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How much proof is there that smart tvs and phones listen to you? (suppo.fi)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/privacy@programming.dev
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Like, we all know they're listening , but can we provide proof?

My friend was complaining about all the new super surveillance that will be government required in cars after 2027, and I said to him dude you have a stock android, you use every AI slop feature, you use a smart TV on your unsecured network, and uses x every day. They have everything they could possibly need on him. Oh and he posts questionable things to fb daily under his real name.

OQB @bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works

all 11 comments

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[–] 8 points 7 months ago* (4 children)

Lots of videos of people doing experiments with their phones.

Is my phone listening to me? We tested it, here's what happened

So, Turns Out Your Phone IS Listening To

Is my phone listening to me? | Video Lab | ABC News

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    What do they conclude?

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Just watched the first video. It's 6 years old but the evidence presented seemed undoubtedly like Instagram and FB were listening to conversations and aggregating the info together with geolocation and surfing behaviour. The insta CEO tried to deflect it with insinuating that the user must have searched for specific keywords previously but the journalists specifically tested it with words in conversations they never exposed their phones to before. 20 mins later they got AD's on insta.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I scoped this out once a while ago, and using wake word style matching to a table of keywords can be done with low power and low network egress.

    I just don’t think all these companies can be accessing your mic without Apple noticing something.

    But then everyone has smart devices around, and they can look at what people in your network searched and who you’re in proximity to. Which is all actually worse than audio snooping in my opinion.

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago

    Don't know about Apple. My impression is that they take privacy pretty serious. Android though has since a few version ago a green dot in the notification area that indicates when the microphone is active. Also you can set the apps to always ask the user if they want grant the permission for microphone recording. There are also buttons to deactivate the microphone and camera completely.

    So yeah it's easier then ever with current Android versions to not be spied on if the user invests 5 mins to set the microphone and camera permissions of all apps to always ask when used. Like you said other spying IOT devices and data retention (at least for traffic data) at the provider level pose a much greater risk for surveillance.

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    • [–] 7 points 7 months ago

    My guy read the privacy policy that any Smart TV shows you when you connect it to the internet. They make you agree to this shit to use the device.

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    [–] 5 points 7 months ago

    wernt some smart tvs screenshotting the tv randomly and sending it to the company in secret.

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    [–] 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/amazon-must-face-us-class-action-over-alexa-users-privacy-2025-07-07/

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  • [–] -1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    That's not really relevant. The recordings were never made in secret, but the data was misused.

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    The plaintiffs alleged Amazon designed the technology “to illegally and surreptitiously intercept billions of private conversations” that extended beyond commands aimed at Alexa.

    ?

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    Oh, perhaps I was thinking of another lawsuit. Anyway, that's a lawsuit, and doesn't constitute any proof by itself - but it would be very interesting to see if there were any, especially since Amazon did take great pains yo specifically design their Echo products, at least in the beginning, to not record any audio when not explicitly invoked by the user.

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