Is your phone listening to you? (re-air) (Lock and Code S07E03)

Is your phone listening to you? (re-air) is a Malwarebytes Labs post about the Lock and Code S07E03 podcast, which revisits a discussion on mobile tracking and surveillance. It notes that in January Google settled a lawsuit and paid $68 million to a broad group of people who claimed their voice-activated assistant secretly recorded conversations for advertisers. The article adds that Apple also faced similar claims and paid $95 million last year to settle.

It quotes the ongoing concern that even if phones aren’t literally listening, they are saturated with covert surveillance that can predictively target users with ads. According to Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Technologist Lena Cohen, the takeaway is that companies are collecting vast amounts of information in covert ways, making the question of “listening” more about pervasive tracking than literal eavesdropping. The piece also mentions the podcast’s host, David Ruiz, and invites readers to tune in for the full conversation.