Potential abuse of Apple's ear bud technology, carefully designed with extensive built-in electrodes to obtain 'Mind Tapping' information from consumers [Election Integrity]

9/23/2026 | vanity

[ransomnote]

ransomnote: I'm concerned about potential abuse of Apple's ear bud technology, carefully designed with extensive built-in electrodes to obtain 'Mind Tapping'  information from consumers. With voter ID gaining popularity, might Apple's 2023 patent point to the next gen 'alternative' to stealing elections?

In a 2023 patent, Apple identified technology for a "Biosignal Sensing Device Using Dynamic Selection of Electrodes (Your earbudes can acquire information from your brain in a 'non-ivasive' manner.) Below I pulled together some information (Apple's patent, Grok, related articles) to try to determine if this patent was just the sensing portion of what actually became 'sensing-responding' technology (e.g., "All Your Minds Are Belong To Us!").

Grok's summary:

"https://patents.google.com/patent/US20230225659A1/en

 

This is the official Google Patents page for Apple’s U.S. Patent Application Publication US20230225659A1 (“Biosignal Sensing Device Using Dynamic Selection of Electrodes”), published July 20, 2023 (application filed January 9, 2023; inventors include Erdrin Azemi and others assigned to Apple Inc.). It matches the figures and abstract shown in the X post.

 

patents.google.com

Articles raising privacy concerns:

• Apple Patent Hints At Mind‑Tapping Buds (Integrity Press, September 22, 2026) — Discusses the patent’s electrode-based EEG/biosignal capabilities in earbuds and links them to broader biometric surveillance and “biological privacy” worries.
   

  integritypress.org
• From Fitness Tracking to Brain Tracking: Apple’s Earbud Patent Raises Alarms (The Discourse, January 2026) — Focuses on continuous neural monitoring risks, data ownership, regulatory gaps, and potential for intimate cognitive/emotional data collection.
   

  thediscourse.com

These pieces reflect the kinds of privacy and ethical critiques that have circulated around the filing (note that a patent does not mean a commercial product exists). Additional coverage appears in outlets like WebProNews and LinkedIn analyses that similarly highlight data sensitivity and consent issues."

 

ransomnote: From Google's Abstract page  (includes 15 diagrams of tech)>>  

Biosignal Sensing Device Using Dynamic Selection of Electrodes

 

A wearable electronic device includes a housing, and an electrode carrier attached to the housing and having a nonplanar surface. The wearable electronic device includes a set of electrodes, including electrodes positioned at different locations on the nonplanar surface. The wearable electronic device includes a sensor circuit and a switching circuit. The switching circuit is operable to electrically connect a number of different subsets of one or more electrodes in the set of electrodes to the sensor circuit.

 

 

 

ransomnote: I asked GROK if this patent was written as if it was part of a group of patents, particularly related patents what would make this device a 'sense and respond' technology. I asked if the patent was likely part of a technology which could, for example, use the biosensors to detect stress and in return, broadcast calming tones etc.

 

Initially, Grok said the linked patent was not written as if it was part of such a cluster of patents, and noted it was a standalone product with a matching patent in China.

Here's an excerpt: 

"The patent’s core subject matter is the sensing hardware and method: a wearable (earbud/headset) with multiple electrodes on a non-planar surface, a switching circuit that dynamically selects subsets of active/reference electrodes, and associated processing (including optional machine-learning weighting) to obtain higher-quality biosignals (EEG, EMG, EOG, ECG, GSR, BVP, etc.)"

 

Another excerpt of Grok's remarks on 'explicit' direction of development of this tech:

"It does, however, explicitly contemplate downstream use of the measured data and leaves the technical door open for follow-on “sense-and-respond” work:

• A processor analyzes the signals.
• Measurements can be stored, transmitted (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular, etc.) to a phone or server, and used “to inform the user for various biosignal-driven use cases, such as a sleep monitoring or other anomalies, such as seizures.”
• The user can receive a notification “in accordance with the analyzed electrical activity\ldots as an auditory signal, a visual signal, haptic feedback, an email and/or a text, etc.”
• The device description already includes the usual earbud components (speakers, microphones, communication circuitry, processor, memory), so audio output is inherent."
• In short, this filing secures the electrode-selection sensing foundation and notes that the resulting data can drive user notifications (including auditory ones). It does not itself patent a full sense-and-respond controller, but the architecture, processor, speakers, and listed use cases make such follow-on patents straightforward and expected."
  
  "These are all non-invasive electrophysiological or optical signals that the patented electrode system aims to capture from the ear region." 

ransomnote: Wouldn't it be useful technology to surreptitiously form user's opinions and beliefs in a non-invasive way?

I recall being startled by an earbud-devotee who was once a Trump supporter telling me that 'everyone my age left Trump'. His reasons had to do with the housing market - he feels his generation is shut out of the housing market and Trump won't fix it. He is an innovator and independent thinker - maybe he just changed his mind about Trump. But, I'm saying if the technology exists at Apple, with parallel development in China, why wouldn't they at least TRY to use it to swing votes?

Below, I'll post Grok's definitions of the types of information the patent proposes to acquire from its 'sensing' electrodes in ear buds.

Here are clear definitions for each of the biosignal acronyms listed in the patent (EEG, EMG, EOG, ECG, GSR, BVP):

• EEG (Electroencephalography): Measures the electrical activity of the brain by detecting voltage fluctuations from neuron firing. It is commonly used to study brain waves, sleep stages, seizures, or cognitive states. In the patent context, this is captured via electrodes in or around the ear rather than a full scalp array. (ransomnote: 'noninvasive', I think voters would notice if they were asked to wear a full scalp array)
• EMG (Electromyography): Records the electrical signals produced by skeletal muscles when they contract. It helps assess muscle activity, tension, fatigue, or movement patterns.
• EOG (Electrooculography): Detects the electrical potential difference between the front and back of the eye (the corneo-retinal potential). It is primarily used to track eye movements, blinks, or gaze direction.
• ECG (Electrocardiography, also called EKG): Measures the electrical activity of the heart over time, producing the familiar waveform that shows heart rate, rhythm, and certain cardiac abnormalities.
• GSR (Galvanic Skin Response, also known as electrodermal activity or skin conductance): Tracks changes in the skin’s electrical conductivity caused by sweat-gland activity. It is widely used as an indicator of emotional arousal, stress, or sympathetic nervous-system activation. (ransomnote: lie detector tests used by police, courts)
• BVP (Blood Volume Pulse): Measures variations in blood volume in the small vessels under the skin (usually via optical sensors, similar to photoplethysmography). It is commonly used to derive heart rate, heart-rate variability, and related circulatory information.

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 21stcentury; bioelectricity; biosensing; brainwaves; dollypartoneatskids; earbuds; intrusive; invasive; qanon; technology

[frank ballenger]

Mel Gibson in What Women Want was dismayed as he found he was able to hear women’s thoughts-—mostly anti men and anti himself.

Later joke was he was next able to sit next to AOC.
Nothing was heard.

[FreedomPoster]

Yikes!

[bigbob]

Very interesting technology that could save lives by early detection of precursor signals.

[deks]

It has been said that we would be shocked at the kind of technology that the US government has that has not yet been revealed.

Apparently corporations have wierd science too. Thank you for the reveal, ransomenote.

What could they do with your biological data...who knows? Welcome to the 21st Century

[Skywise]

You couldn’t read minds with this. Yes it’s in the ear canal but you’re still on skin. All it’s detecting is the “pulse” rate and frequency of the nerve endings. Now it can tell broad conditions like sleep vs alertness and that’s the proposed use here. Though I doubt they could get really good information here the patent is probably what they’re going to try to research towards.

It probably is how they’re detecting the HR from the airpods. (unless they’re “listening” to the pulse rate)

For memories/active thinking conditions you’d need a 3d sensor net around the head to pinpoint which brain centers were active which these sensors wouldn’t be able to detect.

[jerod]

Not sure what they hope to extract from the minds of most consumers... Because I’m pretty sure a great deal of these consumers are already braindead, or too stupid for anything useful to be extracted from their mindless brains.

[DennisR]

I cannot read this until I get my tinfoil hat on...thanks.

[DennisR]

So it’s looks like they’ve gotten to you, too. /s

[Jamestown1630]

'...mostly anti men and anti himself.'

Gosh, that sounds a lot like the precise reverse of being a woman and reading FR.

[frank ballenger]

Hollywood, you know, makes everything up.

[BenLurkin]

Ouch!

[ransomnote]

In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Potential abuse of Apple's ear bud technology, carefully designed with extensive built-in electrodes to obtain 'Mind Tapping' information from consumers [Election Integrity] , Skywise wrote:

You couldn’t read minds with this. Yes it’s in the ear canal but you’re still on skin. All it’s detecting is the “pulse” rate and frequency of the nerve endings. Now it can tell broad conditions like sleep vs alertness and that’s the proposed use here. Though I doubt they could get really good information here the patent is probably what they’re going to try to research towards.

It probably is how they’re detecting the HR from the airpods. (unless they’re “listening” to the pulse rate)

For memories/active thinking conditions you’d need a 3d sensor net around the head to pinpoint which brain centers were active which these sensors wouldn’t be able to detect.

I think you could influence voters with this. Take an issue near and dear to a voter's heart (e.g., affordable housing for young adults) based on their demographics, then use biosensing to evaluate advertising or campaign or social media efforts to sway voters. Check for stress, broadcast music when those ads play that the sensors report relaxes the consumer. It's a loop - inputs and outputs paired with demographic need and Machiavelli's favorite campaign techniques. 

[Mariner]

Good work.

[Mariner]

Galavanic skin response combined with heart rate and respiration is a lie detector. And more.

If the device knows what you are hearing and seeing it can measure your response to it...at the most basic level, emotionally.

That’s the basis of 95% of all votes cast.

[Mariner]

Galavanic skin response combined with heart rate and respiration is a lie detector. And more.

If the device knows what you are hearing and seeing it can measure your response to it...at the most basic level, emotionally.

That’s the basis of 95% of all votes cast.

[Mariner]

Galavanic skin response combined with heart rate and respiration is a lie detector. And more.

If the device knows what you are hearing and seeing it can measure your response to it...at the most basic level, emotionally.

That’s the basis of 95% of all votes cast.

[Mariner]

Galvanic skin response

[Jamestown1630]

Truth is Truth. FreeRepublic is often a depressing place for a woman to hang out.

(I never see women pronouncing the blanket condemnation on men here in the way that so many men constantly hate on and condemn women.)

[aspasia]

That’s because they are not gentlemen. They live alone in Yellow Sky.