Your smartphone is not listening to you around the clock -- but it's collecting so much information that it does not even need to. It has long been speculated that Apple, Google, Samsung and other popular phone makers are recording users 24/7 to collect information for advertising purposes. Most of us have seemingly randomly been promoted an advert for a product that we could have sworn was only talked about in private. To test this, we set up a freshly-factory-reset Samsung phone, using a new Google account on the Android device. We created a fictitious person named Robin, 22, and made a fake a Facebook account for him to use.

"We are investigating the case for publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report with intent to cause fear or alarm to the public, sharing offensive or menacing content, and prostitution," police chief Fadzil Ahmat said according to the Straits Times website.

Apple's artificial intelligence strategy continues to be focused on running workloads locally on devices, rather than relying heavily on cloud-based resources, as competitors Google, Amazon, and Microsoft do. While this fits in with Apple's core business -- selling devices -- and the company's emphasis on user privacy, it could put it at a competitive disadvantage with many app makers, who prefer the more flexible approach from competitors as they look at add AI features. Between announcements about iOS, Mac and Siri, Apple made two big announcements about AI at its recent Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose. First, it introduced a new framework called CreateML that app makers can use to train AI models on Macs. Apple developers can try out Create ML inside the app that many of them are already very familiar with: Xcode, Apple's own app for coding programs for its devices.

Apple's artificial intelligence strategy continues to be focused on running workloads locally on devices, rather than relying heavily on cloud-based resources, as competitors Google, Amazon, and Microsoft do. While this fits in with Apple's core business -- selling devices -- and the company's emphasis on user privacy, it could put it at a competitive disadvantage with many app makers, who prefer the more flexible approach from competitors as they look at add AI features. Between announcements about iOS, Mac and Siri, Apple made two big announcements about AI at its Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose last week. First, it introduced a new framework called CreateML that app makers can use to train AI models on Macs. Apple developers can try out Create ML inside the app that many of them are already very familiar with: Xcode, Apple's own app for coding programs for its devices.

When Apple's new iPhone X arrives next month, its Face ID technology will introduce a new era of convenience--but also new risks of broad face-based surveillance by corporations and governments. Apple's strong record on privacy means it's likely to deploy the facial recognition tool responsibly, but that doesn't account for third-party companies that plan to integrate Face ID into their apps. Such companies could seek to assemble their own databases of faces and, in the worst case scenario, use a facial database to identify consumers online and in the streets for ad purposes. Apple has yet to disclose full details of how Face ID will operate, though a source familiar with the tool says there is a plan to prevent app makers from violating user privacy. Meanwhile, outside of a single state law, consumers will have little recourse if companies begin to collect images of their face without consent.

Every day, we provide data to companies in exchange for great experiences powered by machine learning (ML). Facebook's ability to tag friends in a photo seems obvious. Gmail's ability to prioritize messages provides an intuitive way to triage conversations. Our user data makes these ML-based experiences possible. We provide this data under the assumption of trust that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Google Assistant, the search giant's new personal digital assistant, is barely available to users, but Google isn't wasting any time opening it up to developers. During the company's hardware event on Tuesday, Google announced two new developer programs to build Google Assistant into pretty much anything you can think of. "Going back to Google's earliest days we've always worked hard to create healthy open platforms," said Scott Huffman, who leads the Google Assistant engineering team. "The Google Assistant will be our next thriving open ecosystem." The first new program is called Actions on Google, which will launch in early December and allow app makers to build Google Assistant into their services.