Are our phones listening to us...

Definitely go through your app permissions - why does eBay need access to your microphone? Sift out what permissions you aren't happy with and have a look at what other platforms/search engines are available. Can't hurt to try something different.
As soon as I get a new phone I delete google search bar/engine & replace it with Opera. I change default search engine to Bing which on a lap top had a diffrent back ground pic every day.
 
My phone does it too. I'll be having a verbal conversation with someone, then next time I click Google on my phone I get links to sites relevant to what I was just talking about. I hate it!
A verbal conversation....Mmmm. ;)
Sorry Tim.
PS. If you have an iPhone and ear buds you can set your phone to work as a microphone, leave it in a room and listen to conversations from anywhere in the house through your buds. So I’m told.
Ken.
 
A verbal conversation....Mmmm. ;)
Sorry Tim.
PS. If you have an iPhone and ear buds you can set your phone to work as a microphone, leave it in a room and listen to conversations from anywhere in the house through your buds. So I’m told.
Ken.
Yep I specified a verbal conversation, because apparently these days you can also have text conversations, Snapchat conversations, Facebook conversations, what's app conversations, etc etc. I'm not surprised when a device picks up on the content of these non-verbal conversations, but it's a bit spooky when it picks up on the verbal ones too.
 
I rarely use my phone and its generations old but it is an AcoL protected number so I am hoping when I get my new one (daughters old one) it will recognise this and refuse to follow me !
Supposedly it will work when other phones wont - a legacy of my past work in Emergency Planning.
 
type in semtex/fisons grow bags and things like nail b o m b s

and see who turns up at the door, :oops:

bob.
bob. U Seam to have dope your Ewe sew all M
Slightly off on a tangent but my eldest daughter is badly afflicted by dyslexia and uses her phone or Alexi to be able to spell somethings. She used the device one day to check the spelling of fire engine as she was doing a project with my granddaughter and the next thing you know she hears "Emergency operator, which service do you require".

The whole idea of your every word being monitored remotely by some unknown agency worries me immensely, so I will give such devices a wide berth.
It wasn’t your daughter’s phone handset that did it but the online service (Alexa) that did it. Had there been a fire in the house and your daughter had said fire engine.......... things might have a different interpretation.

All individuals have a choice and when they sign a contract they are bound by it. When a contract gives you the option to change it and you choose not to.......

Laziness is zero defence.

I have just spent the last three weeks watching Countdown’s 30 year anniversary repeat of the Champions of Champions of Champions series. In one of the semi finals they had three nine letters in a row. Rachel Riley points out that it was the first time it had happened. “Surely there must be a word for that“ she said. Both contestants uttered ”Fire Engine” and “Ambulance”. Blank look from the rest, until the contestants pointed out 999
 
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The wife and I have both been plagued with advertising off the back of conversations we have had. Defo a problem. And I have gone through user configurable privacy stuff several times. I suspect settings get toggled during software upgrades.

I now leave my phone off unless I am using it or expect an urgent call.
 
Some very sinister stories here. I am accustomed to seeing adverts on unrelated sites for things I have searched for (binoculars and specific car makes appearing on The Daily Telegraph for example) but voice derived stuff is a whole new ball game. Lots of reasons to not have a smartphone. Scary.
 
have you never wondered when your phone is just sitting in your pocket, on your desk, how the battery goes down?
The other thing that gets me, is you can sign in anywhere, using your google, facebook (if you are daft enough to use it) ID, which shows that they are all linked, I am not paranoid, but I think they are after me.
 
I encourage all you paranoid technophobes to do a little bit of research into this. It’s not hard to find some pretty definitive research that busts the myth that your phone is listening to you. Don’t ask me to do it for you, do it yourself because you will learn something along the way.

This myth has been going on for ages, but it is just that, a myth.
 
Yep I specified a verbal conversation, because apparently these days you can also have text conversations, Snapchat conversations, Facebook conversations, what's app conversations, etc etc. I'm not surprised when a device picks up on the content of these non-verbal conversations, but it's a bit spooky when it picks up on the verbal ones too.
Tim,
You can communicate without talking, but you can’t converse without talking. :).
Ken.
PS. Wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve changed the definition of Conversation to suit today’s world.
 
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Tim,
You can communicate without talking, but you can’t converse without talking. :).
Ken.
PS. Wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve changed the definition of Conversation to suit today’s world.
I know, I know, that's what I say, but apparently they are called conversations, so your PS is probably correct!
 
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