4d ago

Neon, the No. 2 social app on the Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firms

Neon, the No. 2 social app on the Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firms | TechCrunch

people are doing this willingly??!!!

A Boring Dystopia @lemmy.world

kennedy @lemmy.dbzer0.com

4d ago

Neon, the No. 2 social app on the Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firms

techcrunch.com /2025/09/24/neon-the-no-2-social-app-on-the-apple-app-store-pays-users-to-record-their-phone-calls-and-sells-data-to-ai-firms/

Technology @lemmy.zip

BrikoX @lemmy.zip

6d ago

Neon, the No. 2 social app on the Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firms

techcrunch.com /2025/09/24/neon-the-no-2-social-app-on-the-apple-app-store-pays-users-to-record-their-phone-calls-and-sells-data-to-ai-firms/

Late Stage Capitalism @lemmygrad.ml

Arthur Besse @lemmy.ml

5d ago

Neon, the No. 2 social app on the Apple App Store, pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firms

techcrunch.com /2025/09/24/neon-the-no-2-social-app-on-the-apple-app-store-pays-users-to-record-their-phone-calls-and-sells-data-to-ai-firms/

17 comments

It’s already been pulled off the store because it was too easy to reverse engineer the server and listen to other people’s calls.
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2025/09/neon-call-recording-iphone-app-shut-down-exposed-user-data.html
- After being notified of the security lapse, the app’s founder took the servers offline. In a message sent to users, the company cited a need to “add extra layers of security” during a period of rapid growth.
  if they do come back and people still sign up i will actually go insane
  
  We live in a world where people take out loans to buy groceries. For the desperate and destitute, they may find this worth it.
  ...doesn't make it any less fucked though.
This is insane. A good government would legislate against this, but with current ones, they may even be one of the potential data buyers.
Holy shit, WTF is wrong with people?
Like, everyone here. Who makes this? Who uses this? All idiots.
- Apparently some users were calling people and recording regular background conversations just to get paid. This was discovered because all of the calls were publicly available
  
  So like 20 geniuses, and the rest fools all the way down. Cool.
Obviously, there are plenty of reasons to decry this. However, actually paying the end user is a million times better than the harvesting that has been going on for years with not much tangible benefit to users.
- What about the other persons' on the call who didn't consent?
- yeah but they're paying people pennies compared to the amount of money they'll make from selling and reselling this (not just to AI companies). Its a small one time payment. TOS also gives them carte blanche to do whatever they want with your voice and all the information they have on you. This is a whole lot worse for the user.
Why not feed them AI-generated calls to both earn money and poison their datasets?
Been hearing a lot about this. Has anybody heard of this app before this story started breaking? How TF did it get to #2?
Also, it seems that what the app does has never been a secret. Their tag line is something like "phone companies make money off your calls, now you can too." I don't think they were doing anything secretive. People knew they were selling recordings of their phone conversations. So... what's the problem? Aside from the fact that I, and I would imagine most who would be subscribed to a /privacy community, would never use it. It's not for us.
This is a very good reason for Android to allow voice recording
- Technically it already allows it.
  
  Does is?

17 comments