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I still don’t think companies serve you ads based on spying through your microphone (simonwillison.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Not my title! I do think we are being listened to. And location tracked. And it's being passed on to advertisers. Is it apple though? Probably not is my take away from this article, but I don't trust plenty of others, and apple still does

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[–] Travelator 7 points 2 weeks ago (14 children)

On Android, I have the mic, location, and camera blocked via the pulldown tiles menu. I turn them on when needed. The OS and some apps like to bitch about this sometimes but it seems to be working ok.

My iphone does not offer these blanket blocking options. It's a work phone, so I just leave it off unless I need it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

So one of the devices allegedly grabbing keywords from heard conversations, you'd trust with a software based toggle?

I'd only trust hardware toggle.

[–] Travelator 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At this point, it's the best I can do. I have tape on the selfie camera too. I guess I could bust this pixel 7a open and add physical switches to the cameras and mike, but I'm not real confident in my ability to pull that off. Maybe you can tell me how to do that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I guess a software based toggle is ok for downloaded third party apps on the phone. Just not anything by Google.

And no I am only saying what I trust. I sadly have no toggle. Making an actual hardware toggle outside of the factory line is pretty hard. But disabling them on your device is pretty easy. You can easily make your USB port power only, unplug your camera and destroy the mic.

If you use Graphene on the Pixel however, I think you'd be safe from anything Google to be honest.

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