Apple Live Listen Feature FYI

[Idaho]

An email went out at work about this and figured I’d pass the info on to those who care.

Live Listen from Apple can essentially make an open listening device on your phone from Bluetooth range. It’s easy to turn off but came out and was enabled in a somewhat recent update. Here is more info on it.

https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/iphones/is-your-iphone-listening-to-you-the-live-listen-setting-you-should-check-right-now

 

[McE]

An email went out at work about this and figured I’d pass the info on to those who care.

Live Listen from Apple can essentially make an open listening device on your phone from Bluetooth range. It’s easy to turn off but came out and was enabled in a somewhat recent update. Here is more info on it.

https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/iphones/is-your-iphone-listening-to-you-the-live-listen-setting-you-should-check-right-now

Remote control of Live Listen requires another nearby Apple device signed into the same Apple Account. Random people within Bluetooth range can't just activate it on your phone and spy on you.

There is a legitimate privacy concern, though. Someone could leave their own iPhone in a room with Live Listen running and listen to conversations through their AirPods from within Bluetooth range. Turning yours off won't solve that, and someone could just as easily leave a phone in the room with an active call to another phone. Nothing new there.

There are a lot of privacy scare stories like this out there to generate clicks/ad revenue.

 

[Canyon Trekker]

Remote control of Live Listen requires another nearby Apple device signed into the same Apple Account. Random people within Bluetooth range can't just activate it on your phone and spy on you.

There is a legitimate privacy concern, though. Someone could leave their own iPhone in a room with Live Listen running and listen to conversations through their AirPods from within Bluetooth range. Turning yours off won't solve that, and someone could just as easily leave a phone in the room with an active call to another phone. Nothing new there.

There are a lot of privacy scare stories like this out there to generate clicks/ad revenue.

Walks into room... Oh look! a free i-phone!

In reality, over the years the Bluetooth technology has opened up a lot of convenient features across electronic devices. I have an old pair of hearing aids (close to 10 years old) that came with a dongle that I can leave in a room, on a podium, near the TV, etc., to hear direct conversations through my hearing aids without a phone. It also has twice the distance of the phones 10–15-meter limit. (Don't know how they were able to do that, but it really works...)

My new hearing aids are a technological wonder that even has battery management software, just like a phone to make the battery last a long time. (24+ hours on a ~1-hour charge) It also can answer phone calls that can be heard and listen to you talk back, attenuate noise in the background of a conversation, listen to music, etc. (Sound nowhere near as good as air pods, but clear.)

Technology never stops. Soon, 6G will start to appear everywhere which might actually challenge the need of Bluetooth in phones. (they say around 2030) and machine talking to machine will be live. It will operate at very fast frequencies and will allow many points of access, seamlessly (supposedly) and possibly allow long distance communication in remote areas by communicating with other closer phones. (Daisy chaining) It will undoubtedly have a very complex algorithm to keep "spies" from easily accessing for illicit use. The technology is already in development and has been for 5+ years now. Most people alive today will obliviously use this technology and wonder how we were even able to use the antique 5G systems.

BTW, my hearing has always been bad, not age related.