this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025

340 points (85.4% liked)

Technology

69391 readers

2671 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

340

Hundreds of smartphone apps are monitoring users through their microphones (www.the-independent.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

93 comments fedilink hide all child comments

(page 2) 43 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 day ago (2 children)

But… they can't access the microphone without the user explicitly allowing

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Tell that to Facebook. Shit, I'll talk about something with my wife and see ads about it ten minutes later. Been happening for years.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

It's more likely that your wife or someone nearby was further researching the same topic you were talking about.

Facebook and other ad companies use your location, relationships, and other data they already had on you to serve you relevant ads.

At this stage, they know more about you than the government, or your wife.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 22 hours ago

Bullshit. The amount of times I’ve had random conversations about odd topics for the very first time with my wife and the fucking subject appears in a FB add three hours later.

Nope, go peddle your corpo propaganda elsewhere.

load more comments (3 replies)

load more comments (7 replies)

[+] [email protected] -17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Only on iOS. Also a lot of apps can present valid uses for microphone access, which prompts users to allow unlimited malicious use

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can be absolutely certain no apps can access my mic in the background. Even when in the foreground, there is a hot-mic indicator.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Here's the misleading part:

Tap on one of those "while in use" apps. You'll see there is no option "allowed all the time." It doesn't exist.

"while in use" is top level, and changes to "while using the app" when you actually look at the permission. They really mean when the app is running. And many often run in the background.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

Theoretically if mic gets accessed it should be lighting the indicator. Not sure if that's how it actually works though.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Not only on iOS. I use Android and my microphone is always off unless I allow a specific app to use it, and even then, I have the option of only allowing it for that one time. Including the phone app.

Mic and camera are always off.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What happens when you answer the phone?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

A little pop up comes up saying something about "getting the most out of your phone" with the option to turn the mic on for the app that's requesting it (phone app). Only turns on for the call. Just gotta tap the screen once.

I keep the mic and camera options at the top of my quick-... whatever they call them... options, so if I need either one for something else, it's super easy to turn off/on.

Android shows a little green logo in the top right if the mic and/or camera is on as well. So if I ever do enable them, it's easy to remember to turn them off again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks I'm gonna try it out for a while

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It works great for me. I'm using a Pixel with stock Android, so I can only speak to how it behaves on my phone. I know sometimes carriers add/change shit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

Check out GrapheneOS

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

I did this but stopped because if I pick up the phone locked, I have to unlock it to turn mic on and answer the call. So I just make sure to allow mic access only to apps that really need it

[–] [email protected] 0 points 21 hours ago

Because it is software-based access control, it is impossible to guarantee that access really has been disabled. Thanks to Apple's design, we now live in a world where users are not supposed to detach batteries or physically turn off microphones and cameras; it's all software-controlled. The problem is that software can be hacked and have backdoors. Also, thanks to Apple's smart design, users can no longer upgrade the memory sticks on their Mac Minis and MacBooks. Why do I say it is all Apple's fault? Unfortunately, other manufacturers copy these design ideas...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

How can they tell I'm popping?.... Oh....what if I stopped flushing? So is that why some people don't flush? They're trying to be stealthy!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Instagram at least listens thru your mic, for sure. At least on my wife’s phone, she gets targeted ads based on conversations we have in the car with no music playing

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments