Neon App pays users to record their phone calls, sells data for AI training

TechCrunch reports about a “bizarre app” inviting you to record and share your audio calls so that it can sell the data to AI companies. And if that’s not weird enough on its own, it’s ranking No. 2 in Apple’s US app store at the time of writing.

The name of the app is Neon Mobile and it promises to pay users hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year. Why would you do it? Its reasoning is the old “they already know everything about you anyway” adage and “you might as well get paid for it then.”

Neon will sell the data collected by the app to “AI companies for the purpose of developing, training, testing, and improving machine learning models, artificial intelligence tools and systems, and related technologies.”

The payment is $0.15 per minute if you’re the only Neon Mobile user in the conversation, and this doubles when the person on the other end uses the app as well. With a maximum payout of $30 per day and the understanding that the call has to be made through the app, you’ll have to be on the phone a lot to make thousands of dollars, but we can see why this might be an attractive offer to some people.

Some people are even already planning to do it as a second job. One commenter says:

“They just want the voice data. So if you and a friend agree to talk about pretend situations for an hour a day to make $900 a month that seems pretty easy. If both parties are doing it that comes out to $18 an hour which is pretty good.”

Neon Mobile promises that:

• It will never sell your personal data to any third party.
• It does not knowingly or intentionally collect personal data about children under 16.
• It will only record your side of the call unless it’s with another Neon user.

We have some doubts about how it will accomplish the one-sided recording technically, as well automatically filtering out names, numbers, and other personal details.

As always, there are some caveats. Looking at the Privacy Policy we noticed:

• Neon collects a lot of personal and technical data about you, like identifiers, contact details, usage data, payment information, event participation, account activity, testimonials, and other data from third-party sources.
• Any third-party integrations are your responsibility. These third-party integrations may ask for permissions to access your personal data, or send information to your Neon Account. It is the user’s responsibility to review any third-party integrations.
• Your personal data is shared with others. Neon regularly passes personal data to service providers and “trusted partners” for things like hosting, marketing, sales support, and analytics. combined marketing, support, and analytics.
• You have certain rights, but not absolute ones. You can request to access, delete, or correct the personal data Neon Mobile collects or maintains about you, but Neon may deny requests when the law allows.
• You need to watch out for opt-outs. If Neon wants to use your data in a new way, or if it plans to disclose it to another third party not already covered in the Privacy Policy, it will give you the choice to refuse this new use or disclosure. But this an “opt out” opportunity, so you will have to pay close attention to every change in the Terms of service and the Privacy Policy.
• The disclosure rights are quite broad. Neon reserves the right to disclose data to comply with legal obligations, protect rights and safety, investigate fraud, or respond to law enforcement requests, with broad latitude for “compelled disclosure”.

In other words, Neon gathers and combines a wide range of personal and usage data, shares it with partners and third parties, and reserves broad rights to repurpose or disclose it—leaving users to monitor policy changes and opt out if they don’t agree.

Given the breadth of the data collection and the numerous caveats (while framed as protections against abuse), I’d argue that Neon Mobile is paying a low price for users’ privacy.

It’s also worth noting that if you become disappointed with the app or its returns, it takes more than just deleting the app from your device .

“If you delete the Neon app (but do not close your Neon account), your calls can still be recorded when other Neon users who have the app call you. If you want to stop call recordings with other Neon users, close your account through your profile settings.”

I’d also advise anyone using the app to inform the person on the other end that the conversation will be recorded, since failing to do so may have legal implications.

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