Neon, a buzzy app that pays to record your calls for AI training data, goes offline to address a security scandal

"Neon's premise is simple: You allow the app to record yourself during phone calls. The company said it pays 30 cents per minute for calls with other Neon users, or half of that if the other caller isn't on Neon. In turn, the app says the data is "anonymized and sold to trusted tech companies." "Phone companies profit off your data. Now, you can too," Neon's website reads."

"The arrangement, apart from sounding like something from an episode of "Black Mirror," naturally raises all sorts of privacy concerns. It also illustrates the creative ways companies are finding to feed AI companies the large amounts of data they need to train their models. On Thursday, those privacy concerns were front and center when TechCrunch reported that it had discovered a security flaw that "allowed anyone to access the phone numbers, call recordings, and transcripts of any other user.""

"A new app that broke into the top ranks of the App Store has a very 2025-sounding proposition: allow an AI data company to record your phone calls in exchange for money. Neon Mobile launched just over a week ago, but for a brief moment on Thursday, it was more popular than Meta's Threads on the Apple App Store. But the rising success story quickly came crashing back down to Earth later on Thursday after a data security vulnerability was thrust into the spotlight."

Neon Mobile launched offering payments to users who allow call recording. The app pays 30 cents per minute for calls with other Neon users, and half that if the other caller is not on Neon. CEO Alex Kiam plans to sell anonymized call data to tech companies for AI model training but has not secured buyers. The app briefly climbed the App Store charts, surpassing Meta's Threads. A TechCrunch report revealed a security flaw exposing phone numbers, recordings, and transcripts, prompting Kiam to take the app offline for a security audit.

Read at Business Insider