Is your phone listening to you… and should you care? 🔊🤫
What does privacy mean in 2025?
This week, we tackle a question that’s been plaguing us for years: are our smart devices recording us all the time? Most people have experienced the creepy feeling of getting ads that feel a little bit too targeted, for products they haven’t ever searched for but have maybe talked about IRL.
With Amazon announcing a rollback on some of its privacy protections, and the Trump administration ramping up mass surveillance as a scare tactic, it might be time to take stock of what privacy even means in this day and age. We spoke with Andrew Couts, senior editor of security and investigations at WIRED, to get a clear-eyed view of how voice-assisted tech actually works, and why you should care.
(Apple, Spotify, YouTube, & Others)
Below is some related reading and watching:
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28 (Ars Technica)
Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking US Soldiers and Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels in Germany (WIRED)
And lastly, here’s Katy Perry’s strangely timely intro to the 2017 VMAs. Much to consider…
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Thanks and we’ll be back soon!
One of my most memorable episodes of Reply All is “#109 Is Facebook Spying on You”, I’m surprised you guys haven’t listened to that! It goes deep into the creepy ways that companies use various aspects of your digital data in a way that makes it feel like they’re listening to you. It’s a great listen!