A new mobile app named ‘Neon’ has quickly climbed the Apple App Store charts in the United States by offering to pay users for recording their phone calls. The app, now ranked second in the Social Networking category, pays users up to 30 cents per minute and as much as $30 a day for call recordings.
Neon showcases it as a way to earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year. It also pays bonuses for referrals. The app first appeared at 476th place in mid-September but rose to the top 10 within a week, according to data firm Appfigures.
According to Neon’s terms of service, the app records a user’s side of the call. If both parties use Neon, then the full conversation is recorded. This data is then sold to artificial intelligence companies for training and testing their systems.
The terms also grant Neon broad rights over user recordings, including the ability to store, reproduce, and distribute the audio. Legal experts say this raises serious privacy concerns.
“Recording only one side of the call is aimed at avoiding wiretap laws,” said Jennifer Daniels, a US privacy lawyer. However, experts also warned that the data could be used for fraud, such as creating fake voices, reports TechCrunch.
The company claims to remove personal details like names and phone numbers before selling the data. Lawyers argue it is unclear how secure or anonymous this process is. The app also does not disclose its partners.
Privacy advocates fear that users, lured by the promise of cash, may be exposing themselves and others to risks without realising it.
