Neon the No 2 social app on the Apple App Store pays users to record their phone calls and sells data to AI firms TechCrunch
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ppA new app offering to record your phone calls and pay you for the audio so it can sell the data to AI companies is unbelievably the No 2 app in Apples US App Stores Social Networking section ppThe app Neon Mobile pitches itself as a moneymaking tool offering hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year for access to your audio conversationsppNeons website says the company pays 30 per minute when you call other Neon users and up to 30 per day maximum for making calls to anyone else The app also pays for referrals The app first ranked No 476 in the Social Networking category of the US App Store on September 18 but jumped to No 10 at the end of yesterday according to data from app intelligence firm AppfiguresppOn Wednesday Neon was spotted in the No 2 position on the iPhones top free charts for social appsppNeon also became the No 7 top overall app or game earlier on Wednesday morning and became the No 6 top appppAccording to Neons terms of service the companys mobile app can capture users inbound and outbound phone calls However Neons marketing claims to only record your side of the call unless its with another Neon userppThat data is being sold to AI companies Neons terms of service state for the purpose of developing training testing and improving machine learning models artificial intelligence tools and systems and related technologiesppThe fact that such an app exists and is permitted on the app stores is an indication of how far AI has encroached into users lives and areas once thought of as private Its high ranking within the Apple App Store meanwhile is proof that there is now some subsection of the market seemingly willing to exchange their privacy for pennies regardless of the larger cost to themselves or societyppDespite what Neons privacy policy says its terms include a very broad license to its user data where Neon grants itself appworldwide exclusive irrevocable transferable royaltyfree fully paid right and license with the right to sublicense through multiple tiers to sell use host store transfer publicly display publicly perform including by means of a digital audio transmission communicate to the public reproduce modify for the purpose of formatting for display create derivative works as authorized in these Terms and distribute your Recordings in whole or in part in any media formats and through any media channels in each instance whether now known or hereafter developedppThat leaves plenty of wiggle room for Neon to do more with users data than it claims ppThe terms also include an extensive section on beta features which have no warranty and may have all sorts of issues and bugsppThough Neons app raises many red flags it may be technically legal ppRecording only one side of the phone call is aimed at avoiding wiretap laws Jennifer Daniels a partner with the law firm Blank Romes Privacy Security Data Protection Group tells TechCrunchppUnder the laws of many states you have to have consent from both parties to a conversation in order to record it Its an interesting approach says DanielsppPeter Jackson cybersecurity and privacy attorney at Greenberg Glusker agreed and tells TechCrunch that the language around onesided transcripts sounds like it could be a backdoor way of saying that Neon records users calls in their entirety but may just remove what the other party said from the final transcriptppIn addition the legal experts pointed to concerns about how anonymized the data may really be ppNeon claims it removes users names emails and phone numbers before selling data to AI companies But the company doesnt say how AI partners or others it sells to could use that data Voice data could be used to make fake calls that sound like theyre coming from you or AI companies could use your voice to make their own AI voicesppOnce your voice is over there it can be used for fraud says Jackson Now this company has your phone number and essentially enough information they have recordings of your voice which could be used to create an impersonation of you and do all sorts of fraudppEven if the company itself is trustworthy Neon doesnt disclose who its trusted partners are or what those entities are allowed to do with users data further down the road Neon is also subject to potential data breaches as any company with valuable data may beppIn a brief test by TechCrunch Neon did not offer any indication that it was recording the users call nor did it warn the call recipient The app worked like any other voiceoverIP app and the caller ID displayed the inbound phone number as usual Well leave it to security researchers to attempt to verify the apps other claimsppNeon founder Alex Kiam didnt return a request for commentppKiam who is identified only as Alex on the company website operates Neon from a New York apartment a business filing showsppA LinkedIn post indicates Kiam raised money from Upfront Ventures a few months ago for his startup but the investor didnt respond to an inquiry from TechCrunch as of the time of writingppThere was a time when companies looking to profit from data collection through mobile apps handled this type of thing on the sly ppWhen it was revealed in 2019 that Facebook was paying teens to install an app that spies on them it was a scandal The following year headlines buzzed again when it was discovered that app store analytics providers operated dozens of seemingly innocuous apps to collect usage data about the mobile app ecosystem There are regular warnings to be wary of VPN apps which often arent as private as they claim There are even government reports detailing how agencies regularly purchase personal data thats commercially available on the marketppNow AI agents regularly join meetings to take notes and alwayson AI devices are on the market But at least in those cases everyone is consenting to a recording Daniels tells TechCrunchppIn light of this widespread usage and sale of personal data there are likely now those cynical enough to think that if their data is being sold anyway they may as well profit from it ppUnfortunately they may be sharing more information than they realize and putting others privacy at risk when they do ppThere is a tremendous desire on the part of certainly knowledge workers and frankly everybody to make it as easy as possible to do your job says Jackson And some of these productivity tools do that at the expense of obviously your privacy but also increasingly the privacy of those with whom you are interacting on a daytoday basisppppTopicspp
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pp Bending Spoons acquires file transfer service WeTransfer
pp Moxxie Ventures led by exTwitter media head raises 95M third fund
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ppA new app offering to record your phone calls and pay you for the audio so it can sell the data to AI companies is unbelievably the No 2 app in Apples US App Stores Social Networking section ppThe app Neon Mobile pitches itself as a moneymaking tool offering hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year for access to your audio conversationsppNeons website says the company pays 30 per minute when you call other Neon users and up to 30 per day maximum for making calls to anyone else The app also pays for referrals The app first ranked No 476 in the Social Networking category of the US App Store on September 18 but jumped to No 10 at the end of yesterday according to data from app intelligence firm AppfiguresppOn Wednesday Neon was spotted in the No 2 position on the iPhones top free charts for social appsppNeon also became the No 7 top overall app or game earlier on Wednesday morning and became the No 6 top appppAccording to Neons terms of service the companys mobile app can capture users inbound and outbound phone calls However Neons marketing claims to only record your side of the call unless its with another Neon userppThat data is being sold to AI companies Neons terms of service state for the purpose of developing training testing and improving machine learning models artificial intelligence tools and systems and related technologiesppThe fact that such an app exists and is permitted on the app stores is an indication of how far AI has encroached into users lives and areas once thought of as private Its high ranking within the Apple App Store meanwhile is proof that there is now some subsection of the market seemingly willing to exchange their privacy for pennies regardless of the larger cost to themselves or societyppDespite what Neons privacy policy says its terms include a very broad license to its user data where Neon grants itself appworldwide exclusive irrevocable transferable royaltyfree fully paid right and license with the right to sublicense through multiple tiers to sell use host store transfer publicly display publicly perform including by means of a digital audio transmission communicate to the public reproduce modify for the purpose of formatting for display create derivative works as authorized in these Terms and distribute your Recordings in whole or in part in any media formats and through any media channels in each instance whether now known or hereafter developedppThat leaves plenty of wiggle room for Neon to do more with users data than it claims ppThe terms also include an extensive section on beta features which have no warranty and may have all sorts of issues and bugsppThough Neons app raises many red flags it may be technically legal ppRecording only one side of the phone call is aimed at avoiding wiretap laws Jennifer Daniels a partner with the law firm Blank Romes Privacy Security Data Protection Group tells TechCrunchppUnder the laws of many states you have to have consent from both parties to a conversation in order to record it Its an interesting approach says DanielsppPeter Jackson cybersecurity and privacy attorney at Greenberg Glusker agreed and tells TechCrunch that the language around onesided transcripts sounds like it could be a backdoor way of saying that Neon records users calls in their entirety but may just remove what the other party said from the final transcriptppIn addition the legal experts pointed to concerns about how anonymized the data may really be ppNeon claims it removes users names emails and phone numbers before selling data to AI companies But the company doesnt say how AI partners or others it sells to could use that data Voice data could be used to make fake calls that sound like theyre coming from you or AI companies could use your voice to make their own AI voicesppOnce your voice is over there it can be used for fraud says Jackson Now this company has your phone number and essentially enough information they have recordings of your voice which could be used to create an impersonation of you and do all sorts of fraudppEven if the company itself is trustworthy Neon doesnt disclose who its trusted partners are or what those entities are allowed to do with users data further down the road Neon is also subject to potential data breaches as any company with valuable data may beppIn a brief test by TechCrunch Neon did not offer any indication that it was recording the users call nor did it warn the call recipient The app worked like any other voiceoverIP app and the caller ID displayed the inbound phone number as usual Well leave it to security researchers to attempt to verify the apps other claimsppNeon founder Alex Kiam didnt return a request for commentppKiam who is identified only as Alex on the company website operates Neon from a New York apartment a business filing showsppA LinkedIn post indicates Kiam raised money from Upfront Ventures a few months ago for his startup but the investor didnt respond to an inquiry from TechCrunch as of the time of writingppThere was a time when companies looking to profit from data collection through mobile apps handled this type of thing on the sly ppWhen it was revealed in 2019 that Facebook was paying teens to install an app that spies on them it was a scandal The following year headlines buzzed again when it was discovered that app store analytics providers operated dozens of seemingly innocuous apps to collect usage data about the mobile app ecosystem There are regular warnings to be wary of VPN apps which often arent as private as they claim There are even government reports detailing how agencies regularly purchase personal data thats commercially available on the marketppNow AI agents regularly join meetings to take notes and alwayson AI devices are on the market But at least in those cases everyone is consenting to a recording Daniels tells TechCrunchppIn light of this widespread usage and sale of personal data there are likely now those cynical enough to think that if their data is being sold anyway they may as well profit from it ppUnfortunately they may be sharing more information than they realize and putting others privacy at risk when they do ppThere is a tremendous desire on the part of certainly knowledge workers and frankly everybody to make it as easy as possible to do your job says Jackson And some of these productivity tools do that at the expense of obviously your privacy but also increasingly the privacy of those with whom you are interacting on a daytoday basisppppTopicspp
Consumer News Editor
ppFounders Your next big connection and investor are hereInvestors Meet startups that align with your investment goalsInnovators Visionaries See the future of tech before everyone elseRegister now and save up to 444 or up to 30 on groupspp Zendesk says its new AI agent can solve 80 of support issues
pp The reinforcement gap or why some AI skills improve faster than others
pp Sequoiabacked Knowde raises Series C at a valuation cut
pp Bending Spoons acquires file transfer service WeTransfer
pp Moxxie Ventures led by exTwitter media head raises 95M third fund
pp Canva acquires Leonardoai to boost its generative AI efforts
pp Applied Intuition closes 300M secondary four months after raising 250M
pp 2025 TechCrunch Media LLCp
