A mobile application named Neon Mobile, which compensates users for recording their phone conversations and subsequently sells the audio data to artificial intelligence (AI) companies, has rapidly climbed the Apple U.S. App Store charts. The app reached the No. 2 position within the Social Networking category and secured the No. 6 spot among all free applications on Wednesday, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures.
Neon Mobile markets itself as a tool for users to earn "hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year" by sharing their audio. The company's website states it offers 30 cents per minute for calls made to other Neon users and up to $30 daily for calls to non-Neon users, alongside payments for referrals. The app's ascent was swift, moving from No. 476 in the Social Networking category on September 18 to No. 10 by the end of Tuesday, as reported by Appfigures.
The application's terms of service indicate its capability to capture both inbound and outbound phone calls. While Neon's marketing materials claim to record only the user's side of a call, unless both parties are Neon users, its terms specify that the collected data is sold to "AI companies." This data is intended "for the purpose of developing, training, testing, and improving machine learning models, artificial intelligence tools and systems, and related technologies." The terms also grant Neon a "worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, royalty-free, fully paid right and license" to distribute recordings, in whole or in part, across various media.
Legal experts have commented on the app's operational model. Jennifer Daniels, a partner at Blank Rome's Privacy, Security & Data Protection Group, stated to TechCrunch that recording only one side of a call "is aimed at avoiding wiretap laws," noting that many states require consent from both parties. Peter Jackson, a cybersecurity and privacy attorney at Greenberg Glusker, suggested to TechCrunch that language regarding "one-sided transcripts" could imply full call recording with subsequent redaction. Concerns have also been raised regarding the anonymization of data, with Neon claiming to remove personal identifiers, yet experts like Jackson warn that voice data could still be used for fraud or creating voice impersonations.
A brief test conducted by TechCrunch indicated that the app provided no notification of recording to the user or call recipient. Neon founder Alex Kiam, operating from a New York apartment, did not respond to a request for comment. The app's rapid adoption occurs amidst a broader industrial trend where the widespread use and sale of personal data, particularly for AI training, have been noted to potentially desensitize users to privacy concerns, as observed by Daniels and Jackson.
