4 ms·

I'm reasonably confident that Google listens to every conversation I have within earshot of my phone. It isn't uncommon to find things in my news feed that are

I'm reasonably confident that Google listens to every conversation I have within earshot of my phone. It isn't uncommon to find things in my news feed that are related to things I have no interest in but a friend or coworker had just mentioned to me in passing.

guerrilla 5y ago
What do you say about the people who have tested this and found nothing?
- hnfong 5y ago
  AB testing?
- laurentlbm 5y ago
  Maybe Google heard them say that they were going to test!
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  There's a good chance I'm wrong, but it certainly seems like that's what's going on. I haven't seen anyone's testing of this, but it is also possible their methodology is flawed.
thealistra 5y ago
At work you have the same IP. Your coworker may have googled what he was taking about. This is a much easier explaination than a constant mic monitoring for arbitrary phrases
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  There are a lot of people at this company, and my news feed doesn't diverge enough to account for all of their varied google searches.
  - zepto 5y ago
    No, but it would be easy to tell that you associate with your co-worked by correlating Bluetooth beacons, which many apps do for exactly this purpose.
    - Yeri 5y ago
      More realistically, your co-worker googled it on their phone. They also email/chat/sms/call you once in a while, so they know you're connected. Now, it's only logical that you may share certain interests, so why not show ads for things they bought/googled for to their contacts?
- withinboredom 5y ago
  Don’t people have data caps where they’d notice if a ridiculous amount of audio was sent to a server?
  - dont__panic 5y ago
    If you did all of the analysis on device, even quite cheaply, you could just transcribe key words and phrases into a text file and upload that. That would only be a few kilobytes of data tops per day of unique words and phrases, I should think. And if you've ever tried to monitor data usage on an Android phone, you'll know that the monolith of Google Play Services phones home all the time with all kinds of pings and datapoints, so it wouldn't be hard at all to upload that data.
    - KaiserPro 5y ago
      and you'd have no battery inside an hour. watch words are simple to listen for, generalised transcription is far harder.
      - fsflover 5y ago
        Doesn't your phone stay on charge sometimes?
NationalPark 5y ago
The conspiracy that never dies. I think it's so sticky because people feel very uncomfortable when they realize how much Google knows about you without having to listen.
- nicce 5y ago
  It is not conspiracy. There is literally an option on your Google account to stop using mic for collecting data. On older accounts, it is enabled by default.
  - NationalPark 5y ago
    Are you referring to the voice assistant telemetry? That's not passively recorded according to Google, but if you have evidence to the contrary I can think of a number of news outlets (and prosecutors in 2 party consent states) that would love to have it.
    - nicce 5y ago
      The option was there before voice assistant existed in 2013 or something. That is when I figured it out myself. I don't know how the description of that is changed during the years.
misiti3780 5y ago
I doubt they are listening - What is more likely is Google can use your lat/lng and knows that you and your co-worker work near each other, etc and is making recommendations based of proximity.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  It's plausible, but I still don't buy it because I don't see divergent things when I, say, sit next to a complete stranger in the break room cafeteria.
salzig 5y ago
you don't need to listen at every conversation. Your friend was tagged with those topics, and there is a connection to you. It's simple enough to "copy" those topics over to you, cause you're maybe also intrested. :)
bengale 5y ago
Yeah I can't decide on this one. Part of me thinks this can't be happening, and that someone would have realised. But there's been a couple of occasions that go beyond the "creepy coincidence" ads to something that I was speaking with my wife about that day and neither of us had put into the internet, suddenly we get ads for it.
- jdgoesmarching 5y ago
  People really aren’t capable of conceptualizing how intimate normal data collection and analytics are capable of being. You think your phone is listening because you assume that’s the only way the ads can know so much, and ironically the truth is far more invasive.
exhilaration 5y ago
Have you considered an even scarier alternative: that Google simply has such an enormous amount of data about yourself and the people around you that they can make incredibly accurate predictions like this?

guerrilla 5y ago

What do you say about the people who have tested this and found nothing?

hnfong 5y ago
AB testing?
laurentlbm 5y ago
Maybe Google heard them say that they were going to test!
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
There's a good chance I'm wrong, but it certainly seems like that's what's going on. I haven't seen anyone's testing of this, but it is also possible their methodology is flawed.

thealistra 5y ago

At work you have the same IP. Your coworker may have googled what he was taking about. This is a much easier explaination than a constant mic monitoring for arbitrary phrases

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
There are a lot of people at this company, and my news feed doesn't diverge enough to account for all of their varied google searches.
- zepto 5y ago
  No, but it would be easy to tell that you associate with your co-worked by correlating Bluetooth beacons, which many apps do for exactly this purpose.
  - Yeri 5y ago
    More realistically, your co-worker googled it on their phone. They also email/chat/sms/call you once in a while, so they know you're connected. Now, it's only logical that you may share certain interests, so why not show ads for things they bought/googled for to their contacts?
withinboredom 5y ago
Don’t people have data caps where they’d notice if a ridiculous amount of audio was sent to a server?
- dont__panic 5y ago
  If you did all of the analysis on device, even quite cheaply, you could just transcribe key words and phrases into a text file and upload that. That would only be a few kilobytes of data tops per day of unique words and phrases, I should think. And if you've ever tried to monitor data usage on an Android phone, you'll know that the monolith of Google Play Services phones home all the time with all kinds of pings and datapoints, so it wouldn't be hard at all to upload that data.
  - KaiserPro 5y ago
    and you'd have no battery inside an hour. watch words are simple to listen for, generalised transcription is far harder.
    - fsflover 5y ago
      Doesn't your phone stay on charge sometimes?

NationalPark 5y ago

The conspiracy that never dies. I think it's so sticky because people feel very uncomfortable when they realize how much Google knows about you without having to listen.

nicce 5y ago
It is not conspiracy. There is literally an option on your Google account to stop using mic for collecting data. On older accounts, it is enabled by default.
- NationalPark 5y ago
  Are you referring to the voice assistant telemetry? That's not passively recorded according to Google, but if you have evidence to the contrary I can think of a number of news outlets (and prosecutors in 2 party consent states) that would love to have it.
  - nicce 5y ago
    The option was there before voice assistant existed in 2013 or something. That is when I figured it out myself. I don't know how the description of that is changed during the years.

misiti3780 5y ago

I doubt they are listening - What is more likely is Google can use your lat/lng and knows that you and your co-worker work near each other, etc and is making recommendations based of proximity.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
It's plausible, but I still don't buy it because I don't see divergent things when I, say, sit next to a complete stranger in the break room cafeteria.

salzig 5y ago

you don't need to listen at every conversation. Your friend was tagged with those topics, and there is a connection to you. It's simple enough to "copy" those topics over to you, cause you're maybe also intrested. :)

bengale 5y ago

Yeah I can't decide on this one. Part of me thinks this can't be happening, and that someone would have realised. But there's been a couple of occasions that go beyond the "creepy coincidence" ads to something that I was speaking with my wife about that day and neither of us had put into the internet, suddenly we get ads for it.

jdgoesmarching 5y ago
People really aren’t capable of conceptualizing how intimate normal data collection and analytics are capable of being. You think your phone is listening because you assume that’s the only way the ads can know so much, and ironically the truth is far more invasive.

exhilaration 5y ago

Have you considered an even scarier alternative: that Google simply has such an enormous amount of data about yourself and the people around you that they can make incredibly accurate predictions like this?