this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2024
103 points (91.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26931 readers
907 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

...within reason. I know that the top answer will be to flash a different OS on your device. A lot of us are not at that point right now.

So I was texting with my wife in Spanish and suddenly a system bubble popped up, "would you like to translate this to English?" At a minimum, this means that Google is reading the words on my screen at all times to detect the language. I don't know if this is possibly done on device, but translation certainly isn't. I've already changed my system translation app to Translate You.

I've noticed other times that Google watches or listens in the background. It has a feature to detect ambient songs playing, for example.

What other standard settings should I check for to prevent Google from watching and listening to my phone in the background?

Edit: I was not using a Google messeging app at the time. It was detecting the text from another app. The specific setting in this case was to switch off "Live Translate," in System settings.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Anything that runs the Android version that came with it will gather data on you and short of permanently disabling the data connection, you will not be able to escape it. Google gives back door access to everything it wants, constantly sends encrypted data packets to its servers that only they know what they contain and doesn't give you the ability to stop any of it.

If you have a Pixel phone installing GrapheneOS is incredibly easy. It gives you full control over what the apps installed on it are allowed to do on your phone, including Google's if you wish to install them (unlike on other phones where the privacy options are grayed out for them and permanently enabled). Mind you, you will lose some functionality if you block everything. But you are empowered to decide which apps you trust to do what on your own phone and disable what you don't need.

If you have something else than a Pixel, LineageOS is an option, however the installation process might be more complicated.

Mind you, with the FOSS alternatives you will sometimes experience some jank or advanced features that don't work. But it is a tiny price to pay to know you're not giving your data away. It has gotten far better in the last few years as well, at least from my experience with GrapheneOS