Is your phone spying on you?

[Lily&Me]

This is interesting...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.2112ff165ebb

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

This is interesting...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.2112ff165ebb

Funny, the Washington Post made me turn off my adblocker before I could see their page. That's not unusual.
As far as privacy, I use Google day to day for normal searches on Safari, because it just works better, but anything I could be targeted for I keep Firefox's browser with Bing as my default search engine. Bing doesn't track you, and Firefox erases history when closed.
History can be a great tool, for when I think, "Where was that site I found yesterday?"

[Oh_this_guy]

Lol , your phone doesn't spy on you or anything you have! Clear your cache on your phone more often also don't allow Google any permissions NO PEEKING. if your an iPhone person switch to Android and don't buy Samsung. It's a bit creepy right

[Oh_this_guy]

I say that and Google updates wtf

[SilverHouseDreams]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

No.
No.

Yes.
Don't know. I've never logged into Facebook, because it won't let you without joining.
None.
Calendar app? Not that I know of.

None of the people involved strike me as tech intensive. My doctor still uses a flip phone and doesn't know how to text. Everybody is on a first name basis. I'm not on social media, intentionally.
I have a piece of tape over the camera on my monitor, and other than the dog, I'm not having a conversation with anyone. I usually set my i-phone facing down, just to protect the screen and thwart anyone looking at the camera.

It's spooky.

What email was used? Gmail.com? Or any other "Free" account? If you aren't paying ca$h for it, then you are paying for it in a different method. Nothing is truly free.

If you don't have a calendar app, what is the original complaint about? Did something magically show up in your paper day planner? If so, that would be concerning...but not likely due to your phone. :P

Lets say that your free email that you used was Gmail, and your phone is connected to your email account...and perhaps you have a Google Search app on your phone. That is all that is required for Google to read your email and to courteously place a reminder for a birthday in there (likewise for a graduation or other event that someone mentioned in email). In the case of the dr office, perhaps they also use Google's services...and there are many paths of legitimately linking information across these platforms via the "free" method you are paying for.

[UncleBad]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

Okay, splain' this.
I enjoy talking to one of the ladies in my doctor's office. However, I don't even know her last name. We talk about her son, mostly. I'm too old for any thoughts....never mind.
So I notice my computer has a entry on calendar, "Jennifer's birthday 36"
So when she calls to remind me of an appointment, I ask, "Is today your birthday?" "Yes". "Are you 36?" "Yes, how did you know?"
I laughed about it when I was in the office, but I think it freaked her out a little and seriously, it freaked me out too. I've never told anyone about her, and I don't have anything other than her first name???
How did that entry get there?

So I am certainly not discounting that something spooky could have happened here... indulge me for a few. Please don’t shoot or slap me... :-)

In re-reading your post you mention that “you enjoy talking to one of the ladies”.

Can I assume that you have spoken with her on previous occasions as well?

For the iPhone to make the entry on your behalf we would have to further assume:
You have given it all the permissions to listen.
You have given it all the permissions to make entries on your behalf.
You have authenticated to your calendar app.
You have told it who you are (most people do, it’s a Siri setting)
That you used her name in the conversation. (Very probable)
That it was a short conversation and was about her birthday. Short to limit the natural language processing to understand the context of “birthday” amongst other topics.
You mentioned either the number 36 or (more unlikely) the year of her birth.
Someone other than you would benefit from the new birthday calendar entry in some way.

That’s quite a few assumptions. The more things we have to assume the less probable that the explanation is correct (Occam’s Razor).

Here is the part where you may want to slap or shoot me.

Is it more probable that you discussed with Jennifer at your previous visit to the doctor that she would be 36 next year? Assuming yearly visits? And then you made the calendar entry to remind yourself?

I ask because I have done the same and forgotten about it.

I don’t discount the privacy issues, or the fact that there are nefarious actors involved in the tech industry. But the simplest explanation is usually the more correct one.

[RedSHED]

We leak a surprising amount of data, here's audio from set of tire pressure monitors as captured by a $20 rx and some very low cost software



https://youtu.be/ZmxEn73ww8o




The setup:
The hardware:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/1497



Open source version of software:

http://gqrx.dk/download

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by SilverHouseDreams

If you don't have a calendar app, what is the original complaint about?

I have "calendar" which is the program that came with the I-mac. I haven't added any app. Perhaps I misunderstood. I occasionally add appointments to calendar, and I noticed that I had one called "Jennifer's birthday" which I have no idea how it got there. I'm not complaining, I like Jennifer, but it's pretty freaky since I don't even know her last name, so how I would have discovered her birthday while sleepwalking or on Ambien (never used it) is still baffling. No one else has access to my computer or phone, and even if they did, we've never discussed Jennifer and so they wouldn't know her name either. I just looked ahead to the same day in 2018, and it's not mentioned, but an appointment for the doc is scheduled, which is not true. I'm getting more and more baffled.
Maybe the universe wants me to buy her a present?

[3wd67rg]

Originally Posted by UncleBad

The differences are mainly from the service providers perspective, the data they track and what is done with it.

Let’s take Facebook for example. Facebook is in business to sell your data. That is why it is free to use, because YOU are the product. This is why I believe they may never charge for access because it raises a barrier to access. As the video in this thread shows they also goto extraordinary lengths to make you WANT to use it. They track you to learn about you and keep that data too.

They then sell access to this (your) data and offer it to other companies allowing them to market direct to you. They provide programmatic access to that data as well via API’s.

Forums like this one do not sell their data - not that I have seen. The reason we want to use it is because we all share a common disease - Aluminitis! There is no tracking, no direct marketing based on your browsing or clicking habits or your social network.

In other forums like this you can also pay to support the forum through dues as well - because they need the help as they are not selling access to you or your data. I had thought I had seen that option on Airforums but I may be mistaken. I pay to access another forum called Overland Bound. You don’t have to, but all the cool kids do and get a cool metal medallion for your rigs.... but I digress.

I can certainly see why from a users perspective why they seem similar, however the differences are real. I hope that helps!

Love the idea about sharing how to limit data exposures as well!

Ok, now I see what you mean, and thank you for explaining that so well. Both are social networking, Facebook is a malignant data miner.

I know that I have never signed a privacy policy, that did not admit some data mining, (yes, I actually read those things, I’m waiting for the day one requests my right arm or my first born child ), so I went to reread the Air Forums Privacy Policy. There is some data mining ⛏, a minor amount comparatively, but still part of the package. Which leads me to wonder...

How is this a profitable business for the owner? How does it stay afloat? Member Payments are optional, ads are few, annoying, but few.

[UncleBad]

Originally Posted by PammieSue

Ok, now I see what you mean, and thank you for explaining that so well. Both are social networking, Facebook is a malignant data miner.



I know that I have never signed a privacy policy, that did not admit some data mining, (yes, I actually read those things, I’m waiting for the day one requests my right arm or my first born child ), so I went to reread the Air Forums Privacy Policy. There is some data mining [emoji1007], a minor amount comparatively, but still part of the package. Which leads me to wonder...



How is this a profitable business for the owner? How does it stay afloat? Member Payments are optional, ads are few, annoying, but few.

My guess would be advertising revenue. Which I skip by the way by using the mobile app on an iPad Pro. I have noticed ads on the regular site.

[RandyNH]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

I have "calendar" which is the program that came with the I-mac. I haven't added any app. Perhaps I misunderstood. I occasionally add appointments to calendar, and I noticed that I had one called "Jennifer's birthday" which I have no idea how it got there. I'm not complaining, I like Jennifer, but it's pretty freaky since I don't even know her last name, so how I would have discovered her birthday while sleepwalking or on Ambien (never used it) is still baffling. No one else has access to my computer or phone, and even if they did, we've never discussed Jennifer and so they wouldn't know her name either. I just looked ahead to the same day in 2018, and it's not mentioned, but an appointment for the doc is scheduled, which is not true. I'm getting more and more baffled.
Maybe the universe wants me to buy her a present?

Maybe the doctors appointment is Jennifer's and it's on your calendar because after it she may have something to tell you..... (You really should have learned her last name)

[thiel]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

Okay, splain' this.
I enjoy talking to one of the ladies in my doctor's office. However, I don't even know her last name. We talk about her son, mostly. I'm too old for any thoughts....never mind.
So I notice my computer has a entry on calendar, "Jennifer's birthday 36"
So when she calls to remind me of an appointment, I ask, "Is today your birthday?" "Yes". "Are you 36?" "Yes, how did you know?"
I laughed about it when I was in the office, but I think it freaked her out a little and seriously, it freaked me out too. I've never told anyone about her, and I don't have anything other than her first name???
How did that entry get there?

All can be explained. I'm guessing you are syncing your calendar or contacts with Facebook. (This could be true on ANY of your devices... doesn't need to be for all of them.)

Facebook will notify you of birthdays or anyone in your contact list (I bet you have the doctor's office--aka Jennifer's--number in there?) even if they are not your friends. It will also automatically download their profile photo (even if you are not friends) if you ask it to add photos to your contact list.

[thiel]

Originally Posted by m.hony

Get rid of Yahoo! and get a Gmail account...

Please make sure you look before you leap. Yes, Yahoo was hacked... but so have most of the companies you do business with.

Google INVENTED the idea of reading your email. Gmail was designed so that Google could read your messages and serve up advertisements... and all these years later, no one does it better!

[thiel]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

In terms of user privacy, Fa(r)ceBook and AirForums are like night and day IMO.

This is true... Airforums has FAR FEWER protections in place for your personal information. It is easier to scrape for data, it is easier to hack, etc.

Really important to be an informed consumer on all this stuff. Just because Facebook gets all the press doesn't mean it's doing less to protect you than other sites. Apple is often touted as the number one villain, but at current its doing more to protect your data than almost anyone else out there.

[SeeMore]

This is how you can manage the data kept about you if you are an Apple product user:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/comput...has-about-you/

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by thiel

All can be explained. I'm guessing you are syncing your calendar or contacts with Facebook. (This could be true on ANY of your devices... doesn't need to be for all of them.)

That's a great idea, except I've never been on Facebook, nor am I a member.

Originally Posted by RandyNH

... it's on your calendar because after it she may have something to tell you..... (You really should have learned her last name)

You are going to get me in trouble!

[UncleBad]

Originally Posted by UncleBad

In other forums like this you can also pay to support the forum through dues as well - because they need the help as they are not selling access to you or your data. I had thought I had seen that option on Airforums but I may be mistaken. I pay to access another forum called Overland Bound. You don’t have to, but all the cool kids do and get a cool metal medallion for your rigs.... but I digress.

I finally found the link to support AirForums and am now a supporting member. Please consider supporting AirForums as well, here is the link!!

http://www.airforums.com/forums/payments.php

[gunther314]

It's just exactly the same thing as when you're texting someone on FB messenger and you mention an electronic device or some person... and later on on the new feed page you'll find the items suggested in the facebook ads or the people you mentioned they'll appear in the chat list. I guess they use the same concept of keywords like google to help you find what you're looking for.. or maybe they do spy on you !!!!

One of the reasons why I always prefered iPhone over android

[Mollysdad]

I heard a discussion of this yesterday, and the expert claimed if you put a "e-mail draft" in your e-mail folder but never sent it, Google still has it.
They claimed that if you made a e-mail discussing Toyotas, but never sent it, you'd still get targeted ads for Toyotas.

Keep in mind that Google is not "reading" these in the classic sense, but they're still selling the information based on keywords.

Many people who are concerned about security are dropping G-Mail accounts in favor of software that doesn't track you.
I have both. For e-mail to sellers, I use iCloud.

I use an adblocker, but I've noticed if I search for an item on Amazon or Google, I get deluged with side ads for similar products.

[waninae39]

get a good VPN

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/

we us that on all our devices IOS, win, android etc
you set the security standard
you select the exit city/country
they are US based and keep no logs
all users share the same exit IP address
yearly cost is good for 5 devices

thus is hard for GOV folks to track what users are doing.
great for streaming as ISP cant limit yoor BW based on protocol
as the VPN could be a business traffic