Do Moto X phones always listen in on owners?

[bobbysteels216]

I have acqaintance who is concerned about the Moto X (and the rest of the current crop of Motorola phones) were always listening in on the banter in the phone's environment and reporting it to Google or the NSA in a worst case scenario. I own a Moto X and while I am not as big of a conspiracy theorist as my acquaintance I would to know is there any way to detect if the phone constantly listens in to conversations and reports them now that root has been achieved? I am still going to love the phone regardless, just wondering.

Edit: Mods feel free to move this to Moto X Q & A, I just thought the general thread was a better fit.

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[mentose457]

Maybe you should constantly talk about blowing stuff up and see if the NSA comes knocking at your door?

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[rubiksmoose]

For a non-sarcastic response:
No it is not going to be recording or sending your voice anywhere it would take a lot of resources. It is listening to your voice for a specific keyword which then activates Google Voice actions. That is all. No need for concern.

At least not compared to any other phone. There were reports that the NSA could hack into any phone to activate the mike so take that as you will.

 

[scorpion667]

If you own any of these devices:
-desktop
-laptop
-smartphone
-tablet

expect zero privacy at all times.

 

[roadkizzle]

To attempt a productive answer to the OP, I do not believe that the phone is constantly paying attention to what you are saying, but is just looking for a specific wave pattern to trigger on.

Current voice commands are only able to function by sending the electronic information of your voice to high powered servers to decifer the voice patterns. This is why for Voice Search or Siri to function you must have internet access, and why Siri was so unpredictable in the beginning because Apple didn't have enough servers to handle everyone making their queries.

But, the first thing I did with my Moto X is turn it on Airplane mode without connecting to any Wi-Fi. I was then able to get my Moto X to recognize the trigger phrase "OK, Google Now" and my phone turned on but then gave me a message saying that it couldn't detect any internet connection and I would have to enable one before it could understand me any further.

This seems to me that the phone cannot recognize anything other than the trigger phrase and I think it would take to many resources, battery life, and data for it to be constantly sending and receiving data from Google's voice computation servers.

 

[thedosbox]

I have acqaintance who is concerned about the Moto X (and the rest of the current crop of Motorola phones) were always listening in on the banter in the phone's environment and reporting it to Google or the NSA in a worst case scenario.

Why does your "acquaintance" think this applies only to Motorola phones? ANY device with a microphone is a potential listening point for the spooks.

 

[bobbysteels216]

Maybe you should constantly talk about blowing stuff up and see if the NSA comes knocking at your door?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4

Maybe you should have read the OP instead of simply looking at the title or skimming the OP before replying with an unwarranted, soporific reply, yes?

If you own any of these devices:
-desktop
-laptop
-smartphone
-tablet

expect zero privacy at all times.

I would try these angles being a fluent speaker of sarcasm myself but with them working in the engineering field for a living they have tunnelvision and can only register non-sarcastic logic, them being 50+ and a conspiracy theory nut by nature only make matters worse, and I try to respect my elders.

There were reports that the NSA could hack into any phone to activate the mike so take that as you will.

Do you happen to know of a link where this is mentioned?

Edit: Nevermind, I found one.

To attempt a productive answer to the OP, I do not believe that the phone is constantly paying attention to what you are saying, but is just looking for a specific wave pattern to trigger on.

This makes sense.

Current voice commands are only able to function by sending the electronic information of your voice to high powered servers to decifer the voice patterns. This is why for Voice Search or Siri to function you must have internet access, and why Siri was so unpredictable in the beginning because Apple didn't have enough servers to handle everyone making their queries.

But I tried putting the phone in airplane mode and speaking into the microphone after pushing the microphone button on the keyboard in a notepad app and the phone was able to convert my speech into the the appropriate words at a mesmerizingly fast rate without a data connection hence the voice recognition for the 'OK Google Now' is initially handled from the phone side. Granted I did check the option for Motorola to 'learn' my speech for better recognition but this is just more proof that the phone can handle voice recognition without data connection.

But, the first thing I did with my Moto X is turn it on Airplane mode without connecting to any Wi-Fi. I was then able to get my Moto X to recognize the trigger phrase "OK, Google Now" and my phone turned on but then gave me a message saying that it couldn't detect any internet connection and I would have to enable one before it could understand me any further.

Ok that explains how the phone has to connect Google's voice recognition server to respond to speech in context but it does not address that the phone can recognize voice on it's own without a data connection.

This seems to me that the phone cannot recognize anything other than the trigger phrase and I think it would take to many resources, battery life, and data for it to be constantly sending and receiving data from Google's voice computation servers.

I agree. My acquaintance's assertion is that text requires a negligible amount of RAM to store and an even more negligible amount to send over the internet provided that the data is compressed, they assert that even voice can be compressed to negligible amounts, buffered, then uploaded during processing lulls.

Why does your "acquaintance" think this applies only to Motorola phones?

Let me look into my crystal ball and find that out for you...

ANY device with a microphone is a potential listening point for the spooks.

How is that so? I am not sure I understand your use of the word spook in that context.

Sent from my Moto X

 

[thedosbox]

them being 50+ and a conspiracy theory nut by nature only make matters worse, and I try to respect my elders.

Don't waste your time. Such people have a tendency to double down on their beliefs, even when faced with facts.

How is that so? I am not sure I understand your use of the word spook in that context.

Microphones are connected to some sort of hardware with recording capability. Nowadays, that usually means some sort of computing device onto which software can be surreptitiously loaded by the aforementioned "spooks" (aka NSA/MI6/KGB/Illuminati/Martians etc).

 

[bobbysteels216]

Don't waste your time. Such people have a tendency to double down on their beliefs, even when faced with facts.



Microphones are connected to some sort of hardware with recording capability. Nowadays, that usually means some sort of computing device onto which software can be surreptitiously loaded by the aforementioned "spooks" (aka NSA/MI6/KGB/Illuminati/Martians etc).

Haha I gotcha, thanks.

Sent from my Moto X

 

[knucklesmckay]

Any device that has a microphone and internet can be used as a listening and information gathering device. For instance the dropbox and usage stats folder in the android system under data/system, are constantly being filled with data that is uploaded to unknown locations. Imagine what apps and processes connected to microphones are doing. Full privacy does not exist on mobile devices or computers these days.

Side note you can deny permissions to those folders with a root explorer.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[scorpion667]

"I would try these angles being a fluent speaker of sarcasm myself but with them working in the engineering field for a living they have tunnelvision and can only register non-sarcastic logic, them being 50+ and a conspiracy theory nut by nature only make matters worse, and I try to respect my elders."

I was not being sarcastic. The claims I make are widely available to the public via wikileaks and various other sources. Unless those sources are IP blocked in your country. There is no conspiracy theory here, just spreading knowledge =)

For example, here are 249 surveillance technologies, some of which are used to collect private data from the general population: Source

 

[bobbysteels216]

"I would try these angles being a fluent speaker of sarcasm myself but with them working in the engineering field for a living they have tunnelvision and can only register non-sarcastic logic, them being 50+ and a conspiracy theory nut by nature only make matters worse, and I try to respect my elders."

I was not being sarcastic. The claims I make are widely available to the public via wikileaks and various other sources. Unless those sources are IP blocked in your country. There is no conspiracy theory here, just spreading knowledge =)

For example, here are 249 technologies used to spy on you as we speak: Source

Right it is just that they seem to believe that they can cover all bases with removed permissions. I do not disagree.

Sent from my Moto X