this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
639 points (98.9% liked)

Technology

70140 readers
2272 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

More than half of Americans reported receiving at least one scam call per day in 2024. To combat the rise of sophisticated conversational scams that deceive victims over the course of a phone call, we introduced Scam Detection late last year to U.S.-based English-speaking Phone by Google public beta users on Pixel phones.

We use AI models processed on-device to analyze conversations in real-time and warn users of potential scams. If a caller, for example, tries to get you to provide payment via gift cards to complete a delivery, Scam Detection will alert you through audio and haptic notifications and display a warning on your phone that the call may be a scam.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] jaykrown@lemm.ee 5 points 21 hours ago

This isn't really anything new. https://signal.org/

[–] lupusblackfur@lemmy.world 169 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (20 children)

No, no, Fuck You, no!!

I will have no phone that employs "Counterfeit Conciousness" to listen to every fucking word of every fucking conversation leading to (among others):

  • Further training
  • Data retention of complete call content somewhere (waiting to be hacked)
  • Possible reports to LEO (or worse)
  • ...whatever else I can't think of just now...

Fuck right off with this.

This solidifies for me I will never own a Pixel phone.

And, if this becomes ubiquitous in Android, I'll have to rethink that, too.

Doesn't mean I'll necessarily go to iOS; more likely completely rethink having a phone at all.

Fuck Google entirely. Don't be Evil my ass.

🙄 🤡 🖕 🖕

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 62 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Additionally, just fucking stop scammers from using fucking gift cards.

Surely it's not that hard to detect that a gift card sold in Australia is being activated in Russia.

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 47 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The gift card people have absolutely no motivation to fix this problem. They are making bank.

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 11 points 2 days ago

They need to be given motivation, through legal obligation.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 40 points 2 days ago (4 children)

This solidifies for me I will never own a Pixel phone.

Sounds like a pixel phone is exactly what u want just u want GrapheneOS on it.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] shekau@lemmy.today 7 points 2 days ago

Pixel is the only device that is supported by GrapheneOS (sadly), so you can own Pixel just for installing grapheneOS on it.

load more comments (17 replies)
[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Part of the reason I haven't yet moved away from Google services on my pixel is because of the call screening and anti-spam features. I screen unknown callers pretty much all the time so Google is listening if they call me anyway. I'm fine with that, knowing A. That the callers get a heads up that they're talking to an AI and being recorded and B. That the ones who are human and trying to scam me generally don't call back once they know the line is being actively recorded.

There's no feature parity for this on any of the roms I would move to. Taking it a step further is unnecessary for me, and I'll probably opt out. But I can fully understand why someone might want it (for their elderly family members for instance).

[–] feyded1020@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (3 children)

So far as I know, if your device uses their Gemini Nano LLM, it doesn't reach back to their servers at all unless you OPT IN to the 'Help service inprove'.

This feature though and a few other calling features has made me switch from iPhone single handedly, I was receiving 6-10 spam calls a day, now I see none because they're screened in the background. It's fantastic. I'm hooked on these Pixel features and only hope more move to becoming on device features with the ability to opt in to sending certain things off device.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dumb as I am, I have a Pixel... the good thing though? Graphene OS is an option.

[–] seralth@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Last I checked it's only an option on non Verizon pixels or has Verizon stopped fucking things over.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 58 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Jokes on them. I don't have phone conversations

[–] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

and when i do, they're not in English

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Or at least not in conversational English. Me "The cheese is old and moldy." Wife "Roses eggs" Me "Bach unaccounted."

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] Lootboblin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And? Google’s been listening to you for years and not only in english.

[–] unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org 69 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

on device

scam detection

I know I'll be downvoted into oblivion as I can hardly believe I've formed this opinion myself, but tbh this is a good application for some of this AI tech.

Anecdotally, a friend of mine grew up well-off; from an immigrant family but their parents were educated and in a lucrative profession so he always went to private schools etc. Fast forward to about 10 years after all the kids moved out; the parents had divorced amicably and his mom had a sizeable retirement along with the payout she had from the divorce. In the 7 figures - she never had to worry about money.

Anywho, mom ran into some medical issues so the kids had to get involved with her finances again, as she couldn't do it herself. Turns out that over the course of months or years, mom had been getting scammed to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars at a time, to the point where she had actually taken out a mortgage on the home she previously owned outright. They're still sorting things out but the number he has tossed out in the past is ~$1.4M that got wired overseas and is just... gone now.

So yes, I probably won't turn this feature on myself, but for the tens of millions of uneducated and inept people out there, this could genuinely make a difference in avoiding some catastrophic outcomes. It certainly isn't a perfect solution, but I suspect my friend would rate it as much better than nothing, and I would argue that this falls short of being "strictly evil".

[–] kipo@lemm.ee 75 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah Google claims it's not recording, storing or being sent the conversations or sharing them with anyone, and that this is all done 'on-device'.

The thing is, I don't trust them. At all.

Maybe the terms and conditions will silently change. Maybe their definitions of "recording" and "save" will change. Maybe they're blatantly lying and are willing to pay a fine if they get caught.

Google's whole business model is harvesting and selling people's data, so I have to assume the worst intentions.

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 days ago

They could also spy on you without providing this feature at all. I get not trusting Google, and you shouldn't be using a Google Pixel in that case. But in the event that you are using a Google Pixel, this optional feature is only a positive. If Pixels spy on you, then they are doing it with this or without it.

[–] BossDj@lemm.ee 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I took my dad for cancer radiation treatment. While in the waiting room, this little old lady came in. I saw her struggling to remove a necklace and offered to help. She had really tangled herself in it trying to get it on (definitely in a "chemo brain" mind fog).

She answered her phone, and I heard a very obvious scam on the other line. I tried telling her, and at first she tried to explain to me that I was wrong, it was some kind helpful people. I took the phone from her and confirmed it was a scam. I told the staff at the clinic but that was about all I figured I could do.

This Ai maybe could have helped. Maybe.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Chemo and alzheimer patients and their families are targets for that reason. Privacy was already a joke before DOGE copied it all off for Elmos Next Reich

[–] Quik@infosec.pub 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I agree this feature should be enabled by default so people tech literate enough can just turn it off would be great for several people I know, just not from Google.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] plz1@lemmy.world 49 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Nice, wholesale illegal wire tapping. It's OK, it's legal because it's AI and Google is totally not storing any recordings. They say this is all on-device, but that's an "oops" or equivalent from them hoovering up recordings of every phone call you use one of their ~~surveillance endpoints~~ phones on.

heavy /s

[–] grue@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (11 children)

What do you mean, "illegal?" If the phone user consents to turning it on, that makes it legal.

I hate to defend Google, but I will absolutely defend single-party consent for recording. Don't like it? Don't fucking call me in the first place. It absolutely grinds my gears when shitty software (including from Google) plays an obnoxious warning message when I want to record a call, even though I have the right to do so without warning.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] whereisk@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Most people here: Yes, I bought an advertiser’s device, hooked up in a million ways to that advertiser’s services, who’s well known for monitoring every aspect of the life of every person they can, but how dare they monitor this part?

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

Great, more AI bloat from Google that is now listening in on my calls? How do I disable?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net 53 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Yup... Time to go back to graphene OS. Just been lazy about putting it on this phone.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'm so tired of this. It feels like an onslaught.

Back in 2008 or whatever I let Google handle my voicemails, and I enjoyed the convenience of the machine-transcriptions.

Now I wonder if my voicemails are being studied and trained on or whatever.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 days ago (4 children)

So, wait, Google can record calls, but we can't?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Member when they sucked up everyone’s wifi passwords and the world was like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] btaf45@lemmy.world 39 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

It's pretty easy to imagine all the ways this technology can because a nightmare. Maybe Russia puts AI spies on your phone that listen to see if you say anything bad about Putin to the person you are talking to and then pings their police and tells them what you said. Fuck you google for creating this technology.

Oh, and if you are part of the vast majority of people who aren't going to fall for a random 'gift-card' scam, this AI will always be running constantly draining your battery anyway.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

More AI testing...

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 9 points 2 days ago

Kinda cool, on device and hopefully doesn't call back to Google then I'm fine with it

load more comments
view more: next ›