Google is spying - over your microphone

[punisa]

Search engine becomes a political question? seems so. Google has been in focus recently especially since its problems in China (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012201212.html?hpid=topnews)


Google has also became notorious for using anything it can to trace and spy on you, this is by now a well known fact. From your search phrases, mouse clicks etc.
But I never realized that they could include your built in microphone too.
Until today - I felt it myself.

Let me outline what happened:
- I listened to windows media player radio while working today. Listening to some old jazz radio (yeah I'm actually into that recently). There was an old song by Sinatra - "Fly me to the Moon".
- it got stuck in my head and I sort of sang it all day long while working.
- couple of hours later I wanted to hear it again, so I did what I usually do: type it into Google
- as you know, Google has a thing called "autocomplete" which gives you result recommendations as you type
- I started typing "Sinatr"... it instantly threw this back at me:
> sinatra fly me to the moon
> sinatra lyrics
> sinatra my way
> sinatra new york
> sinatra new york lyrics

Funny eh?
I have never (100% sure) ever even typed "Sinatra" into search before, so I can rule out "history" and "cache" which are some of the Google's spying tools.
Second - I'm the only person that ever used my laptop.
Third - I have a built in microphone (and webcam)
Fourth - not sure if you know, but there are many more popular songs from Sinatra then "fly me to the moon" - it is totallly out of place to put that one as a first reccommended result.

First I thought that it must have been just a wierd coincidence, but I just had to do some sniffing around, here is what I found:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2006/060906spyon.htm
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/06/08/google-research-prototypes-ambient-audio-contextual-content/
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/is-google-eavesdropping-is-it-true-that-google-can-listen-in-to-your-room-through-your-computers-microphone/

What do you think?
I have a feeling that in a few years we leftists will be meeting at the empty parking lots or in the woods. I'm not conspiracy paranoia guy, but this is getting ridiculous:(

[leninpuncher]

Nobody who knows anything about how web development and ip protocols work, would take this seriously. It's absolutely ridiculous. Unless google has installed secret rootkits on every computer in the world, it's not possible for them to do this with any degree of secrecy.

[RadioRaheem84]

This shit has happened to me several times. I thought it was just me or my computer adjusting to my preferences or something technical I don't understand but I doubt that this is so. I am glad you brought this up.

[punisa]

Nobody who knows anything about how web development and ip protocols work, would take this seriously. It's absolutely ridiculous. Unless google has installed secret rootkits on every computer in the world, it's not possible for them to do this with any degree of secrecy.

Google, Microsoft, HP and others? It never occurred to you that global spy network could transcend the limitations of a web browser and actually be hardware integrated?

I felt it was rather ridiculous since I do some web development myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if they actually did this.

[Tablo]

It really does sound like some wild conspiracy theory, but somehow the idea would not surprise me. I think it is unlikely they could do it with out people knowing they are doing it though.

[Chambered Word]

Time to turn my microphone on and play some really freaky sounding porn into it, or blare a loop of me saying 'Google are wankers'.

EDIT: 'Google are horse molesters' would be more appropriate.

[ArrowLance]

This would not be possible at all. Even if it were hardware based it would not be at all secret. Not only would this be a huge conspiracy nobody has leaked, but the thousands upon thousands of web geeks that monitor all in/out from their computer like the naked girl next door somehow missing it would be crazy.

The auto complete function of google is not based on your personal prior searches completely. It is based on some algorithms and other users input most likely.

This is just insane.

[ls]

Do you have google desktop search installed?

Perhaps it writes the names of those files to google, it might've found fly me to the moon.mp3 and wrote the name off or something?

[leninpuncher]

Google, Microsoft, HP and others? It never occurred to you that global spy network could transcend the limitations of a web browser and actually be hardware integrated?

I felt it was rather ridiculous since I do some web development myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if they actually did this.

It would only take a conspiracy of at least thousands of different software companies, hardware companies, security analysts, router companies, isps --both the major ones and the thousands of independent ones --, and the enormous wealth of hardware and software programming staff that belong to each one of the aforementioned. Many of the companies who's consent and help would be needed have rival search engines out and are in no position to desire risking not only their company's reputation, but also personal financial security and personal security (as such an extensive act of spying would certainly result in a heavy prison sentence), all in the name of helping their competitors get a slight edge over themselves in the market.

Are you serious? Are you fucking serious?

[Tablo]

It really is impossible. If google could do it then I know they certainly would though.

[punisa]

Do you have google desktop search installed?

Perhaps it writes the names of those files to google, it might've found fly me to the moon.mp3 and wrote the name off or something?

Could be. I have google desktop search.
It does sound a bit conspiracy like.
But it is also very visible that Google keeps tailoring ads that are shown to you.
I usually see ads that are somewhat close to my interest, music, guitars, politics etc...

Also, what do you think about this:

"Private industry and eventually government is planning to use microphones in the computers of an estimated 150 million-plus Internet active Americans to spy on their lifestyle choices and build psychological profiles which will be used for surveillance and minority report style invasive advertising and data mining.

Digital cable TV boxes, such as Scientific Atlanta, have had secret in-built microphones inside them since their inception in the late 1990's and these originally dormant devices were planned to be activated when the invasive advertising revolution arrived - 2006 marks that date."
source: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2006/060906spyon.htm

[punisa]

Are you serious? Are you fucking serious?

Well I never claimed that I'm certain of the fact that Google is doing this.
What you wrote makes sense, I too believe that it would be virtually impossible to bypass all the geeks that monitor Google every step of the way. They would probably be the first to tell the news.

I was just really surprised of the situation that occurred to me, but I also said that it might be a weird coincidence.
BTW, this occurred by using the Google's toolbar extension for the firefox - not the regular Google homepage.

I see you know quite a lot about this, so let me expand the topic with another question. Is it possible that this extension could be monitoring the playlist on my media player?
Since its the only place where this particular song was playing, I don't even have the actual mp3 on my hard drive.

[Yazman]

Any files on your hard drive could be monitored, yeah. Google has already been known to gather data based on users' hardware, etc. and they have an extremely poor record in regards to user privacy so to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if their software was gathering that sort of information.

[Ovi]

While I doubt google is doing it, it isn't like they aren't already spying more on you than the fucking government. Flash cookies, which almost nobody know they exist are already bypassing the "clear private data" functionality of most browsers (I use privacy plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/ro/firefox/addon/14217), a firefox add-on for that), cache based privacy attacks can be used to get a list of visited websites by any website (safecache (http://www.safecache.com/) can prevent that) and clickjaking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickjacking) could be used to access your microphone/camera without your consent (I prevented this by disabling access entirely (http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html)), though I hear that adobe fixed that eventually. And of course scroogle (https://ssl.scroogle.org/) is one more step to gain back part of your online privacy.

[FreeFocus]

How is autocomplete spying, at least in this case? Autocomplete isn't just about the individual user that is surfing the web, they take the totality of searches and autocomplete the phrase based on what you typed it. Your seeing "sinatra fly me to the moon" means that, when people type in "sinatr," they most often go for "sinatra fly me to the moon."

[punisa]

How is autocomplete spying, at least in this case? Autocomplete isn't just about the individual user that is surfing the web, they take the totality of searches and autocomplete the phrase based on what you typed it. Your seeing "sinatra fly me to the moon" means that, when people type in "sinatr," they most often go for "sinatra fly me to the moon."

Yes, but the "Autocomplete" is also further tailored according to your preferences.
For example, I punch in "Lond" and it gives me "London guitar shops" as first recommendation. Would you say London is most recognized as a guitar shop city? :lol:

[FreeFocus]

Yes, but the "Autocomplete" is also further tailored according to your preferences.
For example, I punch in "Lond" and it gives me "London guitar shops" as first recommendation. Would you say London is most recognized as a guitar shop city? :lol:

It also takes into account your location, right?

[bcbm]

How is autocomplete spying, at least in this case? Autocomplete isn't just about the individual user that is surfing the web, they take the totality of searches and autocomplete the phrase based on what you typed it. Your seeing "sinatra fly me to the moon" means that, when people type in "sinatr," they most often go for "sinatra fly me to the moon."

goto google and type it in.

[ls]

How is autocomplete spying, at least in this case? Autocomplete isn't just about the individual user that is surfing the web, they take the totality of searches and autocomplete the phrase based on what you typed it. Your seeing "sinatra fly me to the moon" means that, when people type in "sinatr," they most often go for "sinatra fly me to the moon."

Well, go to http://www.google.rs/ (the yugoslavia domain code) and type in "sinatr.." and tell me what comes up? If you really want to go all the way, install the google search extension to firefox then set the preference to google.rs.

I doubt you will find it says "sinatra fly me to the moon" as the autocompleted search phrase.

[FreeFocus]

My first suggestion was "sinatra" on both American Google and Yugoslavian Google.

There are lots of things that I search for on a regular basis, but all of my searching is not enough for it to make Google suggest what I'm looking for as the first result.

I mean, you never know, but before we claim Google is "spying," there should be some more conclusive evidence. You can make the "spying" argument for any website that considers what cookies you have on your PC, for example.

[ls]

My first suggestion was "sinatra" on both American Google and Yugoslavian Google.

There are lots of things that I search for on a regular basis, but all of my searching is not enough for it to make Google suggest what I'm looking for as the first result.

I mean, you never know, but before we claim Google is "spying," there should be some more conclusive evidence. You can make the "spying" argument for any website that considers what cookies you have on your PC, for example.

Most websites, unless they use an illegal hack - do not have access to crossdomain cookies though.

[Ovi]

My first suggestion was "sinatra" on both American Google and Yugoslavian Google.

There are lots of things that I search for on a regular basis, but all of my searching is not enough for it to make Google suggest what I'm looking for as the first result.

I mean, you never know, but before we claim Google is "spying," there should be some more conclusive evidence. You can make the "spying" argument for any website that considers what cookies you have on your PC, for example.
There's nothing secret in the fact that google stores everything it can about you: what you search, where you come from, the locations you log in to your mail, what websites you visit (you did notice that when you click on a link in a google search you are directed towards google right?), what music you listen to (when you visit a website that has google ads, they add that to your online profile), what videos you watch on youtube and so on. Not to mention about the google desktop, toolbar or google chrome. http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/privacy.html or http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107684 . They use all this information for targeted ads and search bar autocompletion (and probably to help the cops if they ask nicely).
On the bright google released the source code of chrome, which made SRWare Iron (http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php) possible.

[punisa]

There's nothing secret in the fact that google stores everything it can about you: what you search, where you come from, the locations you log in to your mail, what websites you visit (you did notice that when you click on a link in a google search you are directed towards google right?), what music you listen to (when you visit a website that has google ads, they add that to your online profile), what videos you watch on youtube and so on. Not to mention about the google desktop, toolbar or google chrome. http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/privacy.html or http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107684 . They use all this information for targeted ads and search bar autocompletion (and probably to help the cops if they ask nicely).
On the bright google released the source code of chrome, which made SRWare Iron (http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php) possible.

Thanks for in-depth analysis. After taking all of that into account, what occurred with my search results is really understood.

There are plenty of ways you can protect your privacy and prevent data transfer. In fact you can build a rather hard fortress on your machine if you really value your privacy. This being of utmost importance if you tend to talk a lot about politics, especially undesirable politics.

Still, only a tiny minority of us "know-how"s will be able to protect ourselves.
99% of internet users are either unaware or lack proper knowledge to protect their privacy.

I'm working as a web developer and one would be surprised how large is the portion of users who use very obsolete and thus vulnerable software on their computers.

I have clients for whom I regularly delete really nasty spyware which can exploit all essential functions of their PC.
Mainly because they don't realize that "donwload this .exe file in order to watch this movie" is something one should avoid at all cost !

And essentially what is spyware? It's a malicious code that gathers data illegaly.
And why would they do that? Hackers have no real use for this.
They harvest info so they could sell it to the advertsing agencies and whoever pays the price.

Google has become a profit making power house and is very greedy for more (classic case huh?). The trend of aquiring more and more user data has been on the rise for years and will surely continue.

[Yazman]

http://google-watch.org/

Has some interesting information on it. There's some interesting stuff about Gmail and the extreme lack of privacy there too.