Topic: I think google is spying on us ,when our phones are in the room (Read 389 times)

I used to think that only hackers or very cool CIA agents can track the location of a mobile phone, and then only in films, but in fact, special software for this has long existed, and besides, it has recently become more and more popular among ordinary Internet users. I recently read an article on this online source androidspy.org about how an employer can monitor the movements of his employees using tracking applications, more precisely, get the entire history of movements and places where his employee has been, even know the exact time of his stops along such a route. Probably there is a business industry where such control is simply necessary. But most of all, it seems to me that such monitoring programs are needed for parental control and the safety of children. It's also quite a useful feature - searching for a mobile phone if you have lost it.

That happened and happens to me very often. It sounds like a joke but it's real. We also discussed with friend and we did several "fake" tests which all went positive. We cannot say it is Google or any other app but the signs all point to Google. We flashed old mobiles from scratch and didn't install any other app. No facebook, no tik tok, nothing at all, just stock firmware. We also have lineage and other ROMs flashed. It happened with ALL of them, but only to them shipped with Google app suite. To the phones we installed with custom roms without bloat ware and no Android Google Play store (we used F-Droid instead) this did not happen one single time. So we suspect that Google is the part who is spying.

This is definitely no coincidence or something like that because we tested with many phones and many persons with various settings. Absolutely, someone is spying and we suspect that it is Google.

Just my $ 0.02

I also don't want to believe in it, but sometimes it just gets crazy how smart google can be!!

Snowden is good show many people follow him. . and he has changed the perspective of people all together.

But what would an ordinary person profile would do the google who is only searching XOXO and gambling and alcohol

That is not our speech and thought which gives the ad option - maybe it is the text we type in for others. And the google get their recommendation from there.
But I disagree that that google listen to us and then do as they want.

our phones are already so advanced, that i can only think about smth, even not saying it out loud!! and my phone in a couple of days gives me ads with the items i was thinking about. this is just crazy! has it happened to anyone of you?

Snowden shows how we have been watched by our laptop cameras and phone camera. But we need a device to be seen. Its not possible that phone is switched off and computer is shut down and we have been observed. A year go all my office colleagues watched the Snowden. And placed a paper patch on their laptops. My Boss showed so much displeasure - but now we have to live with it.

Same thing happened to me over and over. And I had never talked about that topic before, so Google didn't get that from my search history or something.
The thing that bothers me is that no one talks about this. I only saw a good show with John Oliver that takled the issue and he interviewed Snowden!

A World where both the ignorant and illiterate ones are allowed to Accept Terms they do not understand or without the guidance of qualify people like lawyers to help them make the right choices. Wish the Terms & Conditions are clear and simple to understand, and they must be moral. It's not for example right for companies to ask people to accept Terms that go against the rights that have been guaranteed to them naturally. And it's important to always reject them publicly even though you have accepted the terms. If they do otherwise or go against your own Terms they could get punished, not necessarily by human govts. Who exactly? Well, there are things I would rather not reveal.

Damn, I thought I was randomly popping up ads for what I want.

Snowden said that a long time ago, so why should we be surprised?

WE are living in the world where we have also accepted so many terms and conditions to give the company's permission to use our personal data and share it with anyone we wish to. So we cannot blame anyone for the leak of personal info - but we are solely responsible for all this.

I am not joking - but I visiting a friend yesterday - and the kids and every family member was throwing the phone here and there because they also thought that they are being spied by their phones and they are being listened and heard and seen through their phone - I was like shocked for a moment - what is everyone doing ???I suggested all of them to have a session with psychologist!

I am definitely a bit cautious when it comes to Google potentially listening in on my calls or even recording my passive conversations when I’m not on the phone. It may sound paranoid but I am very suspicious of Google and I question their ethics.

They certainly have the technical ability to listen in and they haven’t shown much restraint historically. They consistently have shown a disregard for peoples privacy in the past and I have seen little evidence of them taking responsibility for it. I would rather be on the safe side and be a bit overly cautious but that’s just me.

You can't "turn the microphone off" , they can control your phone no matter what you do ... if battery is not removed ... why do you think they removed from new smartphones option to remove battery ?

Interesting. If you think it's because of your microphone which google can access then why not turn it off on the settings? Every app should have an option if you will allow access to them. Actually, I found out the same thing long time ago and I even search this on google out my curiosity, while I don't think this was because of our microphone but for me I think it was because of our search history. That's what google gets an idea and suggests you with a keywords that are close to it.

It's weird and shocking at first but once you get the hang out of it, you will say that it was helpful because we can save too much time typing the same thing.

I use them. But I admit I'm really worried about my privacy. The problem is that I love tech and all my home is handled by Alexa. Songs, lights, even window shutters.

Think about those people who use Alexa & Apple Home  products. They’re even worse than Google, I don’t know why people use these type of things, it’s so bad for their privacy.

It happens the same to me very often. If I speak about something with my wife or my friends and after few minutes I open internet I see ads related to my discussion.
They are definitely spying on us in order to give us targeted ads.

It is nowadays VERY difficult to keep your privacy at a high level.  With smart TV's collecting information about what you are watching, smart phones collecting all sorts of information about you in a very intrusive way, Google and Alexa listening to what you are saying all the time and everything else going digital and 'smart', you are pretty much invaded by surveillance and control over the life of yours that is supposed to be private.

I suggest doing one of two things.  Either de-Googling your phone or flashing a privacy focused ROM like mk4 said.  There are pros and cons obviously, the largest ones being that de-Googling removes bloatware and spyware while maintaining device security and on the other hand privacy increasing ROM's such as Lineage may get you rid of everything Google related but only by decreasing device security.  It has been proven before that Lineage OS may be more privacy friendly but the security risks may not be worth the change.

On the other hand.  While for Android devices this is obvious, keep in mind the same surveillance is happening on Windows devices as well.  You just notice it less.  So my advice is that if you make this change on your Android device, then move on from using Windows as well and maybe get rid of your Smart TV and Alexa.  Whatever is 'smart' today is mostly a spying device that we voluntarily introduce in our houses.

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Regards,
PrivacyG