Are we being listened to on the phone

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Frances IOM,

Do we need a vaccine passport, aren’t we being tracked by the miniature micro chips that are embedded in the COVID Vaccines!!! 😇. Dave W

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

you are being tracked by the chips in your always on (even when you thought you turned it off) mobile smart phone.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

As distasteful as we find it, surveillance is a useful tool to keep us safe from the activities of those that would do us harm. To me what is unacceptable is the intrusion just to send us junk advertising which I rarely read and even more rarely find useful. My wife is paranoid that the computer web cams are watching even when unplugged and she drapes paper over them, these days a camera is unlikely to find anything exciting going on in our house unless the antics of my sons cat that he has lumbered with are entertaining, feline indoor Parkour is quite fun unless you become part of the course, she certainly uses her claws for maximum traction and can execute some extremely sharp turns, rather like hydroplane racing.

Mike

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by John Baron on 03/04/2021 09:33:39:

Posted by V8Eng on 28/03/2021 23:14:25:

Apparently we might be getting listened to whilst on our phones.

Who’s listening

 

What ever makes you think that the UK, USA and other countries don't listen in ! We have GCHQ and have been spying on ourselves and others for years ! Mobile phones and computers just make it easier ! Why do you think that strong encryption is considered a weapon in the US and unlawful not to give up passwords here in the UK.

 

I just added that linked article as part of the general chat on the subject.

Being spied upon is obviously not new (who did not know that?).

I think it has been made easier with modern technology and the way people have embraced it plus many giving away personal information so readily.

Edited By V8Eng on 03/04/2021 10:44:53

Edited By V8Eng on 03/04/2021 10:49:00

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

I had intended to keep out of this thread, BUT If one takes the battery out of the far to smart phone, can it still be located ? Some indicate that the set will continue to handshake with the nearest cell even when switched off !

Or is the only way to disappear to leave it at home or resort to the use of a hammer ? Noel

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

for most (all?) smart phones you cannot simply remove the battery without serious dismantling thereof – the on/off switch even if it exists does not switch the power connections but puts the phone into a low power ‘air craft’ mode in which it should not transmit but nothing stops it from receiving – the old fashion non-smart phone can have the battery removed though

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I would be fairly confident that when the battery is flat the phone is dead but switched off it is more of a standby mode but what is still functional would need investigation.

Mike

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Keep it in a fine wiremesh or metal box, grounded ? Leave it in a microwave chamber,making sure the machine is grounded ? Noel.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Personal tracking is easily avoided, but removal of the power, or screening, is not a lot of good if you need to avoid the call being listened to or recorded.

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by John Baron on 03/04/2021 09:33:39:

Posted by V8Eng on 28/03/2021 23:14:25:

Apparently we might be getting listened to whilst on our phones.

Who’s listening

What ever makes you think that the UK, USA and other countries don't listen in ! We have GCHQ and have been spying on ourselves and others for years ! Mobile phones and computers just make it easier ! Why do you think that strong encryption is considered a weapon in the US and unlawful not to give up passwords here in the UK.

John, though highlighting such points of equivalence is always laudable, I think we should be careful to remember the dissimilarities too.

What is crucial is not merely the level of surveillance a country's citizens are exposed to but the consequences for them of that surveillance – specifically whether legal protections are in place against injustice, particularly state injustice, arising from that surveillance. It essentially boils down to how free or how repressive the society you live in is.

There may not be that much difference between the amount of surveillance different countries expose their citizens to, but there is a world of difference between the sort of life that surveillance allows people of different countries to lead.

For anyone who is interested, a useful working comparison can be had by looking here and here:

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49585682

Reassuring?

Or not?

Google certainly has a horrid habit of deciding I am 'into' a subject because I search for it and maybe follow a suggested link.

It ends up sending me so many suggestions on a subject that I block it, even though I am interested in it. Currently, it thinks I am obsessed with painting and decorating – I am, but I don't want to read arti8cles about it, I'm just looking for good deals.

I looked up a couple of recipes for bread, months ago, and for weeks it was sending me recipe suggestions.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

That is reassuring regarding the 'phones, but in any case I have always asked myself three questions:

1) Do the UK security services really have the time, ability and wish to track my 'phone use beyond whatever service-records might be kept anyway? (BT landline and a basic portable on PAYG)

(Probably not)

2) Am I doing anything or do I knowngly have any connections with villains, that might arouse enough suspicion?

(No)

3) Who would gain the more, and be the more worrying to me, from spying on me – the State or some wretched advertising-agency)

(The ad people.)

I started my working ;life as an apprentice with what was then called Post Office Telephones. We all had to sign the Official Secrets Act, and re-sign it on leaving, because every private phone call or written communication, even your blandest family exchanges, was accorded that level of privacy.

Further, although it was something in which I was never involved, telephone interception for the Police required very high-level permission indeed before the request could be made. (Not "tapping" please – that is either an Americanism in this context, or something we do to metal.)

Whether the huge US corporations who have taken over the Internet, or the Chinese spooks discovering it was Aunty Beth in Bognor's birthday yesterday, would be troubled by such niceties, is another matter. Let's be honest, a hell of a lot of those wedded to so-called "smart-'phones, eavesdroppers like Alexa and their Facebook accounts have such a low opinion of their own privacy and security, they can't really complain. No-one forced them to buy those or open a Facebook account.

Right, lunch-break over… I've a Bracket, Boiler-mounting, Mk3 (offside) to fabricate.

[Rex HanmanParticipant @rexhanman57403]

I have no interest in gardening, I just cut the grass. My partner however does a wonderful job with flower tubs and hanging baskets. I have never looked at anything garden related on Youtube.

Today she was having a discussion on the telephone about re using the soil in her tubs.

In less than an hour I went on Youtube and "recommended for me" was a video entitled "Should I re use the soil in my tubs?"

Other gardening related videos then appeared.

It does make you wonder!!!

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Timely read at link below, a CBC report "surveillance capitalism".

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/surveillance-capitalism-who-is-watching-us-online-and-why-1.5791546

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Posted by Rex Hanman on 05/04/2021 17:38:41:

I have no interest in gardening, I just cut the grass. My partner however does a wonderful job with flower tubs and hanging baskets. I have never looked at anything garden related on Youtube.

Today she was having a discussion on the telephone about re using the soil in her tubs.

In less than an hour I went on Youtube and "recommended for me" was a video entitled "Should I re use the soil in my tubs?"

Other gardening related videos then appeared.

It does make you wonder!!!

Maybe it's not your phone that's listening maybe it's the TV

H

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

YouTube is owned by Google, isn't it?

At the foot of the CBC item, is this, in a few paragraphs about submitting comments to it:

" By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses. "

No further questions. m'lud.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Some interesting reading : **LINK**

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/home-office-immigration-data

MichaelG.

[Author]

Posts