Technology

Two ways to process voice, on device or on server. Device-based solutions either are very basic and just detect differences between words or need training data based on your voice or they need lots of processing power for more generalized voice recognition. So is your battery draining and phone is often hot because an app is keeping the mic on and keeping the phone from slowing the processor? Other option is to stream the data to the server. This would also increase battery usage as the phone can't sleep, but might not be as noticeable, but more evident would be your phone using a lot more bandwidth than is reasonable while you aren't actively using it.

They are absolutely listening. This is very easy to test. Speak around a Google or Amazon or Apple device, and start talking about things you would never buy, never need, have never looked up, and is completely irrelevant for your demographic. You’ll get ads for it anyway by the end of the day or week.

Listen to the Big Tech comments to press and congressional testimony very carefully. They always say something like, ‘Facebook is not spying on your microphone.’ They’re always very carefully wording it as the parent company is not listening to your devices. But they absolutely know either one of their subsidiaries or their partners are listening to your microphone, and feeding the data to them.

Aw jeez not this again.

Apps listening to your mic to give you targeted ads is an urban legend. There's tools to see which apps listen to you and there isn't any evidence that any of the popular stuff ever open the microphone (unless you're in a call or something). If you're too worried about it, you can always turn off the mic permission for the app.

The ads are actually coming from other ways of tracking you like browser fingerprinting to follow what things you browse and build a profile on what you like/are interested in.

See also EFF's article on it: https://www.digitalrightsbytes.org/topics/is-my-phone-listening-to-me

Instagram showed me an ad for a medical condition I only discussed out loud, in person, in my doctors office.

Instagram was immediately uninstalled that day.

Believe it, don't believe it, some people believe the earth is flat, and 5G gives you cancer

404 Media previously reported Cox Media Group (CMG) was advertising a service that claimed to target ads based on what potential customers said near device microphones. Now, here is the pitch deck CMG sent to prospective companies. Google has kicked CMG off its Partner Program in response.

Why wouldn't you think this? There is no system in place for monitoring those companies, nor is there any type of punishment for if they were to be proven to be doing so. While on the other hand, there are piles of money to be made from advertisers for allowing exactly that to happen.

I've personally had things come up as being advertised to me after being NEAR people talking about those items, and I have seen several videos where people show this effect in action.

Frequency illusion is real, but is not reliable enough to repeat over and over, back to back, unlike the advertising.

When, ever, have the capitalist companies prioritized morality over money? Never.

I don't either hut the alternative is much worst in my opinion. It would mean the algorithms are so advanced they are predicting conversations instead of listening to them.

Ads aren't why you should be concerned about apps w/ microphone access...

Where exactly are you getting the idea that this belief is widespread?

Yes Apple.

battery life would fall through the floor if they did spy