Posted on 05/10/2023 6:02:38 AM PDT by Red Badger
Twitter CEO Elon Musk warned users of the Facebook-owned WhatsApp that it is secretly accessing their device microphones without their knowledge and violating their privacy.
Twitter’s director of engineering, Foad Dabri, posted a photo documenting his WhatsApp timeline which showed Zuckerberg’s messaging app was accessing his phone’s mic while he was asleep.
Elon Musk responded to the tweet, simply stating, “WhatsApp cannot be trusted.”
The WhatsApp Company later responded to the Twitter post claiming it had reached out to the Twitter engineer about the issue.
As expected, the company would not accept any blame and attempted to write the issue off as a simple bug, adding they had asked Google to investigate.
“We believe this is a bug on Android that misattributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate,” the company said.
But the issues with privacy with platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp are becoming more of a concern for Americans.
Four years after Mark Zuckerberg’s company, META, purchased WhatsApp in 2014, Michigan Democrat Senator Gary Peters asked Zuckerberg in 2018 whether or not Facebook was listening to platform users, which many at the time disregarded as a ” conspiracy theory.”
The accusation was that Facebook was secretly listening to users’ conversations to target advertising.
“Yes or no: Does Facebook use audio obtained from mobile devices to enrich personal information about its users?” Peters asked Zuckerberg at the time.
“No,” Zuckerberg replied.
Mediaite noted that there is an audio component for users who post video footage, which “was a bit of an unnecessary clarification, given that the question was about surreptitious recording, not something users were explicitly recording media to share.”
Musk posted a follow-up Tweet about his warning against WhatsApp:
“WhatsApp founders left Meta/Facebook in disgust, started the #deletefacebook campaign, and made major contributions to building Signal. What they learned about Facebook and changes to WhatsApp obviously disturbed them greatly.”
Meta has repeatedly decided that the platform is listening in on users’ private conversations, saying, “Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp do not listen in or use the cell phone microphone to influence advertising in any way.”
where ARE the cameras in the TVs?
I have not been able to find them
are they embedded in the screen?
“Even paranoids have real enemies.” - Henry Kissinger...................
The internet of things: the KGB’s wet dream
Gibb’s’ Rule #39: There is no such thing as a coincidence!
“Gibb’s Rule #40: If it seems like someone’s out to get you, they are!”
Here’s a simple experiment anyone can try:
Gather all of your smartphones and smart devices in one place.
Turn off all of the apps on your smartphones and smart devices. But leave them on.
Now start discussing a vacation to a place that you have never talked about going before, A place you have no intention of visiting, And a place that you have no desire to visit.
Now sit back and watch as the advertising comes in for hotels in that place, airlines to get you to that place, travel insurance, and et cetera.
And even though you were telling this information to your smart devices watch as the advertising comes in through the mail, youtube, email, and even on the telephone.
My wife is the phone talker in our family, and the big time texter to keep up with family/friends from the east coast to the midwest and throughout California.
Whatever, she discusses and/or texts re products or services wise in those areas often shows up as an ad sometimes in minutes.
A couple of months ago we had a new LG dishwasher from Costco and had it delivered and installed by Costco. A friend warned us not to discuss critical things in our kitchen.
A nearby relative bought a different brand from a local big time household retailer and installed at the same time.
If my wife and our relative discuss how their new DWers are doing. The relative gets LG ads/texts, and my wife gets ads re their dwer.
None of our appliances are connected to the Internet........................ I think..................🤔
Ha! Maybe mine is, too. We got a new one, all fancy-schmancy, and a button on in blinks continuously. We make toast, then unplug. The incessant blink and beeps on housewares is ridiculous.
Our toaster is about 10 years old, and when it isn't in use, a light blinks from the toaster.
Our grandson, a math and computer old whiz kid at that time, told us that it was monitoring us and to beware of that reality.
Both my wife and I have terrible semi singing voices, so we seranade the toaster.
Gibb’s’ Rule #39: There is no such thing as a coincidence!
“Gibb’s Rule #40: If it seems like someone’s out to get you, they are!”
“Even paranoids have real enemies.” - Henry Kissinger...................
“Our grandson, a math and computer old whiz kid at that time, told us that it was monitoring us and to beware of that reality.”
Wow! Really? Ten years ago?
I have done a similar thing as well. About three years ago, I got into this conversation with a friend and his wife who thought I was a being a paranoid nutcase by saying all these devices constantly are listening in. He and his wife were in the room with the TV, computer and their cell phones. I said humor me, and began talking about the cat being sick and needing to find a good vet in the area to treat the sick cat (they don’t have a cat). They called me the next day to tell me that all their ads on the phone and computer were for pet meds, vet services, local vet clinics, etc.
I like the line from the 1997 Mel Gibson movie “Conspiracy Theory:”
“Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean there aren’t people out to get you.”
“They actually say that in print?.......................”
Yes. Look on your phone. You have to disable each.
Not all of the TVs have them. It would typically be in the frame, like they are in laptops.
I don’t have a cellphone..................
Great movie.
I wonder if Musk is aware that Alphabet/Google has admitted that most of its A.I. engineers are Chinese working in China ( reported very casually on business news program this morning).
Facebook has done this for years now. Have people been living under a rock or something???
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