Stop Google from Tracking your Voice

[steiny180]

http://www.cnet.com/videos/stop-google-from-tracking-your-voice/

 

[funkylogik]

Nice info but tbh I care as much about Google having a recording of my voice commands as I do them having my search history.
Might be fun to have a listen to me shouting at the thing when it doesnt understand me though

 

[EarlyMon]

Nice info but tbh I care as much about Google having a recording of my voice commands as I do them having my search history.
Might be fun to have a listen to me shouting at the thing when it doesnt understand me though

 

[funkylogik]

Lmao I don't know how many times that clip has been posted for me online mate. Still very funny though although Google voice recognition has improved DRASTICALLY for me over the past 6months.
It is now a valuable, usable tool for me (pretty impressive)
You can see it thinking for a while "what did that dude just say?" then the central Scotland algorithm kicks in and it magically understands (and I don't even have to put on a silly accent).
Respect Google

 

[Vlad Soare]

My car has a bluetooth system with voice commands. While voice commands can be used to control several things in the car, including the radio, the navigation system, or the climate control, I only find it useful for handsfree dialling. I could browse through my contacts list using a couple of buttons on the steering wheel, but I find it easier to just say a command. However, in order to use the voice dialling feature I have to record the name and the number of each contact in advance. The system doesn't actually recognize the names I'm pronouncing - it just compares them to a list of pre-recorded names, which are stored locally into the bluetooth module of the car, so they're independent of the particular phone I happen to be using at a given time.

Once set up, the systems works perfectly all the time. It always recognizes my commands and the names I'm saying. But there's one strange, particularly annoying glitch. When recording a name and a phone number, it almost never understands me when I pronounce the word "two". It understands all other digits, but not the two. If the number I'm trying to record contains at least one two, then recording it is extremely difficult. Most of the time it understands it as "four", rarely as "three", and extremely rarely as "two" (after many, many retries).

Now, I'm not a native English speaker. And, while I consider my pronounciation quite OK for practical purposes, it's certainly not devoid of a foreign accent. But if my accent were the actual problem, then I would expect it to affect the whole system all the time. It's strange how it understands everything I'm saying except one single word. When recording a number with a two in it I always feel like the guys the video.

 

[funkylogik]

Well if you were from the north of Scotland you'd pronounce it "TWA" so that could cause more issues lol
PS why not just use Google Now for dialing? "ok google" works with the screen off while the phone is on a charger

 

[EarlyMon]

http://www.cnet.com/videos/stop-google-from-tracking-your-voice/

The irony of c|net running a piece about stopping Google from tracking you can be found with the Ghostery results for that page -

 

[Vlad Soare]

PS why not just use Google Now for dialing? "ok google" works with the screen off while the phone is on a charger

Because once set up, the voice dialling system in my car works wonderfully. And it doesn't require a voice monitoring service (which probably eats a lot of battery) to run continuously on my phone, it doesn't require a mobile data plan (which I haven't got, as I have no need for it), it doesn't require me to get the phone out of my pocket each time I wish to make a phone call. And it works with any phone, not just with Androids. My company phone is an old-style Nokia, which can be used in the same car when necessary.
Frankly, I find I have no use for the Google Now voice commands service. I find it more trouble than worth. But that's just me. Who knows, maybe I'm missing something...

 

[funkylogik]

Lol well I've found myself using it a lot since its finally learned Scottish lol.
Say I'm reading something online that mentions dollars or Fahrenheit, I just say "ok google, what is X dollars in pounds"
Stuff like that I think is worth the battery use (which i haven't even noticed tbh)
I do have unlimited data though lol

 

[funkylogik]

The irony of c|net running a piece about stopping Google from tracking you can be found with the Ghostery results for that page -

View attachment 90957

What is this Ghostery mate?

 

[EarlyMon]

What is this Ghostery mate?

Yeah, so - think of your ad blocker - now turn that into a tracking blocker.

I use it on my desktop, when Firefox added it to mobile, I was all in. It's a mobile Firefox add-on under the menu.

Firefox mobile - ad and tracker blocking, not too shabby.

 

[funkylogik]

Nice one mate. Haven't had Firefox in my arsenal since changing phones but might give it another try.
Cheers

 

[electricpete]

I use Firefox mobile from time to time. Sometimes when I'm surfing to new/unknown links.

It's a little slower then chrome though. I noticed that msyelf, and it seems to be born out by standard browser comparison tests posted online. Perhaps the add-ins that are loaded affects the speed.

 

[funkylogik]

Dolphin is still my primary browser purely for the text wrap (my eyes are terrible and some sites still aren't optimised for mobile)
I love how chrome can pull up links/definitions to words though (actually how the heck did I do that, just tried it. Did I dream that? EDIT I found it only works with certain sites and you just tap the word. I LOVE that) and find it a lot faster than dolphin so I tend to use the app Browser Switch which is sooo handy
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nkj.app.browserswitch

 

[zuben el genub]

Ghostery can also work as a standalone browser. I tried FX and Pale Moon and added Ghostery as I use it on laptop.
Deleted the FX browsers, but Ghostery remained as a standalone. It was in the options for opening if you clicked on a link in email or text.
I've deleted it as I stuck with Dolphin.