I have said, on occasion, a couple of things which I meant to be a little speculative:
- It’s not that your phone is listening to you; it’s that everyone’s phone and gadget are listening to you
- Companies are going to break privacy laws, covenants, and mores and are willing to pay a little fine if they get caught
Pixy’s Daily Tech News for May 11, 2025 links to this Please Donate story: Google will pay Texas $1.4B to settle claims the company collected users’ data without permission:
The agreement settles several claims Texas made against the search giant in 2022 related to geolocation, incognito searches and biometric data. The state argued Google was “unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data.”
Paxton claimed, for example, that Google collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, through such products and services as Google Photos and Google Assistant.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the agreement settles an array of “old claims,” some of which relate to product policies the company has already changed.
Do you think they were just looking at those voiceprints, or do you think they were globally matching voices with spoken text from any recording or open mic everywhere? If not, why not?