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submitted 2 months ago by btaf45@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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.

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[-] lupusblackfur@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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 2 points 2 months ago

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 3 points 2 months ago

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

[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

They need to be given motivation, through legal obligation.

[-] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

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.

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[-] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

So, it's on device, which negates many of the above worries. Does that change things? I'm all good with private AI, personally. Slippery slope and all, though...

[-] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Fuck Android. Run Calyx or Graphene. it's not difficult for any PC enthusiast.

[-] desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago

unfortunately both of those have a very small list of supported devices.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

This ☝️, which nobody tells you, and then about 20 other things nobody tells you except that one Indian vlogger who installs everything on everything.

TL;DW - if you have a relatively recent Pixel, you’re probably good. Everything else, get out the forum posts, an old POS windows box you don’t mind trashing and start finding out what doesn’t work. You might get some Samsung to mostly work ok.

[-] LoveSausage@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

And next phone same person buys is the latest same pay by installments piece of lock downed shit hardware. And continue to complain on lack of support for shitty hardware, shitty firmware and shitty software. Stop buying shit , custom roms have been around since android 1.1 . GOS and Calyx aren't recent inventions either.
Lineage official supports a fuckton of devices as well. Including every single pixel made. https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ So quite well documented.

[-] Goretantath@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

Can't back up everything on my phone without root and cant root without wiping the phone so..

[-] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works -1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

How have you managed to save things on your phone you cannot back up without root?

You're just straight fucked if this is true. Don't save permanent things to your phone. Your phone is transient. Phones are not permanent.

edit: so the "phone shit is permanent" crew came out early on this one? Bruh, your phone can be taken from you in an instant. It's transient.

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[-] AtariDump@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

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

Man cuts off nose to spite face; news at 11

[-] jaykrown@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

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

[-] unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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 2 points 2 months ago

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 0 points 2 months 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 1 points 2 months ago

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 1 points 2 months 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

[-] Lootboblin@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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

[-] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

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

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

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

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

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

[-] user91@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

WiFi passwords? I think you mean SSIDs (wifi name).

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

No they slurped up the pw’s too back in the day. Before WEP2? I forget.

Hm. The intertubes tells me it was unencrypted data. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/google-wifi-street-cars-spy-lawsuit-settlement,39998.html

Oh. Right. It collected unencrypted (i.e. email) passwords. Allll niiiice and legal, probably. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/google-says-collecting-data-unencrypted-wifi-networks-isnt-illegal

[-] btaf45@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

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[-] plz1@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

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 -1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.

[-] endofline@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

It sounds illegal because if one user opt ins for wire tapping, she / he needs to inform other people on the line about it is being wire tapped.

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

Read the article at all. It's on device processing nothing gets sent anywhere.

[-] endofline@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

They say so. They always say so :-)

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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 1 points 2 months ago

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.

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

So, I have several legacy Google Assistant compatible devices that do not work with Google's new AI. As a result I haven't switched over to Gemini for pretty much anything and I probably won't. I'm currently building a Home Assistant system to take the place of Google Assistant when it finally sunsets but the going is slow (I have limited time to dedicate to that specifically at the moment). But for phone specific use, I'm taking the wait and see approach.

[-] feyded1020@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Home Assistant is such an awesome tool. I use it every day and shamefully have it linked to my Google Home so Gemini can turn on and off devices when prompted. Aside from that, I could just go the route of setting up a local LLM on my server and having Home Assistant be my new assistant on device so it doesn't use Google at all.

I definitely recommend Home Assistant though, between the iPhone users and now myself on Android in our home, it makes everything appear native to the end user. Now I just use Zigbee and Zwave devices for everything since they're more reliable and much cheaper.

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

My biggest issue right now is trying to figure out what I need/want to work vs things I don't need. This list is one I've been keeping of things that I want it to do/be compatible with:

-Weather

-Calendar

-News/RSS Feed

-Light Panel

-Media Panel

-Search Query Panel

-Use of Voice controls

-Singular touchscreen hub and android phone

-Works with Google home max speakers and Google nest mini speakers

-Chromecast equivalent functionality

It's based on the things I use Google Assistant for daily or at the very least weekly. Most all of it can be done with an android tablet and my raspberry pi. But implementing it to be the way I want isn't as simple (hasn't been as simple for me) and I think that's down to following guides for a lot of things that weren't necessarily intended to work together cohesively.

[-] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Jokes on them. I don't have phone conversations

[-] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 months ago

and when i do, they're not in English

[-] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

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

[-] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago
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[-] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 months ago

haha very cryptic, i love that ^^

[-] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

In plain English this means

Me "Have you checked for eggs recently? I just saw a bunch in the nesting boxes. Too many for one day." Wife "Yeah, it's been a while. Even Rose [the duck], who hasn't laid an egg in five years, probably laid one." Me "I haven't seen our special needs cat, the one we trapped as part of a TNR run on our own property, in the last 12 hours. Have you seen that blessed dumb beast who walks like he is drunk? If you see him now could you bring him inside?"

Any sufficiently developed culture has its own language. In this house we go out of our way to make obtuse inside joke references to keep each other on our toes.

[-] musubibreakfast@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

One day you come home, you see all your stuff is in boxes. Then you see a note on the fridge, it says: "Womp womp" You fall to your knees and break down in tears. Through your tears you see another note underneath the fridge. You reach for the note. The note reads: "Womp, womp?" You began to laugh maniacally. You hear footsteps, you stop laughing. Your wife stands behind you. She says: "Kept you on your toes didn't I?"

[-] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago

Always read the fine print.

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this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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