Technologies

Call-Recording App Neon Disappeared Abruptly. Now It’s Back for Another Try

The app stirred privacy and security questions offering to pay people for recordings of their phone calls to train AI models. A security flaw didn’t help.

In September, the Neon app briefly became a sensation on app download charts by promising to pay users for recording and sharing their phone calls. Then it abruptly went offline amid controversy over its security practices, privacy protections and payment structure.

More than a month later, Neon has returned to the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store, and the New York-based companyfollowed up a few days later with a new payout formula. Its founder, Alex Kiam, says the security issues have been resolved, but without offering much detail.

How far the company has progressed remains unclear. An email from Kiam to users on Thursday was sprinkled with phrasing like «while we prepare this new version of the app» and «once the new version of the app launches.»

In our own tests, we were unable to get the new version of Neon to work on iOS. A screen that asks to verify a phone number for signup didn’t trigger a phone call as expected.

Neon sells the recordings of user calls to companies training AI models, which are hungry for real-world input, such as how people speak conversationally. The company says it anonymizes call information.

Privacy experts CNET spoke to warned against using the app in its previous incarnation due to concerns over call consent laws, and also noted that AI could infer user information or identities even if call data is anonymized.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

What’s changed with the Neon app?

Shortly after Neon soared on the app store charts, the news site TechCrunch discovered a security flaw that allowed people to access calls from other users, including transcripts and metadata about the calls. After the app went dark, Kiam said that the company would address the issue and that the app would return with a bonus for users.

At that time, users of the app could call anyone and get paid. According to the company, only the app user’s side of the call was sold, since in some states, it’s not legal to record a conversation without permission.

The new version is attempting to circumvent these state issues with a new app-to-app setup: Both parties to the call must have the Neon app installed, essentially making it an opt-in service. Only calls from one Neon user to another Neon user are paid, meaning both people on the call have signed up with the company.

In his email on Thursday, Kiam list details of the updated formula for payments. It starts out with pay to users of 20 cents per minute for the first 20 minutes of call time per day, to a maximum of $4 a day. The plan also describes payments for referrals to the app, up to $50 a day from referral earnings — as long as users «don’t try to game the system with fake calls» — with the potential for a higher daily maximum for users «who have referred a lot of people.»

That is, earning potential is based largely on users getting other people to sign up and use the app.

Users posting comments on the Google Play Store have given the company low ratings, complaining that referral rates have dropped to as low as $1 and that call payment rates may be as low as 5 cents per minute. The app currently has a rating of 2.2 stars out of 5 on the Google Play Store and 2.7 stars out of 5 on the App Store for iOS.

Security concerns with Neon

When Neon went offline, it was with the expectation that the company would fix the vulnerability that could have allowed someone to access calls from other users.

Kiam told CNET via email that the company «engaged with» three cybersecurity firms after the security hole was found and engaged a contractor to perform a code review to address security concerns. He said that Neon later hired that contractor as its chief technology officer. He didn’t name the contractor, but said the person is «the former CTO of a reasonably large tech company who has 20 years of experience building secure platforms.»

Neon addressed the underlying issue TechCrunch found, Kiam said, and didn’t discover any evidence of «malicious actors» accessing its database. He didn’t elaborate on how the company addressed that issue.

The delay in bringing Neon back to iOS was not intentional, he said. «I wanted to bring Neon back quickly, but it was important that we did this right.»

Neon’s updated terms of service

As part of its relaunch, Neon has waived the $30-per-day limit on pending payouts. Kiam said the company plans «a future pleasant surprise» for those who were already using the app.

According to the updated terms of service from Nov. 3, those who sign up for the app agree that Neon can «sell and offer for sale» call recordings «for the purpose of developing, training, testing, and improving machine learning models, artificial intelligence tools and systems, and related technologies.»

There is still concerning language regarding Neon’s rights and licenses that grant the company the authority to publicly display, reproduce and distribute call recordings «in any media formats and through any media channels.»

The appeal of earning a few extra bucks for very little effort is understandable, especially when many people are worried about money amid tech industry layoffs, the US government shutdown and the suspension of services like the SNAP food assistance program.

Still, security concerns, the ethics of turning over personal conversations to AI companies, the lack of clarity about payments and complaints in user reviews should give users pause.

In an interview with CNET in early October, Kiam said his company was overwhelmed by the sudden popularity of Neon, but not completely surprised.

«I expected things to grow pretty quickly because … we’re getting people money for something that they would do anyway,» Kiam said. «We felt confident that there was real demand for something like this.»

Technologies

Google, Meta and Amazon Join Global Pact to Fight Rising Online Scams

The companies will share fraud intelligence and coordinate responses as AI makes scams faster, cheaper and harder to detect.

Modern online scams operate across multiple platforms, perhaps spanning social media, messaging apps, email and online marketplaces. Google, Meta and Amazon are among 11 tech, retail and payments companies that have signed a new agreement to combat online scams by sharing threat intelligence across platforms, Axios first reported Monday.

The initiative, called the Industry Accord Against Online Scams & Fraud, is designed to improve how companies detect and respond to fraud that spans multiple services. Participants say they will exchange signals, such as scam-linked accounts and fraudulent domains, and coordinate enforcement actions.

By sharing intelligence in near real time, companies hope to identify these scams earlier and stop them before they spread.

The effort reflects how modern scams operate. A victim might encounter a fake celebrity investment ad on social media, move to a messaging app where the scammer builds trust, then faces prompts to send money through a fraudulent website, payment app or crypto wallet — spanning multiple companies’ ecosystems.

Google said it now blocks hundreds of millions of scam-related results every day using AI, underscoring how both attackers and defenders are increasingly relying on the same technology. Meta removed more than 159 million scam ads in 2025 and is expanding AI tools to detect impersonation and warn users.

Online scams are growing rapidly, in part because generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry. AI can be used not only to produce realistic phishing emails but also to clone voices and deepfake videos that impersonate executives, public figures and even family members.

The agreement is voluntary and doesn’t create new legal obligations, but it comes after regulators’ increased pressure on tech platforms to address fraud more aggressively. The companies say they will begin building frameworks for reporting and intelligence-sharing, though it’s not yet clear how quickly those systems will be deployed or how effective they will be in practice.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, March 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 18.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I thought it was a fairly easy one, but read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Word before «card,» flood» or «photography»
Answer: FLASH

6A clue: Joust weapon
Answer: LANCE

7A clue: Brain, heart or lungs
Answer: ORGAN

8A clue: «Frozen» reindeer
Answer: SVEN

9A clue: What can be found on frozen roads or frozen margaritas
Answer: SALT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Follow a dentist’s recommendation
Answer: FLOSS

2D clue: Baby bug
Answer: LARVA

3D clue: Shape made in the snow
Answer: ANGEL

4D clue: Very little
Answer: SCANT

5D clue: Egg layer
Answer: HEN

Technologies

Amazon Speeds Up Delivery Even More With 1- and 3-Hour Options

The retailer says the one-hour option is available in hundreds of cities, with discounted shipping for Prime members.

Same-day delivery apparently isn’t fast enough for some Amazon shoppers. The retail giant said on Tuesday it’s adding new shipping options that will get products to front doors within a one- or three-hour window.

The company said in its announcement that the one-hour option is available in hundreds of cities across the US, while the three-hour option is now live in more than 2,000 areas. Amazon’s web page at amazon.com/getitfast shows whether those options are available to shoppers for their location. More than 90,000 products will be available for those shipping windows, the company said.

For those who can’t get those services (including the author of this post, who lives between Austin and San Antonio in Texas), a message will display: «3-hour delivery is currently unavailable. Check back at a later time or shop products with Same-Day delivery below.»

Pricing for the faster delivery options is not cheap: It’ll cost you $20 for one-hour delivery and $15 for three-hour delivery for those without an Amazon Prime account, or $10 and $5 for customers who subscribe to Prime.

Last year, the company rolled out faster Amazon delivery options to 4,000 additional areas.

In a video of the podcast Learn and Be Curious with Doug Herrington, hosted by Amazon’s CEO of worldwide stores, Kandace Kapps, the director of the company’s same-day strategy team, spoke in more detail about the challenges of fast shipping. Kapps discussed shifts in customer buying habits over the last few years, such as more people buying household essentials like toilet paper on Amazon.

She said that Amazon can deliver so quickly by placing same-day delivery hubs close to customers in metro areas and by getting products ready to ship within 15 minutes, aided by warehouse robots.

«I think customers are going to continue to get magically surprised by how fast we can deliver to their doorstop,» Kapps said.

Herrington said fast shipping increases sales: «When we speed up the service, the probability that somebody buys a product from us goes up.»

Other retailers, including Walmart, have been adding same-day delivery options or exploring other ways to speed up shipping times to compete with Amazon.

Removing buyers’ moments of hesitation

Part of Amazon’s strategy, which has involved a massive buildout of locations, deployment of thousands of trucks, deals with other delivery services and investment in logistics software, is actually pretty simple: being there when people need last-minute items or make impulse buys.

«It’s about removing the last moment where you would’ve reconsidered the purchase,» said Stephanie Carls, retail insights expert at coupon and promotional-code website RetailMeNot, a sibling site of CNET. «It changes how you shop, not just how fast you get things.»

Carls said that Amazon’s super-fast delivery is removing the timeframe when people might change their minds about a purchase.

«There used to be a gap between deciding to buy something and actually having it. That’s when you’d price check, rethink it, or decide you didn’t need it after all,» she said. «This closes that gap.»

The retail expert said that competitors, including Walmart and Target, have been speeding up delivery times in some markets. Still, they’re not matching Amazon’s scale or product range at those speeds or levels of consistency.

«And that’s what starts to make everyone else feel slow,» Carls said. «Amazon’s advantage is how tightly connected its technology, inventory and delivery networks are, which makes this level of speed more repeatable.»