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Joined 4 years ago
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Cake day: October 2nd, 2020

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  • Of course a researcher is never sure something is 100% ruled out. That’s part of how academic research works.

    once again, that isn’t what they were reported to have said. [and researchers don’t need to repeat the basic precepts of the scientific method in every paper they write, so perhaps its worthwhile to note what they were reported to say about that, rather than write it off as a generic ‘noone can be 100% certain of anything’] it’s a bit rich to blame someone for lacking rigor while repeatedly misrepresenting what your own article even says.

    what the article actually said is

    because there are some scenarios not covered by their study

    and even within the subset of scenarios they did study, the article notes various caveats of the study:

    Their phones were being operated by an automated program, not by actual humans, so they might not have triggered apps the same way a flesh-and-blood user would. And the phones were in a controlled environment, not wandering the world in a way that might trigger them: For the first few months of the study the phones were near students in a lab at Northeastern University and thus surrounded by ambient conversation, but the phones made so much noise, as apps were constantly being played with on them, that they were eventually moved into a closet

    there’s so much more research to be done on this topic, we’re FAR FAR from proving it conclusively (to the standards of modern science, not some mythical scientifically impossible certainty).

    presenting to the public that is a proven science, when the state of research afaict has made no such claim is muddying the waters.

    if you’re as absolutely correct as you claim, why misrepresent whats stated in the sources you cite?


  • no, they don’t

    Please be careful with your claims.

    In my experience, whenever investigating these claims and refutations we usually find when digging past the pop media headlines into the actual academic claims, that noone has proven it’s not happening. If you know of a conclusive study, please link.

    Regarding the article you have linked we don’t even need to dig past the article to the actual academic claims.

    The very article you linked states quite clearly:

    The researchers weren’t comfortable saying for sure that your phone isn’t secretly listening to you in part because there are some scenarios not covered by their study.

    (Genuine question, not trying to be snarky) Will you take a moment to reflect on which factors may have contributed to your eagerness to misrepresent the conclusions of the studies cited in your article?