Privacy in the confessional: Is your smartphone listening to your sins?

[Michie]

Anyone who uses a smartphone has likely experienced the same unsettling phenomenon — a pointedly placed advertisement that seems to show up right after you’ve discussed a topic or product.

Could it be true that your phone is “listening” to your private conversations?

It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer — and one that has bred enough uncertainty that bishops are starting to issue bans on smartphones in that most private of Catholic spaces: the confessional.

Continued below.

Is your smartphone listening to your sins in the confessional?

Could it be true that your phone is “listening” to your private conversations — including in the confessional?

www.catholicnewsagency.com

 

[mourningdove~]

... best to leave the smartphone in the car!

 

[RileyG]

Thank God I never have my phone on me when I’m in Church.

 

[tz620q]

Anyone who uses a smartphone has likely experienced the same unsettling phenomenon — a pointedly placed advertisement that seems to show up right after you’ve discussed a topic or product.

Could it be true that your phone is “listening” to your private conversations?

It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer — and one that has bred enough uncertainty that bishops are starting to issue bans on smartphones in that most private of Catholic spaces: the confessional.

Continued below.

Is your smartphone listening to your sins in the confessional?

Could it be true that your phone is “listening” to your private conversations — including in the confessional?

www.catholicnewsagency.com

Oh man, this just gave me a great idea for an app. There used to be a phone service called Dial-a-Prayer. We need to start one for confessions. I say this sarcastically because it would be unwise and lead to cheapening our contrition before God and taking the sacrament of reconciliation seriously.

 

[Michie]

USA: use of cell phones in confessional forbidden - ZENIT - English

The Catholic Church regards the "seal of confession" as inviolable, one of its most sacred tenets.

zenit.org