it is September neon application It briefly became a sensation on the app download charts by promising users they would pay to record and share their phone calls. Then it was suddenly shut down amid controversy over its security practices, privacy and payment structure.
Just over a month later, Neon returned to the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, and a few days later, the New York-based company offered a new payment plan. The founder, Alex Kiam, claims that the security issues have been resolved, but does not provide further details.
It is unclear how far the company has come. An email Kiam sent to users on Thursday was full of phrases like “while we are preparing this new version of the app” and “as soon as the new version of the app is released.”
During our tests, we were unable to get the new version of Neon to work on iOS. A screen asking to confirm a phone number to connect to did not result in a call as expected.
Neon sells recordings of user conversations to companies that train artificial intelligence models to search for real-world information, such as how people speak in a conversation. The company claims to anonymize call information.
What has changed with the Neon app?
Shortly after Neon topped the App Store rankings, news site TechCrunch published it. a security breach has been detected This provided access to other users’ conversations, including transcripts and metadata about the conversations. After the app became unavailable, Kiam said the company would fix the problem and the app would return with a bonus for users.
Back then, app users could call anyone and get paid. According to the company, only the user portion of the app was sold because in some states it is not legal to record a conversation without consent.
The new version tries to solve these health issues with a new app-to-app configuration: both callers must have the Neon app installed, essentially making it an opt-in service. Only calls from one Neon user to another Neon user will be charged, meaning both parties to the call are registered with the company.
In his Thursday email, Kiam included details of the updated payment plan. It starts by paying users 20 cents per minute for the first 20 minutes of conversation per day, up to a maximum of $4 per day. The plan also provides payments for referrals to the app, up to $50 per day in referral earnings — as long as users “don’t try to game the system with fake calls” — with the possibility of a higher daily maximum for users “who have been referred by many people.”
This means that much of the revenue potential depends on users convincing others to sign up and use the app.
Users who comment Google Play Store They gave negative reviews to the company, complaining that the referral rate has dropped to $1 and call rates can be as low as 5 cents per minute. Currently, the app has a rating of 2.2 out of 5 stars in the Google Play Store and 2.7 out of 5 stars in the iOS App Store.
Neon security issue
When Neon went offline, it did so in hopes that the company would fix the vulnerability that could have allowed someone to access other users’ conversations.
Neon fixed the underlying issue discovered by TechCrunch, Kiam said, and found no evidence that “malicious actors” had access to the database. He would not say how the company solved the problem.
The delay in Neon’s return to iOS was unintentional, he said. “I wanted to get Neon back quickly, but it was important to get it right.”
Updated Neon Terms of Service
As part of the relaunch, Neon has removed the $30 per day limit on pending withdrawals. Kiam said the company is planning “a nice surprise in the future” for those who already use the app.
According to the update Terms of Use Starting Nov. 3, those who sign up for the app agree that Neon may sell and offer for sale call recordings “for the purpose of developing, training, testing, and improving machine learning models, tools, and systems for artificial intelligence and related technologies.”
There are still troubling terms surrounding Neon’s rights and licenses, which give the company the authority to publicly display, play and distribute call recordings “in any media format and through any media channel.”
The appeal of earning a few extra bucks with minimal effort is understandable, especially when many people are worried about their money due to layoffs in the tech industry, the shutdown of the US government, and more. delay services such as the SNAP food assistance program.
However, security concerns, the ethics of sharing personal conversations with AI companies, lack of clarity about payments and complaints in user reviews should give users pause.
“I expected the business to grow pretty quickly because … we’re giving people money for something they were going to do anyway,” Kiam said. “We were convinced there was a real demand for something like this.”
