soloojos (Lemmy)People left seriously creeped out after woman shares how to find out everything Google knows about you
cdf12345Thanks past me!
Same here. Disabled it a year back.
đMaximum DerekđI have all my histories turned off and once a year or so I go in and make sure they havenât added anything new for me to turn off.
Now the question is, are they really not collecting my data or have I just made it so I canât see what they have on me?
BertramDitoreI do the same thing, and always wonder that too. These companies have been caught lying consistently and repeatedly about what they collect and how, so even with all the right settings Iâm very skeptical that they actually respect my choices.
I would assume the latter until proven otherwise. No doubt they hide that.
Thatâs how think about it too.
They collected incognito session info, whose entire existence was ânot keeping a historyâ, so almost 100% the latter.
AppoxoIt just not stores the session >_> Nothing was ever fully incognito about it beyond the icon looking like a spy.
Also itâs made by Google. Not much of a surprise.
Now for Firefoy I would be interested.
I never assumed that incognito mode did anything more than not save my history and searches in my browser. And maybe some other stuff like cache and cookies.
It took me a while to realize that less tech-savvy people wouldnât know about that stuff and assume that it meant that Google isnât watching you.
And unless youâre very privacy-conscious, even your ISP knows where you get your internet porn from
voxeli have only YouTube and google search history enabled (personalization is good enough in both that i actually do care about it), and set to the lowest auto delete option
How do you turn them off. I mean, do you go through every Google product and dig for the settings?
There is a central page to manage history across most all of google services.
In your google account settings there should be a page called âData And Privacyâ that has loads of things to turn off or at least limit the amount of time before they say they delete it.
They keep changing where it is and how the pages are laid out in order to keep us on our toes. I think there may be a privacy center somewhere too. There used to be.
My best guess is that they instead aggregate your data and serve ads based off of basic demographically information - instead of data theyâve harvested from your Google account. E.g. theyâll use your age range, gender, region, etc
CrackhappyYep, same here. I turned off all that tracking a long time ago.
jordanlundSame here⊠disabled this AGES ago.
Cosmic ClericWhat I want to know is why when Iâm talking to my wife in the car about buying new shoes do I get a YouTube ad that evening about new shoes, when I never got that kind of ad before.
Are our phones listening to us while we talk in the car, and then ads are generated from that?
Iâd really like to know the answer to that question.
Edit: fixed typo, shoes, not shows.
It most likely is. And if itâs not your phone, then itâs your car (assuming it has been built in the last few years)
It most likely is. And if itâs not your phone, then itâs your car (assuming it has been built in the last few years)
Yeah, thatâs really creepy. I would only want the phone to listen when I actually ask it a question, not 24/7.
I would only want the phone to listen when I actually ask it a question, not 24/7.
If the phone does not listen 24/7, then how does it know when you are asking a question? It should discard all information until the wake up word is called in theory. Only way it could work if you have to press a button to start listening to your question. This was the case in the past, however people wanted to ask questions while showering or something since they introduced this âimprovementâ.
If the phone does not listen 24/7, then how does it know when you are asking a question?
I pushed the microphone button on the keyboard editor when I want the microphone to listen to me.
For example, when I comment here on Lemmy, I use the voice-to-text option to type out my comments, via the microphone.
It should discard all information until the wake up word is called in theory.
But even with always-on listening mode, it shouldnât actually be taking any of your data for advertising (or legal issues for that matter) and using it, unless you explicitly authorize it to do so.
And it has to be very explicit, not buried down in some long multi-page license somewhere that only a knowledgeable lawyer would be able to know and find.
Oh, and you should be able to opt-out of that mode as well.
TimeSquirrelIt most likely is
Instead of guessing, you people need to learn to use Wireshark and find out for yourself.
No, they don't just listen all the time with an open mic.
No, they donât just listen all the time with an open mic and just send all audio to the cloud. Anyone in cybersecurity would definitely notice that and sound the alarm.
How would they though? The mic is already known to be always on, and what the servers/back-end are doing with the mic input data is not viewable/known by us on the outside. So how would those âcybersecurityâ people know?
If you're monitoring the traffic, and you start speaking, and you suddenly see pac6kers spewing out of a device every time you talk, that's a good indication. There's indirect methods to analyze it without necessarily being able to see the actual data.
Poking around the PCB with an oscilloscope to see electrical signals will probably be useful too.
If youâre monitoring the traffic, and you start speaking, and you suddenly see pac6kers spewing out of a device every time you talk, thatâs a good indication. Thereâs indirect methods to analyze it without necessarily being able to see the actual data.
Its already established that the mic always hot, and that data is always being sent to the server.
What they do with the data is not seeable by us. That is the point being discussed, do they listen in to conversations and market off of that data to us.
Its already established that the mic always hot, and that data is always being sent to the server.
Tell me, how have you established this? What were your methods?
Its already established that the mic always hot, and that data is always being sent to the server.
Tell me, how have you established this? What were your methods?
By calling out for the Google assist, without having pushed any button first. Itâs always listening for the activate/initiate key phrase.
That doesn't mean it's sending anything out through the network connection. The wake word is locally processed.
That doesnât mean itâs sending anything out through the network connection. The wake word is locally processed.
Doesnât mean itâs not, either.
This old article from Vice seems to have proven it, back in 2018.
This entire article is full of absolutely nothing but speculation and poor experimentation without proper knowledge, software, or equipment. No technical analysis at all. This person kind of has no clue and is taking ignorant shots in the dark. The "experiment" they ran sounds like something my mother would do and then get all bent out of shape and frantically call me about it.
I want the 5 minutes back I wasted reading that.
All of your hyperbole aside, if youâre worried about time wasted, you really shouldnât be on the Internet.
Wireshark may or may not help you here. The proposed mechanism is abusing the wake words, which are processed locally on the device. Each marketing wake word could be processed, set a flag and go back to sleep with no network activity. Periodically a bit array of flags would be sent to the server with any other regular traffic (checking for notifications, perhaps). The actual audio never gets sent. Iâm not saying that Facebook actually does this, but itâs a reasonable explanation for the behaviour seen in the Vice article.
zelifcamI highly doubt phones are always listening. Surely at some point by now there would be proof.
Thereâs no evidence of extra network activity ( your data would be through the roof ).
Thereâs no evidence of battery drain.
This is of course the phone OS we are talking about. Software like TikTok or Meta could / be when allowed to by the user.
I highly doubt phones are always listening.
But, they already are.
Some people like the option where they just say âHey Googleâ (or whatever) and then the phone talks back to them, so theyâre always listening so they can hear that initiation sequence. This old article from Vice describes what Iâm speaking of.
Personally Iâd like the ability to turn that feature off, so I have to explicitly enable the microphone to have Google listen to what Iâm saying.
Isnât the activation phrase on a separate piece of hardware thatâs not networked?
NGL I donât the the guy with the anti ai blurb in all his comments is very knowledgeable about tech lol
Isnât the activation phrase on a separate piece of hardware thatâs not networked?
[Citation required.]
NGL I donât the the guy with the anti ai blurb in all his comments is very knowledgeable about tech lol
You know, if you have to try to âKill the Messengerâ to win a point, then youâre not really winning anything, and youâre just disrespecting another human being.
but they already are
Not in the context of this post.
â Always listening â would suggest they are recording at all times in a way that can be used for advertising.
Itâs already well understood wake words are processed on device.
Iâll refer you to the Vice article that has been linked in this conversation above.
The mic is always hot, and neither you or I know what exactly is being stored locally and then sent in batch later on, or sent in real time. Only Google does.
But you see youâre wrong. We know how on device wake words work.
You donât know the difference between someone saying a microphone is always on (hot) for processing a wake word vs saying the microphone is always on (hot) for data collection.
No, Iâm very aware of the distinction, my career was as a computer programmer, and have worked with hardware as well, and Iâm very aware of technology, and have an Android certification.
You were just assuming one thing that I was saying, when I was actually saying a general thing.
The mic is hot by default. It has to listen for the activation sequence.
What Iâm suggesting is that while that mic is hot itâs also gathering other data and storing it locally, and then it sends it off in a batch with other traffic later on, so itâs not detectable from someone whoâs monitoring network traffic from the device.
Temporally, youâre assuming that all eavesdropping is transmitted in real time, where I am not.
What are the odds than anyone in the household searched for the shows? Targeting ads to all devices on the same IP or even devices that have previously been on the same network happens.
I was able to predict that my mom had been researching âbunion shoesâ after I started seeing ads, seemingly randomly, for them not long after she came to my house to visit.
Itâs not even just that, humans a incredibly predictable and that predictability is able to be microtargeted based on trends and past activity of an individual.
Itâs not even just that, humans a incredibly predictable and that predictability is able to be microtargeted based on trends and past activity of an individual.
I literally let years go by between buying shoes, no kidding. So I donât think that what you described would cover my specific case.
Especially out of the blue, and not shown ads for that at all before, and exactly around the same time when that discussion comes up in a moving vehicle.
(As an aside, and in case youâre curious, when it comes time to buy new shoes, I usually buy two or three pairs of the same shoe, and then stick the other ones in the closet (usually buy at a really good sales price). Then when the first ones wear out I throw them away, and grab the next pair out of the closet.)
You just described a pattern, though.
You just described a pattern, though.
From where I see it, there is no pattern of purchasing shoes there, unless you truly expect Google AI/servers to track you multi-years long (with the required CPU and storage requirements needed to do so), to establish an unique shoe purchasing pattern, instead of what they more likely are doing, which is looking at recent online and microphone activity.
AKA, Occamâs Razor.
And also, how would Google know beforehand, that I will walk into a shoe store and buy shoes, if I didnât do any search for them ahead of time online?
IronKrillI agree in an abstract, but shoes do not wear at the same rate each year, especially when you buy different shoes each time. My shoe purchases, for instance, vary by a number of years.
What are the odds than anyone in the household searched for the shows?
Itâs just me and my wife, and we were both in the car together.
Also, I meant to say shoes, not shows. The voice-to-text doesnât always get me perfectly, and sometimes I miss the typos it creates.
Iâm not aware of any research thatâs proven that phone are listening on conversations and serve ads based on that, just a bunch of anecdotal evidence. there has been some research a few years ago that proved the opposite, though.
there has been some research a few years ago that proved the opposite, though.
Could you supply a link for that article? I would very much like to read it. Also, I would want it to be a recent article, to be believable for the current conversation weâre having.
just a bunch of anecdotal evidence
Well, we all are just black boxing this, as we do not have access to these corporationâs servers and what data they collect.
But you have to admit, that in my case at least, Occamâs Razor would definitely point you in a certain direction.
Edit: You should also take a look at this old article from Vice.
gizmodo.com/these-academics-spent-the-last-year-tâŠ
this is the most recent one I know of.
you have to admit, that in my case at least, Occamâs Razor would definitely point you in a certain direction.
it points me in the direction of you either being in the demographic currently targeted by the ad provider, or you having been shown the ad before without noticing it, and only paying attention after talking about the topic, and experiencing frequency illusion afterwards.
These Academics Spent the Last Year Testing Whether Your Phone Is Secretly Listening to You
Itâs the smartphone conspiracy theory that just wonât go away: Many, many people are convinced that their phones are listening to their conversations to target them with ads. Vice recently fueled the paranoia with an article that declared âYour phone is listening and itâs not paranoia,â a conclusion the author reachedâŠ
gizmodo.com/these-academics-spent-the-last-year-tâŠ
this is the most recent one I know of.
Gizmodo? 2018? Yikes.
Interesting enough, in that same article is one from Vice, which backs up what Iâve been stating and assuming.
These Academics Spent the Last Year Testing Whether Your Phone Is Secretly Listening to You
Itâs the smartphone conspiracy theory that just wonât go away: Many, many people are convinced that their phones are listening to their conversations to target them with ads. Vice recently fueled the paranoia with an article that declared âYour phone is listening and itâs not paranoia,â a conclusion the author reachedâŠ
Gizmodo? 2018? Yikes.
itâs a summary of a paper posted here: recon.meddle.mobi/panoptispy/
in that same article is one from Vice, which backs up what Iâve been stating and assuming
do I get to say âVice? 2018? Yikes.â now?
feel free to link more up-to-date research results.
Gizmodo? 2018? Yikes.
itâs a summary of a paper posted here: recon.meddle.mobi/panoptispy/
Thanks for the link. Checking the bottom of it âŠ
© Copyright 2012-2024 by David Choffnes, Northeastern University. This work is generously supported in part by a DHS S&T contract (#FA8750-17-2-0145), a Comcast Innovation Fund grant and the Data Transparency Lab.
⊠and from the paper âŠ
This material is based upon work supported by the DHS S&T contract FA8750-17-2-0145; the NSF under Award No. CNS-1408632, IIS-1408345, and IIS-1553088; a Security, Privacy and Anti-Abuse award from Google; a Comcast Innovation Fund grant; and a Data Trans- parency Lab grant. Any opinions, findings, and conclu- sions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors.
Ignoring âGizmodoâ for a moment, not sure if its an unbiased paper or not (its a bit âsusâ), and the date is from research done in 2017 and published in 2018. Todayâs corporations most likely do not follow the same practices they did in 2017.
in that same article is one from Vice, which backs up what Iâve been stating and assuming
do I get to say âVice? 2018? Yikes.â now?
Yep, you sure do, especially since it comes from the article you supplied. The point being that showing proof from 2017 does not necessarily cover todayâs situation.
But it definatley defines that listening in on your phone used to happen back in 2018 at least. Wish we had todayâs âwordâ on the subject.
feel free to link more up-to-date research results.
Considering I was asking you originally, you shouldnât expect one from me. I was asking you about your initial point, since you were replying to mine, and would not have if I already the information that backs up what you stated.
JakdraculaHi.
I work with and for most of the major tech companies worldwide and yes, we are listening to your cell phone even when you turn off the settings.
Iâm not going to provide any proof or further context. Just trust me bro.
Do a little research on Sony and âthe gardenâ.
No. How about you summarize it for us.
I did, above.
There are several large companies that actively listen though your phone and IoT and use the collected audio to advertise to you.
Thank you for the summary.
EngineerGamingI am skeptical about listening not only because it was not proven, but also because almost the exact same result is achievable via much, much simpler and omnipresent means.