It's the Google searches and browsing history not the camera. That and/or coincidence. The camera is not always watching. Phone OS's are very sensitive and transparent as to what app is using the camera or microphone and making sure it has permission to do so. And Google and Apple are not secretly camera spying for targeted advertising.
Several search engines HAVE in fact admitted to using passive voice recording applications for reasons they said were "to better target consumers for ad placement".
Alexa, while not a traditional search engine, insists they do not allow mysterious woo woo big brother uses for those recordings.
That said, there remains wide latitude for "law enforcement"
(used now in quotes given our mafia fascist police state today) to force access when DoJ signs off on national security or federal felony investigation purposes.
The takeaway however, is that these applications focus on "key words" and not entire conversations, the amount of bandwidth required to sift through entire convos by hundreds of millions of users would be insane. Or let's just say "expensive" instead, because in the end that is what counts for business.
The processing power to actually do so resides mostly in the Federal Government but again, we are talking about record setting processor power and insane bandwidth use.
Now, large AI data centers are indeed being built and it is no secret that work is in progress to make that less taxing. It remains to be seen how business tries to position itself,
and given our situation today, the idea of partnering with what passes for a government is not out of the realm of possibility.
That's digital fascism, isn't it?
And don't forget,
states have been eavesdropping electronically longer than many of you have been alive...EN MASSE.
Up to two thirds of East Germans were spying on each other at some level in service to the state.
I wish I knew more about programming to speak with more intelligence about this but sadly I spent my life using tools for creative purposes, not designing or inventing them.
After nearly forty years in a very satisfying occupation in film and video I am now once again a dinosaur, technologically speaking.
I managed to avoid extinction when media switched from analog to digital in the Nineties but as of about 2018 or 2019 I've been pretty much put out to pasture
to play music and play with classic cars instead.
Could be worse.
If we are talking about VIDEO, now you HAVE to have a specific cost justification.
The capability exists but again, now we're talking real money, there has to be a reason to tax existing video applications for furtive purposes on a wide scale.
But further to the point, both Apple and Android seem to lack the ability to engage a camera without showing a display to the user.
We have seen that it is theoretically possible to hack into microphones and cameras for passive recording purposes over the internet however when it comes to a phone, I may be wrong, but I do not believe it's possible to trigger photo or video without it being obvious to the user.
Applications must ask permission to access these devices.
So what's the score on the "back door" ?
Anyone? Anyone?
