Iphone is getting a little scary

J

JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Right Seater
I didn't mind too much when I started noticing that I would often get in my truck after running a few errands, and the iphone would alert me of the distance and time to get home. It never seemed to do it unless I was actually ready to go home and I never knew how it knew that, but it would not be too difficult to guess.

Then it didn't surprise me too much recently when a couple of times I got in my truck at home to go to the gym, and the alert gave me distance and time to get to the gym. After all, I go there almost every day, so that is not too hard to predict. It also correctly predicted I was going to the library a couple of times, but again, I go the library almost every Tuesday morning so that is somewhat predictable, even though I often go other places first.

But the other day, I called my audiologist (on my iphone) because my hearing aids were starting to cause ear pain. She said to come right in, so I got in my truck and the damn iphone alerted me with distance and time to get to the audiologist. HOW DID IT KNOW THAT WAS WHERE I WAS GOING, unless it was listening to my phone call? I only go there a few times a year and appointments always vary by day and time.
 
Did she (or her automated appointment system) send you an email or calendar event?

I doubt any iPhone is secretly listening to your phone calls. Not apples thing.

Additionally, the data just isn’t that useful or valuable. Voice is a pain in the ass to process and is energy intensive. Tends to generate a lot of noise that actually degrades your data.

Your digital trail on the internet, Facebook, email, applications, purchases, location movements, credit history, etc are by far all more valuable. No point in trying to secretly analyze your phone calls. Too much risk for Apple with zero benefit.
 
JOhnH said:
...But the other day, I called my audiologist (on my iphone) because my hearing aids were starting to cause ear pain. She said to come right in, so I got in my truck and the damn iphone alerted me with distance and time to get to the audiologist. HOW DID IT KNOW THAT WAS WHERE I WAS GOING, unless it was listening to my phone call? I only go there a few times a year and appointments always vary by day and time.
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It just tied the phone number to your audiologists business address. And presumed when your Bluetooth in the truck connected that might be where you were headed.

My patterns must be too unpredictable because I don't get too many of those prompts, but my iPhone will, every workday evening when I get in my truck at the office, helpfully prompt me with the distance to my home. And always via the same, much longer route than I take. Some technology "improvements" are just a waste of time and money.
 
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jesse said:
Did she (or her automated appointment system) send you an email or calendar event?
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No. She just said to come right on in. Didn't even make an appointment. (By the way, my audiologist is a Doctor. ;) )

I doubt any iPhone is secretly listening to your phone calls. Not apples thing.

Additionally, the data just isn’t that useful or valuable. Voice is a pain in the ass to process and is energy intensive. Tends to generate a lot of noise that actually degrades your data.

Your digital trail on the internet, Facebook, email, applications, purchases, location movements, credit history, etc are by far all more valuable. No point in trying to secretly analyze your phone calls. Too much risk for Apple with zero benefit.
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I'd like to believe you. But I am at a loss on how to explain it.
 
I run mine in low power mode exclusively so all that garbage is turned off.
 
GRG55 said:
It just tied the phone number to your audiologists business address. And presumed when your Bluetooth in the truck connected that might be where you were headed.
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That makes some sense I guess. But it still seems a little too intrusive. I share nothing on facebook or other social media (except POA and Beechtalk).
 
Craig said:
I run mine in low power mode exclusively so all that garbage is turned off.
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I do that occasionally, but then every time I charge the thing, it turns Low-Power-Mode off. Is there a way to disable that feature?
 
Takes a little digging but you can disable much of that creepiness out of it. Still more trust worthy than a google phone
 
My Navigation app knows where I'm heading about 75% of the time when I connect it to the car. Especially, going back and forth from work I don't even select the destination anymore. It will say "You Heading to Work?" and if I leave it alone, it will automatically start the navigation.

I've noticed Google Maps has started highlighting the businesses I visit the most. The feature I like is that it will tie in reservations or meetings that it's read from your emails. I stepped off the plane in D.C. and it already had listed which train to catch.
 
Haven't found any way yet John. I put mine in low power when I disconnect the cord as a habit.
 
James331 said:
Takes a little digging but you can disable much of that creepiness out of it. Still more trust worthy than a google phone
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Why do you say that? What does google do that Apple doesn't?

I'm not being argumentative here.
 
With my brief experience in google phones, everything is interconnected and linked to your google account

Also google is very much a statist, and has historically given user information much more easily than apple.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Why do you say that? What does google do that Apple doesn't?

I'm not being argumentative here.
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Been a Chrome user on my laptop for a long tine. The new pop-up crap is just irritatingly annoying, and indicative of Googles inclinations towards its users. I had to call my IT guy to figure out how to turn that garbage off. I have a low tolerance level for software that tries to be smarter than the user.

Apple is doing it too, but (so far) not quite as intrusively (then again maybe theirs runs in the background in stealth mode and I'm just being naive).
 
GRG55 said:
Been a Chrome user on my laptop for a long tine. The new pop-up crap is just irritatingly annoying, and indicative of Googles inclinations towards its users. I had to call my IT guy to figure out how to turn that garbage off. I have a low tolerance level for software that tries to be smarter than the user.

Apple is doing it too, but (so far) not quite as intrusively (then again maybe theirs runs in the background in stealth mode and I'm just being naive).
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I'm sorry, but what new pop-up crap? I've only noticed it on youtube. That may be part of my naivete. About the only other annoyance is something called "bixby" that keeps wanting to install itself on my phone.
 
My Apple gear has been getting the Browser Hijack crap recently. None of my browsing habits have changed. But I'm getting "Congratulations!" take overs of various types daily.
 
Unit74 said:
My Apple gear has been getting the Browser Hijack crap recently. None of my browsing habits have changed. But I'm getting "Congratulations!" take overs of various types daily.
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My IPad has been getting that recently as well. I use Apple stuff to specifically avoide this kind of thing.
I hope they figure out how to stop it quickly or make it obvious how not allow it.
 
A while back my smart phone started calling me "Dave"....I told it to stop or I would start calling it "Hal".... It did for a couple weeks, but now it is calling me Dave again.....
 
You might go into settings> privacy > location services > system services and turn off the location based suggestions and “significant locations”. That is what allows your phone to “provide useful location related information”. They claim the locations are encrypted and cant be read by apple.
 
The other thing Siri on the iPad is doing is putting apps on your dock when it notices you use them at a certain time. I.e. it figured out I checked work e-mail on Outlook first thing in the morning, so Outlook started showing up on my dock where you normally see the three most recently used apps. There is a little clock badge on the icon to indicate Siri put it there for you. According to Apple’s site, it cannot be disabled.
 
Van Johnston said:
The other thing Siri on the iPad is doing is putting apps on your dock when it notices you use them at a certain time. I.e. it figured out I checked work e-mail on Outlook first thing in the morning, so Outlook started showing up on my dock where you normally see the three most recently used apps. There is a little clock badge on the icon to indicate Siri put it there for you. According to Apple’s site, it cannot be disabled.
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Mine stopped that (for now). I don't know it it was an iOS update that stopped it, or simply changing up apps such that I confused it sufficiently that it stopped. I find it annoying, too. I don't even have Siri turned on.

James331 said:
With my brief experience in google phones, everything is interconnected and linked to your google account

Also google is very much a statist, and has historically given user information much more easily than apple.
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Ah, I see. I do see your points. I have an iPhone for work with unlimited data, and so I tend to use google apps (maps, news, and so forth) through that phone without signing in. I only use e-mail on my personal phone.

Unit74 said:
My Apple gear has been getting the Browser Hijack crap recently. None of my browsing habits have changed. But I'm getting "Congratulations!" take overs of various types daily.
Click to expand...

brcase said:
My IPad has been getting that recently as well. I use Apple stuff to specifically avoide this kind of thing.
I hope they figure out how to stop it quickly or make it obvious how not allow it.
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I have only seen it (so far) on three sites using the iOS browser. I'm pretty sure it is some scammy advertiser, and I stopped visiting those sites. I also have chrome on my iPad, I wonder if using their incognito mode may help. I agree that I hope Apple puts a stop to it as well.
 
Fox News as where I was getting it.....
 
Craig said:
I run mine in low power mode exclusively so all that garbage is turned off.
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Sort of like flying with the flaps full down all the time.
 
Zeldman said:
A while back my smart phone started calling me "Dave"....I told it to stop or I would start calling it "Hal".... It did for a couple weeks, but now it is calling me Dave again.....
Click to expand...

Sorry Dave...

...knowing Zeldman has an Asian wife and like... nevermind. She's Korean, right?
 
Salty said:
Sort of like flying with the flaps full down all the time.
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No, sort of like running at 23 squared instead of 2500 and full throttle. Really makes a difference in range. Battery life is WAAAY better if you use low power exclusively especially when you spend 4 hours at a time in the cockpit.
 
RyanShort1 said:
No, sort of like running at 23 squared instead of 2500 and full throttle. Really makes a difference in range. Battery life is WAAAY better if you use low power exclusively especially when you spend 4 hours at a time in the cockpit.
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Luv u man
 
Cap'n Jack said:
About the only other annoyance is something called "bixby" that keeps wanting to install itself on my phone.
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I believe Bixby is Samsung's version of Siri, Alexa, etc. Not a Google product.

Just don't make him mad... he may turn green.
 
Skyrys62 said:
I believe Bixby is Samsung's version of Siri, Alexa, etc. Not a Google product.

Just don't make him mad... he may turn green.
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Thanks for that- I don't enable any of those CPU clock-cycle, battery wasting apps such as Siri.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Thanks for that- I don't enable any of those CPU clock-cycle, battery wasting apps such as Siri.
Click to expand...

One thing I like about the Samsung phone I have is that with a couple apps from the app store you can totally disable any app on the phone(really, any of them, I disabled the launcher accidentally once) without needing root or a custom ROM. It doesn't free up space, but I never have to worry about accidentally invoking Bixby or any of the other Samsung crapware.
 
Salty said:
Sort of like flying with the flaps full down all the time.
Click to expand...

Actually, I have no use for most of the crap it disables. I don't need voice command since my truck is loud enough in the cab to continually set it off, don't need the GPS or the mapping to tell me where to go and darn sure don't need the phone to keep checking for software updates every 15 minutes or whatever the cycle is. Don't need a continually updating news feed or stock ticker either.
I'm on limited data plan right now and all that crap eats at the allowable data.
 
Android actually allows almost all the Google spyware and much of the manufacturer and carrier spyware to be disabled, without root, at the cost of whatever functionality it would have offered. It does require drilling pretty deep and making changes both on the phone and in the associated Google account.

At this point the only Google service I have enabled is Google Play Services, and only because it's necessary for some of the other apps to work. Even the Google App itself is disabled, along with whatever its assistant is called.

One of the last services that I disabled was Google Maps when it started prompting me to leave reviews of stores I'd just visited. I don't miss it because I use the TomTom app, which works better anyway and isn't dependent on Google Maps. But it illustrates one of the ways Google shoots itself in the foot by creeping people out. I'd known, of course, that Google was tracking my whereabouts; but until they got creepy and started reminding me, I didn't really care if they knew I'd gone to Sam's Club or Price Chopper. Asking for reviews, however, was over the line. That made it more of an active sort of snooping than a passive one.

Manufacturer and carrier crapware may or may not be easy to disable without root. On Motorola and LG phones on AT&T, I haven't had any problems other than whatever space Facebook is taking up. I can disable it, but not uninstall it, without root. It's not worth the hassle of rooting the phone just for that.

Rich
 
Interesting. The only prompts I get are for calendar appointments where I give it an address in the "location" field. Those are actually quite welcome. But if it started giving me ETAs and directions to some random business I just talked to for the first time 10 minutes ago... yeah, that would be creepy.
 
Skyrys62 said:
I believe Bixby is Samsung's version of Siri, Alexa, etc. Not a Google product.

Just don't make him mad... he may turn green.
Click to expand...
Bixby is in my tv. "She" doesn't do anything unless you hold down the microphone button and talk to her.
 
flhrci said:
Bixby is in my tv. "She" doesn't do anything unless you hold down the microphone button and talk to her.
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I never use Bixby or Alexa on my phone, but I use it on the TV all the time.
 
A1Topgun said:
Do you think you might be paranoid?

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Well... If he was live-streaming, then of course Google was listening.

That should not be construed as my defending Google, by the way, because I hate them with a passion; but when live-streaming (or when you upload YouTube video, use Google Voice, use Gmail, etc.), you're giving them permission to mine your data. It's buried somewhere in their bazillion-page Terms of Service.

Now, if they were listening in when not authorized, I'd be out looking for tar and feathers. I also wonder how they justify mining Gmail for data if only one of the parties has a Google account and has therefore given consent.

Another thing that annoys me is that I'm opted-out of targeted Google advertising in every way possible, but I still get targeted ads from Google. They even cross devices and user accounts. If I search for something on one device, I'll get ads for that something on all devices; and if my house guests search for something on their devices while using my WiFi, I'll get ads for the stuff they searched for.

I suspect that's also the source of most of the videos that YouTube recommends for me, almost none of which are of any interest to me nor in any way relate to any of the videos I've actually watched.

Ironically, I'm convinced that it's also the reason why Adsense revenue for most publishers took a nosedive after Google switched from a purely-contextual ad-selection algorithm to one that incorporated user history. Many computers have multiple users who don't necessarily use separate accounts on the computer, and many WiFi networks have multiple clients.

Consequently, for all the user tracking Google does, the ads are less relevant than they were when they were purely contextual. Users are seeing ads that were selected based on other users' interests, rather than being based on the subject matter of the publishers' sites.

The really creepy thing about that is that Google pays two-thirds of click revenue to the publishers; so if the publishers' revenues have fallen, then so has Google's. But it doesn't seem to faze them. I have to believe that they're making it up somewhere else. Maybe they no longer look at Adsense so much as a source of direct revenue as another datamining method. If people click the ads, fine. But if not, they're still gathering user data by way of the Adsense code on the sites.

I still technically am an Adsense publisher, by the way. I was one of the first. I keep hoping that they'll come to their senses some day either because they see the light or because they're forced to. But I'm not holding my breath.

One rather amusing thing about that is that I occasionally get revenue from pages that people plagiarized -- including the ad code -- back when I was still an active publisher. Most of them are from sites that I've shut down, and the plagiarized versions' domains aren't anywhere in Google's program; but I still get revenue on them when people click the ads. Go figger.

A lot of people tell me I'm crazy when I say that Google is the worst thing ever to happen to the Web. Not only have they destroyed whatever semblance of privacy used to exist on the Web, but they've made the entire profession of Web development collective whores for Google. Rather than focusing on creating great content for humans, authors now have to focus on how to please Google's robots. As a result, Google Search has become less relevant and useful because the SERPs represent the best SEO rather than the best content.

As for Apple, I always considered their stuff overpriced, and I detest their extreme efforts to make their devices impossible to upgrade and difficult to service. But in terms of their privacy practices, they're light years better than Google.

Rich
 
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