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How to stop Google from watching and listening on my phone? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by gedaliyah to c/asklemmy

47 comments fedilink hide all child comments

...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.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You could avoid Google messaging apps, avoid Gmail, avoid Chrome and replace the Google keyboard with something else. But I don't think you can really stop Google watching and listening on stock Android. That's why the replacement OSs exist.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If Google play service is running... Yeah, you are fucked, GPS owns your phone and it allows you to use it.

[–] partial_accumen 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Even if location services are disabled?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Yeah... Think of them as super user on your devide..

You are just a user