Neon App Promises Return After Privacy Breach, Raising Concerns About AI Training Data

Viral app Neon vows to return to sell more of your phone calls to AI companies

Neon, a service that pays you for recordings of your phone calls and then sells those to AI companies for training data, seems set to return in the wake of a privacy breach. The app swiftly went viral after its debut, but it has been on ice since last week after a security flaw emerged. According to CNET, Neon founder Alex Kiam apologized for the incident in an email to users and said the app would return "soon." It went offline after TechCrunch found users were able to access other people's call recordings, along with transcripts and metadata. Neon pledged to add extra layers of security during the outage before making a comeback. While the app has been offline, users have been unable to cash out their payments. Neon pays them up to $30 per day for call recordings -- 30 cents per minute for chats with other Neon users, and 15 cents per minute for calls with anyone else. It offers $30 for referring a newcomer to the app as well. In the email to users on Tuesday, Liam wrote that, "Your earnings have not disappeared -- when we're back online, we'll pay you everything you've earned, plus a little bonus to thank you for your patience!"

Neon app to sell your audio calls says it will return despite breach

Neon, the app that pays you to share your audio recordings with an AI system, says that it will return despite its recent massive security breach. The app shot up the App Store ratings after promising to pay users hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year for allowing their audio conversations to be used to train AI chatbots ... Neon made headlines last week when it became the second most popular social app in the App Store. It also became the 6th most popular app overall. It claims to only record your side of the call unless both parties are using the app, but it's not entirely clear how true this is. When you make a call through the Neon app, it's recorded. If you're the only Neon user on the call, we'll only record your side. If both people are using Neon, we'll record both sides -- as long as at least one person starts the call in the app. Don't worry, our technology automatically filters out names, numbers, and other personal details. One cybersecurity expert and privacy attorney suggested that the company may in fact record both sides of the call and then remove the other party's words from the final transcript. As if the app weren't already a privacy nightmare, it was quickly found to have a truly incredible security vulnerability. Neon has gone offline, at least for now, after a security flaw allowed anyone to access the phone numbers, call recordings, and transcripts of any other user, TechCrunch can now report [...] To make matters worse, TechCrunch also revealed that, based on the transcripts and call recordings it accessed, some users were trying to game the app and maximize their payouts by secretly recording real-world conversations of people who didn't know they were being recorded. The company responded by taking the app offline, while leaving it in the App Store for download. CNET reports Neon saying it will return soon. Alex Kiam, the founder of Neon, emailed app users on Tuesday to inform them that their payments are still in place, despite the app going dark [...] He promised Neon would be back "soon" and apologized. He did not respond to a request for further comment. Lawyers have warned that it isn't clear whether the app complies with the law in those states where two-party consent is required for audio recordings. Users could find themselves both criminally and civilly liable.