Posted on 08/22/2017 9:39:19 AM PDT by Enlightened1
DID you know that Google has been recording you without your knowledge?
The technology giant has effectively turned millions of its users' smartphones into listening devices that can capture intimate conversations - even when they aren't in the room.
If you own an Android phone, it's likely that you've used Google's Assistant, which is similar to Apple's Siri.
Google says it only turns on and begins recording when you utter the words "OK Google".
But a Sun investigation has found that the virtual assistant is a little hard of hearing.
In some cases, just saying "OK" in conversation prompted it to switch on your phone and record around 20 seconds of audio.
It regularly switches on the microphone as you go about your day-to-day activities, none the wiser.
Once Google is done recording, it uploads the audio files to its computer servers - often dubbed "the cloud".
These files are accessible from absolutely anywhere in the world - as long as you have an internet connection.
That means any device that is signed into your personal Gmail or Google account can access the library of your deepest, darkest secrets.
So if you're on a laptop right now and signed into Gmail - you could have a listen.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
Google is wasting their time recording me. I do not buy any advertised product. I know what I need, and THEN I go shopping for it. Besides, I lead the most mundane life, spending majority of my waking hours chasing a dimpled white ball on the golf course.
I am smart, but my phone is stupid. Let’s keep it that way!
One problem with that graphic - speakers don’t record.
I just spoke to my phone “OK Google Larry Page and Sergey Brinn are two of the most evil Sobs on the planet”.
‘the cloud’ is a data center. I participated in the fuel systems construction of many (diesel and nat. gas backup). Huge generators, Huge underground/above ground tanks. Redundancy tests that took up to 8 months before anything was allowed to go ‘online’.
OK, so how do I shut it off?
I dont see how they could effectively monitor everything everyone is saying all the time... seems like a giant waste of time to me...
+1
Oh the horrors. Turn the app off and don’t use it if you are paranoid.
As FYI if you call a bank or invest advisor all those calls are recorded and made available to the feds. The Dodd Frank Act required this. Maybe that has been eliminated now? Not sure.
They can’t. It has to be stored for some season in case someone needs to go back to find something.
I think the Big Ears and Goggles (Googles?) pic is required here.
Not a waste of time. The words are turned into text and then leveraged by big data analysis to help sell you to advertisers. That includes political advertisers.
In addition, people have noticed the correlation between dogs barking or babies crying with the Google microphone open and then subsequent advertising for dog food and diapers.
I just said “OK, google” to my S7 Edge, and it didn’t do anything......
[The words are turned into text and then leveraged by big data analysis to help sell you to advertisers]
That is correct.
YET
Hmmm... It says it’s turned off. What is it supposed to do? Open an app?
seems like a big waste of time... considering probably 99.999% is probably just crap talk anyways...
speakers can record. A speaker and a microphone are physically similar to each other although in modern production each are heavily designed for one or the other function, not both. But if you send an electrical signal to the magnet in a speaker, it vibrates the cone. If you vibrate a cone or surface in a microphone, it turns that into an electrical signal.
But that’s moot, because phones have microphones anyway.
And it’s stupid that an android can activate it’s own mic. Last time I had one, you had to press the Okay Google icon to start. If this claim is true, then the article fails to explain the full gravity of the situation. The mic is always hot and always listening for “Okay Google”, which means it’s never turned off. What happens to that signal is another story.
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