Google is listening, always

[CardsFan]

A few weeks ago I was talking with my son and he mentioned an electronic coffee mug he had (Ember).

I knew he had it, but never knew the name. My PC was on when we talked. I have never searched for it (nor has DW).

The last 2 weeks I have been getting adds for this on all sights that I do not ADBlock.

Since we did a lot of Zoom during Covid, I realized that I left the microphone on (it is off now).

I might be paranoid, but just because I am paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me

 

[Letj]

You are not paranoid. Exactly the same has happened to me many times so I figured that out a long time ago. I talk to my husband about travel and travel ad pops up. I search about menopause and a million ads for menopause treatment pop up. FB is listening too.

 

[ERD50]

And you know, when I bought a new car, I suddenly started noticing the same model car all over the place. Never noticed them before.

Someone recently used a big word I was unfamiliar with, so I looked it up. Now I've come across that word several times since then, in print, on TV, radio, movies.

How did Google do that?

PS: Yes, Google always listens, it has to to pick up the "Hey Google" command. What they do with the other stuff they hear is, I think, largely unsupported speculation.

-ERD50

 

[COcheesehead]

It’s true. Go into your security settings and switch all apps off from access to your microphone and location services. They listen and track you. Google it. LOL.

https://oarex.com/industry-news/does-google-listen-to-me-for-ads/

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, everybody is out to get you, or rather your money.

But I have got to admit Google does few things that impress the heck out of me in the technical sense. Here's an example.

In my travel, I use Google Map quite a bit. Not just when driving, but also when walking about town. In the recent trip, in Bolzano, Italy, I wanted to know where I was, and how to get to a restaurant that I already researched. Because I turned the app on while in the veranda of a mall, the GPS signal was not direct-line-of-sight and did not give a good position fix. Google Map knew this, and asked if I wanted to use the Map Live View for a better position fix. I tapped "OK".

Google Map asked me to enable the camera, and to use the phone to scan the surrounding. It was apparently looking for a shop sign, or a scene that it had in its huge memory bank. Within 5 seconds, it knew where I was.

What the heck! As mentioned, I was in a veranda of a hotel, surrounded by some trees and structures. I remember looking around to see if there were some shop signs or unique features that Google could use to know where I was. It was not obvious to me, but there had to be something there that gave the app the clue.

I thought that was scary, the amount of data that Google stores in their vast storage vaults.

 

[O2Bfree]

We had a similar experience with "murphy bed." We were discussing one we'd seen at a friends house a couple days earlier, and within a day were seeing ads for murphy beds. I thought maybe Google had been listening through our laptops, but there are other ways they know how to hit you with ads.

For example, maybe our phones located us at our friend's house, and since he had researched how to build the bed and had bought parts online, the ad algorithm may have decided that we, as guests in his home, might also be interested in murphy beds.

But then a couple weeks ago my husband mentioned Margaret Atwood because he's reading one of her books, and the next day I got an ad on my laptop for a local performance of The Handmaid's Tale.

Perhaps a lengthy discussion about certain types of firearms and chemical substances could prove whether or not anyone's listening!

 

[Letj]

perhaps a lengthy discussion about certain types of firearms and chemical substances could prove whether or not anyone's listening!

rotfl

 

[Sunset]

Apps on the phone (which is just a mini computer) listen as well , so does the tv remote, mine keeps reminding me to simply say what I want.

It's hard not to have the various listening agents tuned in.
gmail also reads your email.

At least I never feel lonely...

 

[CardsFan]

And you know, when I bought a new car, I suddenly started noticing the same model car all over the place. Never noticed them before.


-ERD50

I have noticed that before, as well. So MAYBE it is just coincidence. But I will still the microphone turned off

 

[HawkOwl]

I wish the opposite were true. When you block political zealots, cult-like religious proselytizers, foul mouthed comedians, etc, wouldn’t it be nice if they blocked ALL similar postings?


But money talks, and sponsored links bring in money…

 

[COcheesehead]

The first time I experienced the location sensing/tracking algorithm was when I was at the mall and handled a rather unique - expensive golf shirt. Later that day I was served up an ad for the exact shirt. I don’t golf, I don’t do anything related to it.The chances of being served up an ad for a random golf shirt are nil. My only connection was touching the shirt. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

 

[folivier]

Ok, google ain't going away. But they need to step up their game. I find that my ads start coming in AFTER I buy something. Come on g-man, you can do better than that! Once I've bought whatever I'm on to the next thing. Catch up!

 

[ERD50]

I have ad blockers on my laptop/desktop, where I do most of my online stuff, so I don't see many adds. Get more on my android tablet, depending what apps I'm in. Maybe I'll try testing this sometime.

At any rate, I don't really care, it's a robot listening (other than maybe for some development work). It aggregates this, and includes you in a list of people with that interest, and sends those ads to that group, and charges the advertiser based on total numbers . They don't send your internet address to an advertiser.

But if it bothers you, take precautions.

edit/add: A nice option would be a Push-to-talk button, so you could still get the benefits w/o potential 'snooping'.

-ERD50

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

rotfl

Yes, but in that case they (big brother) keep they knowledge to themselves "for future use".

 

[ncbill]

So is Amazon:

 

[marko]

I've had it happen too. But then to keep things objective, I mentioned a product that I have no interest in several times near my speakers trying to see if I'd start getting ads. Nothing.
Maybe it knows that I have no interest??

 

[street]

Yep, happens with about everything I search.

 

[Sojourner]

Best practices:

• Only allow apps on your phone (and other devices) access to your microphone and your location when they are active.
• No app should ever be allowed background access to your microphone.
• Make sure to force close any and all apps by (or related to) Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. when you aren't using them. They are definitely listening to you... to the extent you allow them.
• Disable the voice assistant services such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. Leaving these services on all the time guarantees that Apple, Amazon, and Google will be constantly monitoring and analyzing every word you say.

 

[Go-NoGo]

Sigh.. there is so much misinformation on how the Google/Alexa smart assistants work, it's worth posting this whitepaper on how Alexa listens and responds to your queries. The paper gets a _little_ technical, but is still very readable.

Alexa Privacy and Data Handling Overview:
https://d1.awsstatic.com/product-ma... Alexa Privacy and Data Handling Overview.pdf

jump to page 4 if you do not have the time to read all 10 pages of the PDF

"How Does an Echo Detect its Wake Word and Send Audio to the Alexa Cloud?"


Amazon Echo devices are designed to use on-device keyword spotting to detect the wake word and only the
wake word. Unless the microphone is turned off (discussed below), this technology inspects acoustic patterns
in the room to detect when the wake word has been spoken using a short, on-device buffer that is
continuously overwritten. There are multiple algorithms running on the Echo device looking for the specified
wake word. At this point no audio is sent to the Alexa cloud.

If the algorithms do not detect the wake word, then the Echo device continues to wait for the wake word,
continuously overwriting the contents of the small internal audio buffer. Importantly, Echo devices do not
keep local records of audio; they keep only a small amount of audio to detect the wake word. This on-device
buffer exists in temporary memory (RAM); audio is not recorded to any on-device storage.

...

TO SUMMARIZE HOW AN ECHO DEVICE WORKS:

1. Unless the mic mute button is lit red, the Echo device is analyzing audio to detect its wake word and
only its wake word. No audio is sent to the Alexa cloud while this is happening.
2. Wake word detection is done on the Echo device.
3. Only when the wake word is detected or the action button on the device is pressed does audio
stream to Alexa in the cloud.
4. When audio is streaming to Alexa, the blue light is turned on.
5. Alexa is designed to stop processing the audio if it determines the speech is not intended for Alexa.
6. The audio stream closes immediately once our ASR system determines the customer has stopped
speaking the request

..

Hope this dispels some of the suspicion that "Amazon/Google/Apple" are listening all the time. The companies are not, the devices are.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Most folks don't pay attention to the user term's when they sign up for apps (or anything, for that matter) and give permissions that are far and wide. Also, if you think you can "turn off" the microphone...well, I don't think it's that easy. I think the best practice is that if it's on, then it's listening.

 

[Willers]

Ok, google ain't going away. But they need to step up their game. I find that my ads start coming in AFTER I buy something. Come on g-man, you can do better than that! Once I've bought whatever I'm on to the next thing. Catch up!

I’ve noticed this too. We bought a fire pit online recently and I started getting hammered with fire pit ads. It’s not the kind of thing you buy again. I’m sure their PowerPoints show how great there targeting is, but they always seem a step behind.

 

[NW-Bound]

Amazon used to send audio streams to human listeners who transcribed and annotated the audio for the purpose of training the voice recognition software. The company claimed the streams were anonymous and the human listeners could not tell the source.

I wonder if the source might happen to be some celebrities who could get recognized.

Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people around the world to help improve the Alexa digital assistant powering its line of Echo speakers. The team listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices. The recordings are transcribed, annotated and then fed back into the software as part of an effort to eliminate gaps in Alexa’s understanding of human speech and help it better respond to commands...

The team comprises a mix of contractors and full-time Amazon employees who work in outposts from Boston to Costa Rica, India and Romania, according to the people, who signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from speaking publicly about the program. They work nine hours a day, with each reviewer parsing as many as 1,000 audio clips per shift, according to two workers based at Amazon’s Bucharest office, which takes up the top three floors of the Globalworth building in the Romanian capital’s up-and-coming Pipera district. The modern facility stands out amid the crumbling infrastructure and bears no exterior sign advertising Amazon’s presence...

Source: https://time.com/5568815/amazon-workers-listen-to-alexa/

 

[COcheesehead]

Ok, google ain't going away. But they need to step up their game. I find that my ads start coming in AFTER I buy something. Come on g-man, you can do better than that! Once I've bought whatever I'm on to the next thing. Catch up!

Another thing I find funny about Google is if we travel and return home I’ll see banner ads for things in the place I just left.

 

[Sunset]

Imagine the opportunities, listening in on board meetings of companies, etc..

So easy when people carry around their own bugging device.

 

[NW-Bound]

Imagine the opportunities, listening in on board meetings of companies, etc..

So easy when people carry around their own bugging device.

Eh, what a good idea, although I doubt that you are the 1st to think of it.


I remember at megacorp, they first banned phones with cameras, but of course the rule was impossible to enforce. And what choice do you have for phones without cameras? And of course, employees can use the phones for clandestine voice recording.

After a while, they stopped mentioning the ban on camera phones.