Is your phone listening to you right now…? - with Jag Sharma, Host of Disconnected - Episode 1
We all have a story that goes much like this: you talk to a friend about a product, then hours or days later the adverts served to you are flooded with the very same product.
Where these two events have coincided so often, it’s given rise to the concern that our phones are always listening to us. So are big tech companies always eavesdropping, or could the truth be even more sinister?
Join me for the series premiere of Disconnected, where I unveil all the connections and data collection that your phone facilitates with intimidating regularity. How can we control our information? Who has access to it? And when we turn our phones off at night, are they really off…?
This episode of Disconnected covers:
When our phones are really listening to us
How mobile towers use signal strength to triangulate your position
Location tracking through proximity to WiFi
The hidden mission of the Google Street View vehicle
Addressing the inequality of exchange between us and phone manufacturers
Episode Highlights:
“When the screen is off, you may think that the phone is doing nothing. But radio frequency emissions are invisible, and your phone is constantly shouting out to the nearest tower, letting the tower know that it's there, saying ‘Here I am. Don't forget about me. I'm right here.’” - 3:05 - Jag Sharma
“Once it's established which tower is closest to your phone at that moment, that tower makes a permanent note that this phone handset with this phone number at this time was connected to the world through me. Based on your handset and number, it's not difficult to figure out your identity, the movements of your phone or the movements of you as a person.” - 6:00 - Jag Sharma
“It's not just our phones that have unique identifiers that track our location; your wireless internet modem at home, the wireless internet in your office, the free WiFi at your local coffee shop - all wireless internet modems have a globally unique identifier in them. And all WiFi networks get mapped because they themselves are broadcasting in the air.” - 10:15 - Jag Sharma
“A person visiting your store doesn't even have to be connected to your WiFi network for Facebook to know that they were in your store. Because the funny thing about our smartphones is that they are always checking what WiFi networks are available.” - 13:25 - Jag Sharma
“In our modern day smartphones, we can't take the battery out. So even if you turn the phone off, there is no sure way to definitely know that your phone is still not sending signals about its location.” - 16:00 - Jag Sharma
“We pay a lot of money for these phones, yet we don't get the information on what our phones, our property, is doing quietly in the background. They can see what you're doing, where you are, and do whatever they want with it. You, on the other hand, have nothing other than the privilege to use the phone network in exchange for giving everything up about yourself. ” - 17:55 - Jag Sharma
“Algorithms gorge on data about you every second. What kind of links do you click on? What videos do you watch, and which ones do you watch all the way through? How quickly are you moving from one thing to the next? Where are you when you do these things? Who are you connecting with in person and online? What facial expressions do you make?” - 24:30 - Jag Sharma