Jonah McCune
CNA Staff October 28, 2024 / 6:00 AM
Anyone who uses a smartphone has probably experienced the same disturbing phenomenon. Immediately after discussing a topic or product, an ad appears in a pointed position.
Is it true that your cell phone is “listening” to your private conversations?
This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, and so much uncertainty has led bishops to ban the use of smartphones in Catholicism’s most private space, the confessional.
Here’s what you need to know about privacy concerns surrounding smartphones and one Catholic diocese’s response.
protect the seal
Right off the bat, it is important to point out that the Catholic Church places great importance on privacy in the confessional.
The Sacrament of Confession, also called Reconciliation, was practiced by Jesus Christ as a means of remitting sins. Jesus passed on the authority to forgive sins to the apostles, who passed it on to today’s priests.
The Seal of Confession obliges priests to treat the privacy of penitents with the utmost seriousness. In fact, over the centuries, some priests chose death rather than reveal what they had heard. If a priest divulges information learned in the context of confession, he will be excommunicated from the church latte cententiae — Basically automatically.
What if someone else hears your confession or happens to hear someone else confessing their sins? In this case, the person who heard the confession is bound by so-called “secrets” and is prohibited from sharing the information.
Catholics can be excommunicated for breaking secrecy, but it usually involves a criminal process rather than automatic excommunication, as is the case for priests.
As you can imagine, intentionally recording someone’s confession is also a big no-no. The Church formally addressed the issue in a 1988 Decree, in which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) wrote that anyone who recorded or revealed a person’s confession would be excommunicated from the Church. Latte cententiae.
Smartphones — are they worth the risk?
The “smart assistants” built into almost every modern cell phone, such as Apple’s Siri, actually always “listen” for wake words like “Hey Siri” unless the user specifically turns them off. This has been known for a long time. (Most tech-savvy people concerned about privacy are likely already doing this.)
But perhaps of deeper concern is the myriad of cases that inexplicably request full access to a user’s camera, microphone, and location information, even though there is no clear need to control these aspects of a user’s phone. is a smartphone app. Could those apps be “spying” on us?
This long-simmering fear was reinforced when CMG Local Solutions, a subsidiary of Cox Media Group, openly boasted of its ability to “listen through the microphones of people’s smart devices to identify buyers.” The incident came to light, and the incident came back into the spotlight at the end of last year. It leverages artificial intelligence and is based on casual conversations in real time.
When challenged, CMG quickly recanted and said it never listened to anyone’s private conversations, other than “third-party aggregated, anonymized, and encrypted data used for advertising.” claimed that it was not accessible.
(Story continues below)
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CMG denied that all three companies participated in CMG’s “active listening” program, even though CMG had relationships with these companies through Google, Amazon, and Facebook’s advertising partner programs. However, many find these denials unconvincing.
When you’re browsing online, you’re sure to get a warning on every page that your smartphone is spying on you. (Admittedly, many of them are blog posts from cybersecurity companies selling privacy-related products, so depending on how you look at them, they can be more or less reliable.) Additionally, the revelations from CMG make it even more uncertain. sex is occurring. mix.
So what does the evidence say? One technology expert says it’s complicated.
David Choffness, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, told CNA that research he has personally conducted shows whether smartphones are constantly eavesdropping on our private conversations. He said that the question suggests that in most cases this is not the case. ”
Choffnes, who is also an associate professor of computer science, conducted studies in both 2018 and 2020 to test the hypothesis that our phones are constantly listening to us. Chovnes and his colleagues ultimately investigated more than 17,000 apps to obtain information about their potential to leak media content.
Their analysis revealed some security risks, but “we found no evidence that the app was covertly recording audio from your phone’s microphone,” he said. .
But the results we got when testing smart speakers like Amazon Alexa told a different story. As mentioned above, most of the models they tested did not “wake up” and begin recording unless a specific “wake word” was spoken. But smart speakers can wake up unexpectedly without the user’s knowledge, Choffnes warned. think Wake word has been spoken.
Choffnes also said that testing suggested that smart speakers typically collect “recordings of just a few seconds in most cases, but in some cases tens of seconds.”
As to whether or not real humans would ever listen to these recordings, private conversations may be made accessible to third-party contractors and may be overheard for the purpose of improving the accuracy of voice recognition voice assistants. Choffnes pointed out that there are cases where the
“Therefore, there are concerns that real people were listening in on real conversations. Contractually, these conversations shouldn’t be shared or leaked, but of course contracts don’t protect against abuse. ” he said.
“Bottom line: I think it’s always a good idea to be cautious, but I don’t think this is the case.” [secret recording by smartphones] “This should be the biggest concern for smart device users right now,” he continued.
“On the other hand, there is incredible value in removing technology from spaces that are meant to be private, not only for privacy, but also for peace of mind and eliminating distractions.” I think so.”
When asked about his opinion on the policy of banning smartphones in the confessional of Catholic churches, Chovnes said, as a scientist, “I strongly agree.” [endorses] It’s not just about privacy concerns.
“I think the value goes beyond privacy because these devices are also a constant distraction and are not considered welcome in a place of worship,” he says.
But Choffnes went on to say that it’s important to point out that “mobile apps that record conversations are typically not the biggest privacy threat.”
After all, it’s already well known that tech companies can track your browsing history, app usage, and precise location, all of which they use for marketing purposes. He noted that even religious apps are sometimes caught abusing user data in this way.
“I think this is an important consideration for clergy and believers, given how sensitive and personal their religion and religious activities are. Think carefully about installing apps and read the fine print if you can. Please make sure to [and] Don’t grant permissions you don’t need,” says Choffnes.
Then he repeated, “When you need privacy and focus, turn off your devices.”
To ban or not to ban?
This year, Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, formalized a new policy banning priests from using smartphones in the confessional.
Father Caleb La Rue of the Diocese of Lincoln told CNA that some other dioceses have adopted similar policies, citing privacy concerns, among other concerns, “that they might be accidentally attacked.” He said he had heard anecdotes about it being introduced. [record]”Or, worst-case scenario, a priest will butt-dial someone and broadcast someone’s confession,” he noted.
However, the main driver of Lincoln’s policy was not actually a concern for privacy, but rather a recognition that the priest’s time in the confessional should be quiet, prayerful, and free from distractions. Mr. La Rue said.
He said Conley had “strongly encouraged” clergy not to bring smartphones into the confessional since at least 2014, but had not issued a formal ban until this year.
“You don’t take out your cell phone on the altar when you’re celebrating Mass. Why would you take out your cell phone when you’re listening to confession?” he said. It’s important to counter the perception that people are scrolling through Twitter, he added.
However, La Rue said many Lincoln priests (including himself) do not use their smartphones in the confessional for completely innocent reasons, such as checking the time or looking up prayers or Bible readings. I admitted that I liked it. Penitents also often bring their cell phones into the confessional to list their sins and retrieve prayers of repentance for reference.
But in the end, La Rue said, the policy is actually about “removing anything that might impede or be an obstacle” to a “true encounter with Christ.” .
“the [about] “We strive to preserve the sacraments as holy encounters with God, especially God’s mercy in confession,” he said.
Jonah McKeown is a staff writer and podcast producer at Catholic News Agency. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has worked as a writer, public radio producer, and videographer. He is based in St. Louis.
