We have all heard of Mark Zuckerberg taking advantage of its users’ data as a bargaining chip, while publicly claiming to be protecting that data. It is therefore to no surprise that users of big tech companies try to disclose as little private information as possible. However, what if Microsoft, Zoom, Apple and co. nevertheless use our data without us knowing?
According to a study of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whenever you use a video teleconferencing app, the company hosting the service is collecting all audio data, even when muting your mic. To put it another way, students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were able to create machine learning models that could accurately predict what a teleconference app user was doing while their microphone was muted. Consider what Google or Microsoft could accomplish with their enormous AI models. Big tech companies do not inform their users of this issue, however there is a way to mute your audio feed. If you have headphones with a physical mute button, you can use that to silence your headphones first, then utilize the app’s mute button as an additional layer of muting. If your headphones don’t have a physical mute button or you’re communicating using your laptop’s microphone, you can mute yourself via the app as well as through the computers’ system settings.
It is controversial of big tech companies to ask for our permission to utilize private data, however, to not inform users in large print that even when muted, they can listen to our conversations. What AI do with the data and to what extent it stays private is for now unknown. The only option is to double mute and unmute again whenever it is time to talk (:
Daley, J. (2022, April 11). You’re muted — or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen even when mic is off. News WISC. https://news.wisc.edu/youre-muted-or-are-you-videoconferencing-apps-may-listen-even-when-mic-is-off/
Greene, T. (2022, April 14). Muting your mic reportedly doesn’t stop big tech from recording your audio. TNW | Neural. https://thenextweb.com/news/muting-your-mic-doesnt-stop-big-tech-recording-your-audio
Yang, Y., West, J., Thiruvathukal, G., Klingensmith, N., & Fawaz, K. (2022). Are You Really Muted?: A Privacy Analysis of Mute Buttons in Video Conferencing Apps. The 22nd Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium, 1–21. https://wiscprivacy.com/papers/vca_mute.pdf