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Google AI leaks "scarily accurate and very specific" game detail from private documents, says indie dev: "I had never told the name to anyone" (www.gamesradar.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/pcmasterrace@lemmy.world
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[–] 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

Earlier this year the FBI, desperate to to make Kash Patel look competent, released video in the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping that shouldn't have existed, but for Guthrie's porch camera spying on her via Google, and then fortuitously capturing some footage of her kidnapper.

Any device with a camera, microphone and a wireless connection or bluetooth signal is almost certainly spying on you, and while most of that data is likely just used to train AI models, this case tells us it may also be harvested in government databases.

So yes, of course any data you actively give them is being harvested too. Be responsible with your tech.

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  • [–] 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 child)

    The united States circumvents your rights to privacy by buying bulk data from data brokers. Those data brokers buy that data from any and every little app on google play store. Something as inocculus as a Bible app is selling your location and meta data to Israel where they sift through the data.

    This also let's them bypass and get more data on you than the goverment is allowed to collect on you personally. Because its a private buisness they can collect and sell everything. The fact that some of these companies operate in Israel gives them even more ability to abuse your rights. There's a good reason why every major tech company employs someone from unit 8200 or is directly partnered with them.

    Unless you run the hardware, and install your own software you are fucked. And even then your open source whatever probably has a backdoor on its dependency for a dependency in the dependency.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    Any device with a camera, microphone and a wireless connection or bluetooth signal is almost certainly spying on you

    Is there any evidence you could point me to that this is actually happening? I'm mean with like a stock android phone and without the user actually activating mic or camera.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    stock android phone and without the user actually activating mic or camera.

    Assuming you're disabling the mic or camera in some way, either by getting into the phone's guts or storing it in a safe place, then it's certainly less of a consideration. Same with keeping the wireless connection off when you're not using it.

    I keep mine in a faraday bag for instance. The unwanted private surveillance can be largely avoided within your own space.

    If you're not using the mic or camera then the only data being collected is the data you actively put into it.

    I made a video this week about the case of a schoolteacher in Illinois who was arrested after making a joke about shooting a student in a Snapchat DM, for instance. The automated AI alert system that Snapchat uses alerted the FBI, who alerted the county sheriffs, who then arrested her.

    What made the Guthrie case stand out is that it was concrete proof from a government source that people are being surveilled without a warrant, and if it happened there, there's no reason to suspect it isn't happening everywhere.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

    wireless connection off when you're not using it.

    Cell tower signal can be used to triangulate you as long as the SIM card is powered. Do you trust your phone not to keep the SIM powered, even when "off"?

    WiFi and Bluetooth isn't even fully off when you disable it on stock Android unless you specifically tell it not to do "background scanning". This option is not displayed in the WiFi/BT settings, you have to visit the location services and turn it off there.

    Even then, do you trust that setting to actually be off?

    faraday bag

    Ah that's a solved issue. Process and/or store whatever you're collecting on device until signal returns, then upload. No problem.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago (1 child)

    It's more the fact that MAC addresses have an inherent ability to track you, and many such companion devices you might interact with are in fixed locations.

    Modern security conscious Wifi devices address this by randomising MAC addresses - they're no longer fixed for wifi. You can even configure different wifi networks to have randomised per-connection or per-network (default per-connection), so you can still set up MAC filtering easily.

    Bluetooth unfortunately requires fixed MAC addresses as a core part of its pairing functionality. What's more many connections can require you to provide bluetooth contact data - the same data used for covid contact tracing - eg Ford's implementation of Android Auto among others.

    So your car might not only be tracking you with its internal GPS and cellular 4G connection, it also wants to know wherever you go with your phone, based on the Bluetooth LE devices you ping.

    As such you should turn your bluetooth off whenever you're not using it.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago (1 child)

    Yeah okay, but MAC tracking is something else than a device using camera or microphone in the background without your explicit permission

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago

    Yeah with that they're likely talking about apps spying on you. That isn't really a phone thing, but pinning down exactly which apps do it is hard. Almost certainly it's Facebook apps (especially the hidden system apps they get manufacturers to install), wouldn't be surprised if reddit's app does some of that as well.

    Personally, I've not had that problem in years, but I run custom ROMs without gapps, and generally try to stick with FOSS apps. However it definitely is a thing where you have a conversation about something around your phone and then soon after see ads for that thing.

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