Also, if Whatsapp did somehow listen in the background , it seems like those are one-time accesses. WhatsApp would not benefit anything if it would listen for a very short time.
It seems like it would be a stupid action from WhatsApp, since they would have to go through the trouble of transcribing voice to text, and it costs power.
If WhatsApp would listen all the time, or for even a minute, the battery consumption would go very high. Doesn't seem feasible.
It seems like a bug in WhatsApp or a bug in Android's privacy dashboard.
https://www.engadget.com/whatsapp-bug-is-making-some-android...
Regardless if it's true or not, should WhatsApp or any other app spy on the user by using the microphone in the background, the "safe" (from their POV) way to do that would be to tap into the audio signal, save it somewhere at low bitrate while removing silent parts, then wait when the user starts an update or any network/cpu intensive job and compress+transmit it in the background. No need to keep the CPU at high load 100% of the time.
> Dabiri is not the first to notice the issue. WhatsApp blog wabetainfo highlighted the bug a month ago, describing it at the time as “a false positive” affecting owners of some Pixel and Samsung devices. They added that restarting the phone may be a possible fix. Meanwhile, Google has said little about what could be causing the discrepancy, but confirmed it’s looking into the matter. "We are aware of the issue and are working closely with WhatsApp to investigate,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
I'm waiting to see further details from Google before rushing to conclusions. Ideally the bug will be in the open source part of Android so we can confirm what was going on.
Also notable that the screenshot is not from an official Android system screen, but from a third party app listed on the playstore as "privacy dashboard"
Edit: Found it in the tweet replies: Settings, Security and Privacy, Privacy, Privacy Dashboard
how could/dare FB do this, hmm... interesting... like to learn more...
But a user likely doesn't want to be forced to keep WhatsApp open as the front screen app while in a call. Maybe they want to open their e-mail or Calendar while in a call. That means the app needs to be able to use the microphone while running in the background.
Though I suppose you could argue that the app should not be allowed to start using the microphone while the app is in the background. Yes, I think that'd be quite reasonable.
Who owns WhatsApp?
It was the same thing with the lab leak theory- they massively damaged that theory by being loudly racist and jumping to the conclusion before there was evidence.
I wonder what the Twitterer's setting was...
That’s the crux of the problem. Why should any app be able to start a listening session without the user’s explicit intervention?
Not that I have that enabled, but it is an option.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeI...
In general I'm skeptical of the value proposition. You can't record too much without tanking the battery life. They already have so much to target advertisements. What does a random snippet that probably doesn't even have any talking add?
Is that an Android thing? I use Merlin to listen to birds and I can record for hours and only lose 20-30%.
I disagree, a cellphone's microphone is a passive component don't see why this would affect battery life in a big way.
Whatsapp should have nothing more than your contacts list.
Edit: I realized you might be referring to WhatsApp not having much ad data. True, but their parent company Meta does.