@eff @jgkelley maybe this piece would be more convincing if it wasn’t in the #washingtonpost which just this week has been in the spotlight for silencing criticism of #bezos by their cartoonist… https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-quitting-the-washington-post

And one explanation by an expert isn’t accurate, saying that if your phone was constantly listening “you’d notice that your battery was running down quickly, and that companies wouldn’t waste the gobs of money it would cost to constantly listen in”. The problem is that this is exactly how all voice assistants work, they constantly listen and analyse what you say looking for the activation phrase (hey #Siri, ok #Google etc). And while yes, they probably aren’t recording and uploading *everything* you say, they could record, analyze and upload selected phrases (as text) without having much impact on the device battery or cost much money.

In theory, a company that’s built on selling #advertising data may feel compelled to listen in for a second activation phrase like “I want to buy” and then analyze the speech that follows into text and upload it. Which they could still claim “no one listens to your conversations”. Of course this is pure speculation but it’s to demonstrate that it wouldn’t be noticeable to the end user or expensive for the company.

#Apple paying a huge #settlement doesn’t mean they’re guilty but probably means they don’t have much to gain by proving their innocence and probably a lot more to lose by being put under the microscope.