Can this be true if you use a device without any connection to the internet and no SIM card?

You’ve got the idea. There’s a bunch to unpack here:

• If the device is truly offline, your privacy is okay.
• But there’s lots of ugly ways vendors work around “being offline”
• Denying the device a SIM card means the device is not authorized to get online, but certain emergency services that require a network will work anyway. The SIM is to make sure we’re paying to be online, and is otherwise not actually needed to connect.

I mean could a hardware connect to some kind of network to send private information?

If you’re asking if it is possible to hide a secret antennae in an officially offline device, yes, absolutely.

I’ve heard privacy nerds theorize that these will become common in smart TVs, so the TV can phone the vendor with screenshots, even (especially) when playing pirated local media.

Because the basic thing is, it won’t expose your data if doesn’t leave your phone, right?

Exactly. And you’ve also caught the tricky bit - it’s hard to be 100% sure a device isn’t phoning home if the device is a closed proprietary (secret) design, running closed proprietary (secret) software.

I hope there’s early warning when Oracle goes bankrupt. I need time to go buy enough party supplies.

That’s probably not a viable economic decision though

Should still be a good deal for Motorola. There’s a bunch of folks now who buy whatever phone runs GrapheneOS best. Whichever company courts us gets our business.

I’m sure we’re not a landslide, but sometimes niche communities can still make a huge difference for a company.

Oh no!

I hope all the details are shared so that we can all carefully avoid doing the same to those music industry bas…s-fishing executives.

I never really fully stopped caring for them, but I don’t want to build my life with them.

An unexpected side effect is that I felt exultant when they found someone to build their life with. I sleep better knowing they are cared for.

Anytime I look back and think “what if”, I realize it would have been bad. We’re both better off separate from each-other.

And it hurt to be near each-other, so we don’t stay in close contact.

But none of that invaldiates all the wonderful things we know about each-other, better than most people do.

And it doesn’t stop us from celebrating each-other’s victories from a distance.

I’m baffled as to why you think that counts as a source.

I mean, just Google it. Microphone hacking is a thing. (Edit: You know what, Let me Google that for you.)

I only felt obligated to grab a link grabbed because folks keep repeating the misinformation that “no one is hacking your phone microphone, or it would be in the news”. It’s just not news anymore.

Android and iOS malware will try to grab stuff off of your microphone.

It’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s not news.

Malware actors do malware things, and sell whatever they can harvest.

No it’s not listening to you unless you explicitly gave an app permission to listen to you.

Is worth highlighting. Good point.

Here’s court cases lost by Google and Apple

Also, whenever monolithic megacorporations not recording you directly, virtually everyone is still buying any data about you they can get from actual malware distributing criminals.

Microphone hijacking is real and commonplace. (Edit: Fixed link thanks to some feedback.)

The malware vendors sell what they learn about us on black markets. And in net effect, everyone is buying from them.

They “Privacy Wash” the things they learn from the illegal recordings, by passing them from one disreputable broker to another. Each broker can keep poor quality records of exactly where they got their data. Pretty soon it’s just “part of your digital fingerprint” and “can’t be helped”.

Aside from devices that acknowledge theyre listening all the time there actually isnt any, for undisclosed data collection via microphone specifically. Research has, to my knowledge, never found that to be the case

Please stop quoting this misinformation.

Microphone hijacking is real, and it is common. The average user has been a victitm of it.

And in addition, Google and Apple effectively admitted to microphone abuse in court.

The first person to actually prove this whole mass spying via microphone to sell ads thing is actually happening, would be world-famous overnight.

The first person that proves that Google, Microsoft, Amazon or Meta are directly doing it, using their hardware vendors privilege - would be famous overnight.

But that won’t happen, because they don’t have to.

(Okay, it might still happen with Meta. I’m not sure those jackasses have any self respect.)

In general, the big vendors don’t need to listen to anyone’s microphone, because the average user installs a free flappy bird clone that runs the microphone continuously, and then sells that to absolutely every single limited liability corporation, coffee shop, or data broker - to correlate for advertising.

Saying “they’re not using the microphone” is splitting hairs to death.

Yes, a few of the biggest players can’t be arsed to directly use the microphone.

Instead they buy the result of malware microphone use indirectly from the malware pushers who do absolutely use the microphone.

Absolutely every tech company, employer and three letter agency is buying the content of your voice recordings through a form of Privacy Washing. They didn’t collect it themselves, and they didn’t look to closely at how it was collected, so it’s okay, right?

For the average user, whose kid installed some stupid little free games, yes, someone is almost certainly “listening” right now, and all the time.

But they’re not using it to decide who to arrest, who to deport, or who to hire or fire (for saying “union”), or whether you really need the salary you requested…unless they are.

And yes, finding out some of that would absolutely make the news, but those are harder to find out, and could go for decades undiscovered.

Yes. Every one in awhile someone marvels at a particularly good AI answer.

Even back in the days when the scam was the first chess robot, those moments were a sign that the “secret backdoor to let a real human take control” was in effect.

But nobody reads history, so they’re just amazed.

That output is from this guy named Sandeep. His work situation is stupid now. But yes, he’s a great programmer. (Edit: Evidence that the scam is alive, today.)

And no, sharing company secrets with him wasn’t wise.

But if I had to choose between some company’s well being, and Sandeep’s, I’m rooting for Sandeep, anyway.

Go sell some trade secrets, Sandeep. You’ve earned it.

Edit: Links added for those unfamiliar with the trick.

Holy shit. Stop building the Torment Nexus.

Yes. The best scene in one of the cube movies is when one of the characters admits he thoughtlessly helped build the thing.

That’s true, but they can still charge double by taking longer to fix the problem.

There’s going to be a lot of “# decrement this wait counter every time the boss demands a performance improvement” code in the near future.

Open class warfare isn’t a sustainable way to build infrastructure.

We’re on track to reach a point where nothing produced by the FANG companies ever works right.

Then we’ll see how long the public tolerates it for the comfort of the familiar.

Yes. Epstein taught us it’s also about running a large scale kidnapping and rape organization.

I sound like a broken record, but today, we need to be wary that very few of the Epstein class are proven to be innocent of being complicit in child abduction and rape.

Maybe that’s always been the case? I know the history of the ultra rich has never been nice.

Anyway I find it an important perspective when deciding how much to trust the rest of the messages out of the Epstein class.

Yes. That’s why “Epstein class” is such a fair description.

I just want to highlight this,

“The fact that he thinks typing out new code took so much effort basically means that he was never a decent programmer.”

Great point! This is a critical insight.

Like during the dotcom boom, new tools mean new people can program the computer who could not, before.

And just like during tht dotcom boom, they’ll soon find out that programming a computer - while very slightly easier than it was last year - still has challenges.

That’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Either they are even stupider than I thought, or the tech bros have some kind of massive blackmail machine they’re using to take over everything and puppet all the CEOs.

I think it’s a little of each.

The ones not being blackmailed are desperately trying to look like they’re impactful enough to blackmail.

Good point!

For others doing the same, there’s a little gear icon on the punisher page, with an option " Ignore this creator."

Edit: could also have been on the Publisher page, but I would check both.

Twenty years ago, we were speculating whether open source browsers would survive or catch on.

Now there aren’t any closed source browsers left.

Vendors will find other forms of lock in, anyway, of course.