Do They Have Your Attention Now?: Hundreds Of Android Apps Silently Track Users With Ultrasounds

That filters out sounds above 18KHz...

Maybe they have secretly installed ultrasound pregnancy tests, LOL !

how and where they keep getting new porn films???

My wife uses Shopkick app, one of the 3 apps in the study. She collects "kicks" at retail stores by scanning certain product bar codes. She can then exchange the accumulated "kicks" for gift cards. She's been collecting approximately $30 in gift cards. Not a bad way to collect money while she shops. I have no problem being tracked.

Once again, this article supports the concept "NOTHING is really FREE".

I think that people are more upset with not knowing their activities are being tracked than they are with actually being tracked. If people have some feeling of control over, or some form of involvement with, this technology they are more likely to accept it.

It's funny, though, that people will download and install a free app, something they got for nothing, then get angry when the app tries to make money off them.

All my Android devices are rooted and have firewalls. For apps I find useful I have no problem paying $5 or so for the app. Maybe I've paid $80 over the years for apps that I have liked enough to use often enough. Besides, it's good karma.

Just curious, do you think paying for an app insulates you from this?

Not too long a go a TV program in Canada "Marketplace" wanted to test this. They CREATED an app and gave it away free to people.

Then they had the people they had given it to on the program and they were able to tell them all sorts of things they were doing including showing pictures from their phone of what they were doing. All kinds of sensitive information was available to them.

As an aside, recently I was doing some research looking for escorted tours to Australia and New Zealand. Well within a day I saw more info about what I was looking for presented to me on Google ads and on Yahoo mail. So what I'm saying in this day and age NO ONE is immune anymore.

"You can't hack a typewriter."

Remember the ribbons.. Folks used to take them off and read them

Along with Big Momma and Big Daddy have their eyes on you!

Anyone send their DNA in yet to be tested to see where they are from genealogically? What happens to those 'samples' when the lab is done with them??? Hmmmmm!!!

Congrats. You've paid to get screwed while I'm screwed free of charge Actually, I've made almost $100 now from a few reward apps such as Shopkick.

my iPhone constantly "listens" for me to say "Hey Siri". Which means, it must record and process every sound in the room to respond if it matches those words, spoken by me. Presumably that's all it does with that data...

I've turned that off on my android. Not only is it a privacy nightmare, but it destroys the battery charge.

That said, who has Google Home, Alexa, or similar? That's even worse. Smart TV? Yep, them too... microphones, and cameras.

Bona fide ***Tin Foil Hat dinosaurs always take the ribbon with them.

From 'Kingsman, the Secret Service". Samuel L. Jackson was the bad guy in the movie and the quote he uttered was something along the lines of 'You know what I like about pen and paper? You can't hack this s**t." Just make sure you shred the crap out of it and burn it with a plasma torch after you're done with it.

I don't have a Facebook account. Never had one and likely never will. However, my wife does have an account and whenever I research anything online she starts getting related ads on Facebook the next day. Looking at specialized deck screws? Yep, she gets ads. No matter what it is I'm looking up she gets ads for it on FB the next day. Definitely being tracked.

I understand that just because I pay for an app it doesn't insulate my privacy (although some paid apps have no internet access and no ads). Regardless of whether I pay for an app or not, my privacy comes first. That's where my rooted Android's firewall comes into play.

BTW I have only one game, a chess game. My phone is set up just the way I like it. I now install maybe one new app every six months. I never update an app before checking the permissions on the update, which means I refuse to update about 40 apps.

As you can see it's a little extra work to maintain your privacy. Most people won't bother.

Have you ever thought about writing a "How to Keep Your Phone Safe" book for the technologically challenged?

I know if I ever learn to read, i'd be appreciative