavior with all of those data points you feed it, it’s bound to be correct very often.
Basically the phone starts to learn where you are going, what days you are going, what times of day you are going there.
There was a season in life where every morning I got in my car it was routing to chick fila.
The other day it predicted we were going to Publix( we were going to a different grocery store) but it was a good guess it was our normal time we go to Publix.
All that rambling to say. Your phone based on the time of day you got in your vehicle or the day of the week plus time predicted you were going to Costco and it was correct.
Impressive and scary at the same time. Sometimes it’s wrong but when you have the phone with you everyday all the time tracking your location and the richest company on earth writing algorithms to predict your behavior with all of those data points you feed it, it’s bound to be correct very often.
Posted on 2/16/24 at 8:13 pm to Roscoe14
Yes your phone is listening.
What year is your car? The f250 work truck tells me what time I'm getting to and from work and I've never put my address in there. It's "learned" the pattern or whatever.
What year is your car? The f250 work truck tells me what time I'm getting to and from work and I've never put my address in there. It's "learned" the pattern or whatever.
Posted on 2/17/24 at 5:30 am to kengel2
One reason i keep gps turned off. One of several reasons.
Posted on 2/17/24 at 8:10 am to Roscoe14
'Spying' as in 'the NSA is monitoring all of us with phone audio' ... likely not
'Spying' as in that corpos have phones listen because they want to send you the most targeted ads possible to drive ad revenues... yes definitely. There's also a grain of truth that some services like Google Maps work better because they listen to everyone and aggregate data for recommendation engines and stuff.
'Spying' as in that corpos have phones listen because they want to send you the most targeted ads possible to drive ad revenues... yes definitely. There's also a grain of truth that some services like Google Maps work better because they listen to everyone and aggregate data for recommendation engines and stuff.
Posted on 2/17/24 at 3:24 pm to Roscoe14
Snowden tells you they are spying. Need a modified OS. Remove physical camera and microphone. Use corded headphones and mic when in use.
Posted on 2/17/24 at 7:42 pm to Roscoe14
quote:
Is my phone spying on me?
Is it powered on and not in a faraday bag?
Posted on 2/19/24 at 6:13 am to blueridgeTiger
quote:
A couple of years ago the wife and I had a neighbor over for drinks and snacks.
I think I've seen that movie before.
but yes our phones are listening to us.
I use an app called paranoid. The main screen of the app lists "Show me what apps can...." You can go through and see what apps have permission to a wide variety of tasks
Paranoid for Android.
Posted on 2/19/24 at 9:42 pm to Roscoe14
In this case? Probably just predictive behavior. Costco being common on that day, or around that time. Maybe 3-4 weeks in a row you went Saturday afternoon
In general? Surely some degree of data gathering and AI sorting with the microphone but I don’t think it’s as impactful as many think. There’s just so much audio in the world that it’s likely snagging some key words in various apps to help throw you into an advertising bucket and not meaningfully catching and storing bulk conversations
In general? Surely some degree of data gathering and AI sorting with the microphone but I don’t think it’s as impactful as many think. There’s just so much audio in the world that it’s likely snagging some key words in various apps to help throw you into an advertising bucket and not meaningfully catching and storing bulk conversations
This post was edited on 2/19/24 at 9:44 pm
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