#13

Good point. But I am not sure that is correct .You can find the hearing aids even if you are well away from your cell phone. Something is going on inside the hearing aids that allows them to be tracked.

#14

in that case, you were required to connect to the phone app / internet every so often, or else they’d stop working until you did.

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#15

No, they can’t. Too little data to send to spies. Hearing aids cannot record conversations and do not have GPS or a camera. But the smartphone you are holding in your hands is a “legal” spy bug.

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#16

Geofencing via the phone GPS is used for program changes. Find my Aid uses proximity signalling. Data logging keeps environmental data.

Streaming audio and location data to the phone when the aids are not in an actual streaming/call mode? I’d doubt that as it would kill the batteries and is the absolute enemy of modern aid design.

Your phone/alexa does it passively all the time though.

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#17

HA’s cannot use GPS as for that you need a satellite connection system with antennas as for instance your phone. And if you want to add such a system in your HA you will need a lot of space. Your battery consumption will also rise more then for a super BT or WiFi connectivity. So don’t worry, don’t panic.

What happens in find my aids is that your connected phone will remember the location were it last connected to you aids and if it still has, or re- gets the connection because the batteries didn’t die in the mean time, will be able to point you to where your aids are or have been last seen. In the contrary a cellphone connects to antenna’s and has to be online all the time to receive signals. Next to that is able to contact your aids if they are nearby and that is what it does.

Their is a huge log- file in your HA’s which can be written to and read out. Programs you used, programs you made, and for how long, settings you changed, counting used time to allow signals in trials about returning the device, how many times you did a start up or a mute, how long and when you used BT etc.
The available memory for these tasks is very small because this doesn’t need much space. It will even be big enough to take up location dates given by your phone if this would be necessary. Question only which moment or place do you want to record. The HA already has to collect enough data and do it’s job without this extra information. If you want continuesly GPS tracking it is like creating a movie and for that it needs a lot more space. More then available in a HA. And what would be the sentence to collect this movie and build in the space of your cheap small HA?

Stay calm, big brother is watching you. But this GPS function isn’t foreseen at the moment.

And for the rest, yes if you don’t want you provider to collect your usage data which can be spied you have to say so and he/ she has to programm this in the fitting software. In the Netherlands this is a privacy issue and the provider should ask permission to collect these data either way. Some fitting software even show that patient logging is not yet set if the HA’s are connected. But I suspect the fitter will leave it as is because they are or aren’t used to change these settings.

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#18

Thank you for your explanation! I was wondering how that all worked.

#19

Interesting! I’ve recently started DIY and in the programming software (Target) I discovered that data logging had been enabled by the audi who sold me these aids. Disappointing that they did not ask my permission, did not tell me they had enabled logging, did not mark the check box for permission in the software… really I think all audis should ask permission for logging, at least as a courtesy, even if it’s not a legal requirement (yet?).

#20

This was quite an interesting read! Personally whenever I attend a protest I always turn my hearing aids on “flight mode” Just in case, while unlikely there are ways for police and the like to use Bluetooth/phone data as a way to get your information.

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#21

I suppose every Bluetooth has a MAC address that is specific to its hardware, so it could be traceable.

Not sure about that!

On another note, I think it is primordial that HA manufacturer add a Bluetooth button on/off switch, so one can disable Bluetooth on hardware level, rather than go to the HCP to switch it off.

#22

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re no out to get you.:grin::grin::grin:

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#23

Jeezz! Now hearing tracker is joining the conspiracy theory mob. Some folks just need to get a life, stop worrying about this stuff, and stop cluttering up this otherwise useful website with junk.

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#25

You are correct, and I will not follow this thread any longer.

#28

Agreed. GPS takes a LOT of power, and between the size of the components and the power requirements will likely never be incorporated into the HAs. But, since the HAs connect to your smart phone with GPS, it would not be difficult for the HAs to track you. That is likely how the find your HAs functions work. They get position information from your smart phone and possibly continuously store the position in the app. If communication with the smart phone is lost, the app would at least know the last location where the HAs were in contact with the phone.

#29
  1. The thing about being paranoid is, you only have to be right once.
  2. If it hadn’t been for people like Julian Assagne, people in the U.S. and elsewhere still wouldn’t be aware of the underhanded, dirty tricks the U.S. government did against its citizens - and continues to do - even though they got a wrist slap ordering them to stop.
  3. Hearing Aid tracking - is it possible? I’ve seen nothing in these comments or anywhere else leading me to believe it’s possible - or not. But at least, I’m now aware of the possibility.
    Good posts.
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#31

The thing is, the phone needs to know about the aids and care to have any effect. Unless they are including tile or AirTag chips in the aids, or some other tracker that a significant proportion of phones look for, I find it unlikely.

WH

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#32

The mighty BALL PEEN HAMMER. Works like a charm.

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#33

There is a room at work where forbidden toys are not allowed to enter. One of my cow-orkers has HAs and permission to enter with them so long as he puts them in airplane mode and so far there hasn’t been any detections. You have maybe ten or fifteen minutes before they come for you if you bring a bad toy in the room.

I plan to ask for permission for my HAs. We’ll see.

WH

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#34

I remember going to a court house im Texas and being told no electronics, I pointed to my hearing aids and said without these I am going home. The guard said that my aids didn’t matter, it was my watch and phone that wasn’t allowed. I said we have a problem, my phone and my watch work together as remote control of my aids. Yes i was pushing it. I had asked to be excused from the jury due toy hearing loss and very low ability to understand what was being said. I knew this was a complicated one with lots of technical information. I was told they had someone that did sign language, I don’t know sign language. I had a short conversation with the judge, was threatening for not knowing sign language, my comment was I am hard of hearing not deaf, I use to have great hearing until my military service. The judge reluctantly dismissed me from jury duty. Well I now live in Arkansas, and due to my now recognized hearing disabilities i am excused from jury duty because of the fact i could be a liability to the outcome of any case.
Oh by the way even when my hearing was good enough i was never seated on a jury because lawyers don’t like a technical person that made a living as a troubleshooter.

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#35

I always picture an agent in a suit sitting in a clean room tracking me via phone or hearing aids. "Hmmm, he’s still playing guitar…good Lord he’s not very good…wait a minute he’s getting up…he’s in his car…this could be good!..he’s at the grocery store…maybe he’s meeting with a Russian agent? better send in a team to check on the clerks and see if he dropped off, I dunno, an illicit music score. send in a drone, agent 99, so we can follow him on the ride home. have a helicopter security crew ready to go!!! "etc.etc.

in other words, being clandestinely tracked is far, far down on the list of my worries. Have at it, boys!! what a laugh.

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#36

My thinking is simple, I live a very dull simple life that would just put anyone monitoring me to sleep.

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