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I know a lot of very smart people who believe their phones are always listening to them to send them ads, even when all listening services (Siri, etc.) are turned off. I'm skeptical -- here's a quick thread on why.
Using a microphone as a listening device without the permission of anyone in the room is a felony wiretap crime, intercepting an oral communication, see 18 U.S.C. 2511. There's a civil action for it, too, w/statutory damages, attorney's fees, punitive damages, etc, see Sec 2520.
For your phone to be listening to you to serve you ads, it would presumably be really big companies, with really deep pockets, doing this criminal listening to serve you the ads. I would think it would be easy to sue them for tons and tons of $$$ if they were doing this.
And yet no suits have been filed, as far as I know. Maybe it's a conspiracy w/ not only the companies but also the entire legal profession, but another explanation is that, as the companies say, they don't do this. cbsnews.com/news/phone-lis…
Of course, it's possible that this is happening despite the law prohibiting it. But in that case, if you've been listened to without your consent, your rights have been violated, and you can sue them -- and recover statutory damages, attorney's fees, maybe punitive damages.
Some are asking if maybe there is some language in the long TOS no one reads that could be construed as consent to this. Under the cases, the consent standard is "consent in fact" -- notice has to be seen. Mere 'should have seen' isn't enough, assuming there is such language.
And although there isn't much caselaw on this, no, scrolling down and clicking "I accept" shouldn't mean that you consented in fact to whatever was in the TOS that no one reads. You need actual, you-knew-this notice that they are recording you, the cases indicate.
As you can imagine, my mentions are, um, interesting now.
