Wifes phone is listening to her....

Forums › Android › Wifes phone is listening to her....

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28 posts

Geek

#2492575 27-May-2020 10:11

Disable microphone permissions to apps which are unnecessary especially when you use them for voice based search.

Facebook uses user data to display personalized ads based on the users search and web activity through "Off Facebook Activity" which can be found in settings under privacy.

To turn it off, first go to "Off facebook Activity" and clear history. In history you can see the history of all the searches, web activity and websites visited FB was tracking.

To permanently turn off, under the same section, go to "Manage your Off Facebook Activity" and turn off future activity.

The disable, the setting instructions are a bit confusing which take you through few steps. After reading the statements at each step you will finally reach the "turn off" button.

Let us know your experience after this :)

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sen8or

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#2492581 27-May-2020 10:18

just as well neither have ads for pornhub or the like.........

muppet

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#2492605 27-May-2020 10:26

You have to remember that Advertisers are able to do things like:

Target people between ages x-y
Male / Female
Approx Income between x-y
Location of Z

They already HAVE all this information from your Goolge(Gmail) and Facebook usage. Even if you don't have a Facebook account, unless you're blocking cookies, using piHole etc, Facebook builds a huge profile of YOU.

They don't NEED to listen to your voice.

You're getting annoyed at how good they are at targetting you (and rightfully so, which is why I think you should be using Firefox with first-party-isolate turned on and uBlock origin, and put a pihole on your home network)

The amount of apps/websites that report back is INSANE.

dafman

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#2492606 27-May-2020 10:26

concordnz: It's a real problem!

I've done a bit of research into this over the last 5 years - to try and prevent it happening.

It is NOT Facebook(I specifically don't have anything Facebook(or related = wont touch whatsApp)on my phone & I don't log into Facebook via browser on my phone)

- It is not Huawei problem (I have a different brand of popular smartphone & it happens to me)

I've turned off all forms of voice recognition & revoked/blocked all mic permissions - & it still happens to me!!!

- It seems Google/Android Core system related - and it won't allow you to block it.

You can't track data stream via something like 'wireshark' - it doesn't seem to stream back to a server 'live' - I suspect it is 'packetizing' the info & sending at certain (or random) times. - or only when phone is idle......

I use Google, but quit Facebook a couple of years ago following Cambridge Analytica.

I don't have the issue, so not sure it's Google/Android related.

I use both a Samsung phone & Huawei tablet extensively.

I do use the Brave browser over Chrome so likely there is added protection there.

concordnz

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EMT (R)

#2492616 27-May-2020 10:33

@jalvares
It will still still do it after all the things you have suggested. - Google has buried it 'way deeper' into the core of Android.

Running Screens are the biggest battery killer for Smartphones.

Running a microphone with the rest of the screen off - takes very little power - & a audio file is incredibly small to store in a Linux 'temp/scratch' folder (Even days worth of Audio is small - when compressed right.)
If phone only 'analyses' the Audio File when plugged into power & idle, with screen off - you would never 'see' this use age either
The resulting advertising meta data is likely then encrypted & sent to server. & the temp Audio files are deleted.

muppet

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#2492619 27-May-2020 10:34

concordnz: @jalvares
It will still still do it after all the things you have suggested. - Google has buried it 'way deeper' into the core of Android.

Running Screens are the biggest battery killer for Smartphones.

Running a microphone with the rest of the screen off - takes very little power - & a audio file is incredibly small to store in a Linux 'temp/scratch' folder (Even days worth of Audio is small - when compressed right.)
If phone only 'analyses' the Audio File when plugged into power & idle, with screen off - you would never 'see' this use age either
The resulting advertising meta data is likely then encrypted & sent to server. & the temp Audio files are deleted.

And yet people to decompile ROMs, investigate bootloader unlocking hacks and all sorts of other detailed investigations have found no evidence of this...

I suppose the suggestion now is going to be that while people who write RSA code for bootloader locking etc and yet still have their work hacked, aren't as smart/clever as the "Secret phone listening to you" coders who are able to do all these brilliant things undetected.

nitro

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#2492628 27-May-2020 10:36

Try this:

Settings > Google > Ads > Opt out of ads personalization

concordnz

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EMT (R)

#2492629 27-May-2020 10:37

I've used Brave Browser for last 6 months - I haven't done any 'audio testing' since - but I don't think it is browser related - as you would need the browser active?

It happens when phone is in home screen & locked.
The only thing that has access to lock screen Audio is Android correct?
(if any app could get access - that would be a major security fail - right? )

fearandloathing

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#2492722 27-May-2020 12:47

My understanding it is largely cross-device tracking, amongst other data analytics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-device_tracking

Cross devices can be identified as we log into services like Facebook which allows users to be identified on different devices, external home IP address etc.

I also suspect it is a little bit of subliminal influence (I think this is the correct term)

We see adds for X and pay no information to them. At some point, we are triggered to think about X (Someone else talks about X.). Now we see adds for X.

I don't believe for the large part devices are secretly listening to provide us custom adds.

xpd

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#2493084 27-May-2020 18:58

LOL now its giving her real estate adverts and Samoan car sales adverts non stop (when on websites or FB with ads) :D

This is fun... for me ;)

She just sat here saying "new husband" multiple times.... waiting for Tinder ads to pop up.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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richms

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#2493119 27-May-2020 19:50

Its usually targetting things of interest to people that are known to her, as that is proven to get people discussing things quite well. So someone that she interacts with a lot is probably a samoan looking at cars for sale online.

Richard rich.ms

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#2493122 27-May-2020 20:01

xpd:

... way too much.

Its a Huawei Y5 2019, fully up to date, hardly any "3rd party" apps (Only uses it as a phone and for Facebook).

Recently, its taken to listening to her conversations - ALL conversations, not just phone calls.

She was recently talking to one of our kids about the Maori language, and said a couple of words in Maori... her phone then proceeded to display adverts on FB and web pages, related to Maori topics from then on.

Then yesterday she was at work and they discussed a particular product being made available in store - and guess what.... when she got home adverts for that product started appearing as adverts....

Then last night she was talking to me about some renovations and watched a quick video about some plastering, and now shes getting adverts about home reno etc.

I ran a security scan (Lookout) and thats not found any issues.

I know how Google Ads work but have never come across them changing from "listening" to someones conversations.

ANy ideas whats triggered this constant spying ? :)

googlehttps://www.gizbot.com/how-to/tips-tricks/how-to-stop-google-from-listening-to-you-064730.html

Batman

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#2493124 27-May-2020 20:03

and https://www.cnet.com/how-to/google-is-listening-heres-how-to-delete-your-voice-recordings/

Gurezaemon

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#2493173 27-May-2020 21:15

This reminds me of this tale found on the interwebs:

“Dude at work was complaining that his spoons were slowly disappearing from the lunch room. He had brought 6 to work and he was down to 2 . Everyone else in his lab hatched this plan:

Every time someone sent him an email, at the bottom, in white text (i.e. invisible unless highlighted), everyone would write “SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON”.

We all did this for several weeks (he had a gmail account) and that’s when he started losing his mind: every website he visited had ads for spoons and flatware! He thought google was reading his mind.”

Sidestep

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#2493300 28-May-2020 05:23

muppet:

More probably what happened:

"She was recently talking to one of our kids about the Maori language, and said a couple of words in Maori" Or someone else in the household has Googled

....

So yea, it sure as hell SEEMS like our devices are listening to us. But I very very much doubt they are - no one's shown any evidence they do and I'm pretty sure they'd leave some pretty hefty footprints (network traffic / battery usage) that's absent.

Lol - this

My wife had scored an unusual, complicated, sewing machine, she and her lovely - but nutty conspiracy theorist - buddy had it on the kitchen table trying to figure out how to set up the thread feeds.

They called me to come take a look, and I realised it was serious stuff, they'd both turned their phones off so they could concentrate - all the usual dinging, chirping and buzzing of incoming instagrams, snapchats, and messengering had gone quiet.

It was nothing I could figure out in the 30 seconds I had spare, and I had a zoom coming so headed back to the office - after noting the model number on the ID plate. After my call I googled it - and found a manual online.

An hour later I heard exclamations of disbelief from the kitchen. After giving up on the machine they'd gone back on social media, the first thing that popped up on my wife's phone was an ad for the - manual - of - that - very - machine 0_0

My wife was astounded, obviously her phone had listened to them talking - while turned off! Miss conspiracy knew.. just KNEW.. they did that..

Later, as the friend was leaving, I did my bit for world peace, and told her that I'd found - on a special geek site I subscribe to - that the only way to prevent your phone from listening to your most secret conversations, is to turn it off - AND wrap it in tinfoil.. to prevent it broadcasting :)

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