BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING

BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING 

Not to be all tinfoil had style and all, but at this very moment with your cell phone sitting right next to you as you gossip about whatever with your buddy, your phone is probably listening to you. It's not that paranoid of an idea. The very basic of it is this... we now call it Data Mining and you are perfectly okay with it.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching some random television episode. It was boring bullshit to begin with, but the important aspect to this all was that the television show had some melodramatic moment in it and the Counting Crows started playing. Since I was using my laptop to view it and my phone was on the desk, I didn't really think of anything being an issue, but then the next day while scrolling through my facebook feed, the Counting Crows concert promotion came up as a suggestion for me to check out.

Now, I hate the counting crows. I mean, okay, hate is a strong word, but aside from that television episode, I think the last time I heard the Counting Crows rip some ballads was when I ripped off Columbia House for 8 CDs for a penny. Let's just say it has been a very long time since I have heard them. So this sudden suggestion by Facebook seemed a little bit of  Alex Jones level of creepy.

Logically speaking, this shouldn't be the case. In order for your smart phone to record your conversation, there has to be some sort of trigger word stated to start the monitoring. "SIRI" or whatever the equivalent for Google needs to be stated in order for that information to go somewhere. Otherwise it will stay within your own phone. Then again, remember when you allowed Instagram and Facebook with access to your microphone so you can do that stupid Kiki dance and upload it for all the likes in the world?

Yeah, they have access to your non-triggered data because of that.

"From time to time, snippets of audio do go back to {apps like Facebook's} servers, but there's no official understanding in what the triggers for that are,  Whether it's timing or location-based or usage of certain functions, [apps] are certainly pulling those microphone permissions and using those periodically. All internals of the applications send this data in encrypted form, so it's very difficult to define the exact trigger."

Is the official confirmation to all this madness. It could very well be that facebook and Instagram have thousands of triggers that kick off in recording the shit you say. Yet again, companies such as those mentioned  deny listening to our conversation

Google, on the other hand, is pretty open with the fact that they listen to you. So the general assumption is to just realize that every other company is monitoring you and something triggers the audio portion of it. It also makes sense considering a marketing standpoint, and with their end-use agreements and the law both allowing it, why wouldn't they be doing so?

You should try it. I know for damn sure that last night I was snoring, since my phone was sort of left on with the music, and both the band that I was playing also was advertised in the feed as well as sleep study consultation offer. But try it by mentioning something like vintage dresses and see if Pinup girl or Unique vintage pops up. Some jeans? Damn right you know that will be shilled towards you.

So now that it's a given that your phone is monitoring you for the sake of advertising, you have to wonder what can be used with what you say. In general, I wouldn't worry about it being sold off. There's no reason to sell off your information when they can make all the money off it. They run off making sure they hold the keys to who it is that is interested in a said product, so the apps will just keep the data for themselves and never unload it.

I guess the bigger question you should also ask yourself is if it's safe from the thought police. Because given that all those companies at the mercy of the NSA, they can get your information told to them as well. Just assume that with your phone on you, you're completely being monitored at all times for whatever you happen to say.  Then again, you're a pretty fucking boring person and whatever things you think are edgy to say.. they're probably not giving a shit unless you're talking about which fast food chain you'd want to go to.

And here you thought advertising wasn't going to be the end of you.