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this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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Technology
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Let's start with this. Google Assistant, Siri, Cortina Alexa, etc are always listening.
Your phone can be listening, but at least on Android the microphone permissions are necessary, and unless there are native exploits I'm super unaware of, this happens at the lowest levels.
Keep your phone in your pocket, check the app permissions, learn how to check data leaving your network, and learn to love Big Brother.
Language really muddles things here. What counts as "listening"? In some sense a microphone not connected to anything is always "listening" but we don't call it that because the electrical impulses it generates don't go anywhere. Is a phone "listening" if it's just running that data through a routine that only recognizes a wake word? Does it make sense to use the same word for that as for live streaming data to a server?