New iOS App Lets You Record What You Heard Five Minutes Ago | Hacker News Reader

New iOS App Lets You Record What You Heard Five Minutes Ago

techcrunch.com

12 pointsngoel368 comments

If the point of this is to keep running all the time, wouldn't it kill battery?

If the application registers itself as a VOIP application, it can run continuously in the background and have access to the microphone. It is likely that this app is using that to get the audio, so it would kill the battery.

How good is the mic pickup when the phone is in your pocket?

Wouldn't using this app be illegal, at least in California?

Is this like some sort of PRISM joke app?

Nope - it's the audio equivalent of bicycle commuters wearing GoPros or the Russian dashboard camera phenomenon. There are things that happen rarely, but who's consequences are serious. At some stage it becomes worth recording _everything_ to ensure that you've got a record of those rare-but-important events.

Apart from the possible legal consequences of using something like this, I can see it being a useful idea.

It was more of an ironical statement, however the legality you brought up is definitely interesting. At least in California it's not legal to record conversations without the entire party's consent (except in rare circumstances). A number of other states have the same laws but I'm not sure if it's completely nation wide.

Then of course there is the massive battery drain

Where I am (NSW, Australia), the current "best legal advice" about recording your interactions with police is that it's legal to record conversations (even secretly), but it's not legal to play those recordings to anyone else. So you can't bring up your recording of a conversation with a police officer as evidence in court. What you _can_ do though, is if an officer lies about the contents or existence of a conversation, you can tell the court you've got a recording that proves a police officer has told the court something that's not true - and the court can then (legally) ask to hear your recording.

(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer - nor do I play one on youtube. If this matters to you, seek competent legal advice before acting on this information…)

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