It seems as though every person has a unique experience where a conversation with a friend led to an oddly specific ad popping up on their phone a short time later. Most people just disregard it as a strange coincidence and nothing more. However, the article “Your Phone Is Listening and it's Not Paranoia” explains how these occurrences are not merely coincidental. Rather, companies are in fact using the audio on our phones to listen in to our conversations. In the article, the author speaks to a senior security consultant who explains how companies are periodically using our phone’s microphone permissions based on timing or our location.
The article ultimately comes to the conclusion that although companies are listening to our phones, it is not as diabolical as it sounds: “It’s just an extension from what advertising used to be on television…It’s not ideal, but I don’t think it poses an immediate threat to most people”. In other words, companies are using this information for nothing more than to market to consumers. To a certain extent, I do agree with the author that this does not pose an imminent threat to the average person. However, I believe this thought process fails to look at how it could negatively affect us in the future. Although it might seem insignificant at the moment, there is no telling what this technology will lead to. This form of eavesdropping could very soon be used for negative purposes. For example, journalists, lawyers, or rival businesses could potentially harness a new way to blackmail their adversaries. Before long, there could be no such thing as a private conversation when surrounded by technology.
In addition, the article states: “As most tech companies are based in the US, the NSA or perhaps the CIA can potentially have your information disclosed to them, whether it’s legal in your home country or not”. The fact that the government has access to the information from listening to our phones is a troubling fact. This is because the information could one day be in the wrong hands. This data could be used: “to target journalists, persecute activists, and crack down on free speech” according to amnestyusa.org. While the public does not need to worry about this in the present, I think they should take a stand now to protect their privacy in the future.
Article Source: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/wjbzzy/your-phone-is-listening-and-its-not-paranoia
3 comments:
Although it is uncomfortable and concerning to think that the conversations we have are being recorded or listened to by companies or the government, it might not be as bad as we think. After reading the Vice article used as a reference and doing some research, I do believe that this is strictly happening only for the use of advertising and marketing. Any company would do whatever is takes to generate more profit and gain more customers. According to WorldStream, businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google ads. This statistic shows that it is worth it for a company to discover someone's preferences and try to advertise towards them. The Vice article explains that some companies like Facebook have said they are not using the microphone in our phones for advertising. In my opinion I think that pop ups and advertisements are annoying, but there have been many instances where one catches my eye. Even if the person does not klick on that direct pop up it might cause them to research it in another browser later. In the Vice article referenced, Peter says “this is not something everyday people should be scared of”. I agree with this because most ordinary people are not talking about situations that the government or anyone listening would necessarily be concerned about. I agree that this might have an impact for people as mentioned like lawyers or journalist in the future, however this listening only occurs when there is a trigger. Although we do not know the exact trigger, this shows that companies are not listening to us all the time. I have no doubt that in the future this technique could be used against people to target them but that would be an intentional situation that would lead to an invasion of privacy and a lawsuit.
Everyone has that uneven feeling that someone is listening in on them, the spy is closer than we all think. I think I can safely say that all of us carry our phones everywhere we go, when we forget our phones, its like were missing a piece of ourselves. Phones have become our lifeline to the world. The first thing that a person does in the morning is check their phone, whether it’s emails, texts or social media, we all look at our phones and the same thing happens when we go to bed, we check our phones and set our alarms. Some of us go as far as looking at our phones for more than half the day. I personally check my screen time and I am always amazed how much time I spend looking at my phone. Whenever we face a question we don't know the answer to, we pick up our phones and start the search. Every search we do, our search data is collected, not only what we are typing but also what we are saying. There are pros and cons to the AI technology listening to us.
I don’t know about everyone else but I often catch myself saying talking about something I saw recently and when I open my phone to search something, it is in the ads going across my screen. Many people find this creepy, I see this as helpful. I see ads for sales and discounts going on only online. I like how my phone knows what I want. I could see this being bad when I get older. I wouldn’t want my phone to remember my social security number, bank statements and some passwords. It’s fine to have someone listening to me now, but when I get older I want would want a phone who doesn't spy on me. I wouldn't like A.I getting advanced enough to report back to the government about everything I am searching.
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