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Interesting. A few hours ago I had a nice domestic conversation with my coleague about robot vacuum cleaners. He was talking about iRobot Roomba and I was talking about Xiaomi. Here's the result!

Interesting thing is that we talked in a *voice* conversation. Over Slack. Over Chrome. Over corporate VPN (openconnect).

Where's the spying link? Slack or Chrome?

My bet's on Chrome.

What does that tell you about the privacy of your sensitive conversations? :)
Hide behind VPNs all you like. If you have proprietary software (or hardware in the case of Huawei) - you're being watched and listened to.

EDIT: I'm on Linux, he's on MacOS

Comments
  • 10
    It's both.

    And zoom.

    Don't forget about your phone that's sitting on the desk next to you.

    Also Alexa, Google dot.

    While you're at it let's throw Windows in just for good measure.

    I don't think many people fully comprehend how damaged our privacy is. It's to the point that I want to build a phone case that is 100% sealed. No speaker, no microphone, no camera (maybe with slider).

    I wear a headset 80% of the day. I also have my phone connected to my home phone over BT.

    I could get away with never using the audio part of my phone, but I really don't want to physically remove those parts. I'm pretty sure most manufacturers will prohibit the continued operation without those components.

    Break out the tin foil buddy and welcome to the club.
  • 4
    How did he manage to disable your adblock? Madness!
  • 2
    @sariel I ruled out my phone because I use different google accounts for my phone and my work laptop
  • 2
    @electrineer I don't use adblocks [except for youtube]. I prefer NotScript/ScriptSafe.
  • 7
    @netikras if your phone and other devices are connected to the same network it's pointless.

    I get crazy trumper bullshit recommendations every time family visits, and for obvious reasons politics are never spoken.
  • 3
    I mean... machine learning could be guessing that based on all other things than just a simple conversation though. I would imagine that is illegal.

    Google do know you're a developer, your age, relationship status, if you have kids... Developer age 20-50 with a job, ye they probably want a Roomba.

    A coincidence might be just that.
  • 1
    what about your phones?
  • 4
    @RakNoel it's never a coincidence.

    Test the theory. Talk about something that is uncharacteristic of you with someone else.

    You will see.
  • 6
    @sariel > "Test the theory."

    My teenage daughter is getting introduced to the classic movies, Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future etc.

    Talking with my son, she said she wanted something more teenage-girl-ish, so he suggested the Hunger Games series. Never looked/searched for it online, just talked about it.

    That night, they turned on Hulu and the first movie recommendation was the Hunger Games.

    Freaked everyone out.
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