My Pixel phone is spying on me.

I never believed anyone who would post something similar, until I started noticing a pattern of disturbing behavior from my phone. 

YESTERDAY 3/26

1. 9am – a colleague and I were discussing Blockchain. Two hours later this shows up. https://i.imgur.com/bmQeq5r.png

2. 12pm – during lunch I had conversations with other coworkers about the Dark Web. Later in the afternoon I see this – https://i.imgur.com/MDyomxx.png

TODAY 3/27

1. 9am – on a conference call at work I spent 10 minutes discussing multi factor authentication options for the mobile app we’re rolling out. Around 10am this shows up https://i.imgur.com/b0gblDz.png

I’m not paranoid, and I never searched for any of these topics, not on my phone, not on ANY device. Check for yourself. It’s happening. And it’s got to stop. I’m tired of this. 

Conversation 19 comments

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    27 March, 2019 - 1:42 pm

    <p>Well you did buy a phone from a company that gets over 90% of their money from advertising.</p>

  • Tony Barrett

    27 March, 2019 - 1:53 pm

    <p>Get used to it. Amazon do it, Facebook definitely do it, and MS almost certainly do it to, and Apple are almost certainly following suit as they move more into services, where they'll be using it more and more. Everything you type and say or post, download, apps you install, links you click – it's all recorded, logged and added to your personal profile. You want those 'services' for free? This is the cost. If you don't like it, buy a feature phone.</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      27 March, 2019 - 4:14 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#415966">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>Actually I bet Apple doesn't do this. It's also probably why most of Apple's services cost $9.99 a month.</p>

      • jedwards87

        20 July, 2020 - 12:34 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#415997">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>I agree. Apple seems to be doubling down on privacy and I love it. Google is an ad company so I understand what they do is how they make money I just do not want to be a part of it if I can help it. Apple users are Apple's customers where Google users are their product so to speak. I have no issues paying for Apple services because I trust my data is not be sucked to make money from. Now I do not get quite the level of service I would if I feed the Google machine but I am ok with that. However, Apple is getting better at AI and services faster than Google is getting better at hardware.</p>

  • Bats

    27 March, 2019 - 2:44 pm

    <p>Hire a lawyer and sue Google. </p><p><br></p><p>Start something. </p>

  • christian.hvid

    27 March, 2019 - 2:48 pm

    <p>Apparently the same surveillance tech as in Google Home. And to think that people worry about Huawei…</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      27 March, 2019 - 4:13 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#415977">In reply to christian.hvid:</a></em></blockquote><p>I think stuff like this is why people worry about Huawei.</p>

  • StevenLayton

    27 March, 2019 - 3:23 pm

    <p>I'm hoping you didn't submit this thread via your phone. They'll know you're on to them ;)</p>

  • AnOldAmigaUser

    Premium Member
    27 March, 2019 - 3:58 pm

    <p>Welcome to the brave new world of <a href="https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation/episodes/380&quot; target="_blank">Surveillance Capitalism</a>.</p><p>Google is just the best at it, but soon, your appliances, automobiles and surroundings will all be ratting you out in the name of targeted advertising and not yet dreamed about ways to make money. On a non Pixel phone, Google is not even the <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/android-ecosystem-of-pre-installed-apps-is-a-privacy-and-security-mess/&quot; target="_blank">only one tracking you</a> out of the box.</p>

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    27 March, 2019 - 4:15 pm

    <p>No wonder the batteries on our phones don't last as long as they used to.</p>

  • waethorn

    27 March, 2019 - 4:36 pm

    <p>EVERY smartphone spies on you. "Smart" = "spy" in tech terms. "Smart" homes? They're full of this kind of tech.</p>

  • evox81

    Premium Member
    27 March, 2019 - 4:54 pm

    <p>I'm not seeing it. These aren't really advertisements, so even if we assume Google does listen to us, there's no incentive for bringing these articles to the middle of your feed from what I can see. From the other articles in your feed, you clearly follow technology… These are articles I would expect to see if I followed tech news.</p><p><br></p><p>When I search Thurrott.com, I count 27 articles about two factor authentication. If you had that conversation and came here and saw an article about 2FA you wouldn't assume Paul was listening to you.</p><p><br></p><p>But to better safe than sorry: There are documented cases of 3rd party apps, in particular their ad networks, actually spying on you. Take a glance through your app permissions and see if there's anything with permission to use your microphone that shouldn't (i.e. games don't typically need your microphone) and turn it off or uninstall it.</p>

  • techguy33

    27 March, 2019 - 6:12 pm

    <p>In Android open your app permissions. Does the "Google" app really need microphone access? I turned off mic permissions for all apps but Camera (in case I record video). Means I removed mic permission for 6+ apps, including Google.</p>

    • dcdevito

      27 March, 2019 - 7:26 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#416020">In reply to techguy33:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm aware of this, but Google Assistant is tied to it. And I use it all the time unfortunately</p>

      • minke

        28 March, 2019 - 7:35 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#416033">In reply to dcdevito:</a></em></blockquote><p>There's your answer. The Assistant is designed to vacuum up all your personal information not available to text scanning. Test it out by talking a lot about puppies (or something you are really not interested in) and see if you start receiving related stuff.</p>

  • minke

    28 March, 2019 - 7:26 am

    <p>Check your Google account under My Activity&gt;Voice and Audio and you can see all the stuff they are recording. It is hard to imagine they aren't using that information for targeting you. That's one thing I find frustrating about this supposed "personalization." I am currently in the process of trying to dismiss every ad and article about crypto currency that inundates my news feed, Twitter, etc. I must have at some point read an article on Bitcoin and now I can't escape from ads and articles from scammy sources. During the last election for some reason the AI decided I wanted to read mostly rightwing nonsense garbage, even though I am the opposite politically. I suspect that is because my demographic leans rightwing. For some reason clothing company spam emailers have decided I'm a young woman and I get emails for stuff I would only be able to purchase if I lost 40 pounds and had a sex change operation. I'm guessing it's because I occasionally order presents for my daughter. Hey, Google, your AI is pretty dumb!</p>

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