[DrVenture]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

No doubt. I'm just pointing out multiple ways that apps can access the microphone without toggling the orange light on. That means that there's a software API available, documented or not, that can be exploited by nefarious app developers to listen in and target ads like this company has been caught doing.....

They might be listening when you say bad things about your wife too, and planning to blackmail you.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by DrVenture

They might be listening when you say bad things about your wife too, and planning to blackmail you.

<--- Has never said a bad thing about his wife *ever* in 20 years of marriage.

I do worry that "they" might find out that I removed the tag from our mattress without plans of consuming it (either the tag or the mattress).....

[FrankMstein]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

No doubt. I'm just pointing out multiple ways that apps can access the microphone without toggling the orange light on. That means that there's a software API available, documented or not, that can be exploited by nefarious app developers to listen in and target ads like this company has been caught doing.....

I used to carpool to work with someone who would turn off the GPS function in their phone when they got in the car and then turn it back on when they got to work. These tinfoil hat wearing nut jobs scare me way more than the government or apps or corporations "listening for whatever..." This is how we get QAnut's elected to congress.

[NYG]

Cue the "if u hav nuthin 2 hyde then u hav nuthin 2 worry about" cancers to society.

[DrVenture]

Originally Posted by FrankMstein

I used to carpool to work with someone who would turn off the GPS function in their phone when they got in the car and then turn it back on when they got to work. These tinfoil hat wearing nut jobs scare me way more than the government or apps or corporations "listening for whatever..." This is how we get QAnut's elected to congress.

LOL - Like no one could connect the dots. The funny part is that the notion that "someone is listening" has been a hallmark of people with paranoid personality traits forever. They are not necessarily wrong, even if prone to conspiracy.

In reality, "listening" for advertising purposes is the least of most people worries. At present there is software that can easily track nearly everything and everyone we associated with. It is readily available. Your phone's location, calling patterns, your use of credit cards, your car's location, your complete internet usage (regardless of using different names or IP's or email addresses) and much much more.

This can then be cross-reference with other people to determine who you cross paths and associate with. A picture of who you are, what you say and your acquaintances is easily assembled. It is naive to assume that you can outwit the system.

A very long time ago, I had a job where I used people's phone records to research their habits and interactions. You would be shocked how much I could determine from nothing more than phone bills. Now they have far, far more abilities and data available.