Using cheap samsung android phone, ive noticed for the last few years and so have my friends, that whatever we discuss during out signall phonecall, appears very blatantly obvious on my youtube recommended feeds.
I thought Signal was supposed to be private and automatically sandboxed?
If it is, then google clearly bend their own rules and peer into the app.
Does this happen to you? what is the explanation?
PS The Official Signal Reddit sub removed my post thread when I asked this question there.
If anything is spying, I’d be more inclined to say it’s your keyboard than Signal.
And the YouTube app
And being logged into YouTube
I dont use the youtube app, i use firefox or brave browser, and neve rlogged into youtube.
What does my keyboard have anything to do with speaking via signal phonecall?
This is the first I’m hearing of a phone call. You should mention that in your post.
Whatever I speak or msg about within Signal App appears on my youtube Recommended
Um
Signal itself is secure. Though if there’s something running on your phone reading your typing/screenshots, all the encryption in the world won’t help.
Its primarily google services that reveal they are spying, via there recommended suggestions.
try talking about something specific that doesn’t interest you and you never talk about to see if it’s recommended later on (to be sure that it’s not confirmation bias
this may interest you ☞ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_enlargement
This was/is the metric used to learn google is violating the Signal App Sandbox… Not Penis el… but general daily stuff such as mentioning my curtain rail breaking in a Signal Conversation, Then after loading youtube, getting videos about curtains and the likes…
Are you using google keyboard?
Are you speaking things out loud that the google assistant could be listening to?
I dont use that feature itself and never have done, but isnt it pre-installed on almost all android devices? So i guess thats likely running in the background
I’ll be upfront: I don’t know. But I do have an anecdote.
I have a family member who swears that their phone is listening to every word they say. Their evidence is that they say they get ads or news regarding things they had recently had conversations about.
Fast forward a bit, they come and stay with me for a bit for a visit. This phenomenon starts happening while they are here. Absolute proof, right?
Well, no not really. Every single instance of “evidence” they pointed out could be explained as simple IP association.
“We were just talking about having okra for dinner and now my feed is filled up with okra recipes” – well yeah, we talked about that, so me being the good host I am, I looked up how to cook okra so I could maybe fix some for our dinner.
“We also had that conversation about Tom Hanks and I just got an ad for one of his movies” – yeah, we did, because you watched a couple Tom Hanks movies on Hulu yesterday so now they know someone at this IP is watching Tom Hanks movies and now might be a good time to advertise something else he’s been in.
And this went on and on.
So anyway, I do wonder if there’s a chance someone else on your same wifi / cell / whatever is looking this stuff up and it’s just coincidentally seeming like the all knowing omniscient internet gods are leaking your private conversations.
Whilst I agree that IP search history is used, this isnt relevant here. We are merely talking via speech within the Signal phone app, then when ending the call and loading a youtube video, the recommended carousel will recommend multiple videos pertaining to things ONLY discussed in the call (never searched)
More often than not its trivial things… IE mentioning to a friend the other day that I found a special security screw on the floor outside my house… After ending the call and loading a youtube song, My recommended feed shows numerous videos on special types of security screws… Something I havnt searched in over 3 years. Despite never logging into a google service in years, and good internet hygiene
Another point : The recommended feed on matters discussed during the call dont persist for too long - IE the videos on security screws will be gone within a day, its blatantly obvious tbh.
The instances I refer are too niche to be “coincidences”, more likely Google Violating their own sandboxing rules
Also, I dont have a Wifi Router in my house.
I mean, are you using gboard? That would be the first place to look. And it isn’t like there aren’t other Google services that can access the mic.
You can sandbox anything you want, but if the rest of your device is running Google stuff, you’re essentially trusting Google to not violate your privacy.
Florisboard is the current best maintained foss keyboard.
using normal stock android samsung phone, i believe its google whos violating, thats why im gonna deGoogle my device soon
Another good option is FUTO keyboard, i prefer it myself.
If you and your friends have YouTube/Google accounts you’ll get recommendations based on what your friends watch and search for.
we dont.
We get recommendations based on what we mentioned during a call, which in some instances, wasnt searched beforehand.
I should have mentioned, I dont login to any site like youtube, my browser deletes cookies on closing
