In the second spot of the U.S. App Store’s social networking chart appeared an unexpected contender—Neon Mobile, an application that promises users the ability to earn money by recording their phone calls and selling the data to companies working with artificial intelligence. The app advertises potential earnings of hundreds or even thousands of dollars annually, paying 30 cents per minute for conversations with other Neon users and up to $30 per day for calls made to non-users. Additional referral bonuses are also offered.
Its rise in popularity has been meteoric: on September 18, Neon ranked 476th in its category, yet within a week it had entered the top 10, and by the morning of September 24 it had climbed to seventh place among all apps and games, reaching the second position among free social networking services later that same evening.
According to its terms of use, the application can capture both incoming and outgoing calls, though it claims that technically only the user’s side of the conversation is recorded if the other party does not use Neon. However, legal experts caution that such phrasing could mean the entire call is indeed recorded, with the second party’s audio merely discarded afterward. This approach effectively skirts U.S. wiretapping laws, which in several states require the consent of both participants.
Neon asserts that it removes names, phone numbers, and email addresses before sharing recordings with AI firms. Yet the terms grant the company an extraordinarily broad and irrevocable license to exploit user data: the exclusive, perpetual, and transferable right to sell, store, reproduce, publicly display, modify, and create derivative works from recordings. In essence, the company can do virtually anything with a user’s voice, including reselling it downstream.
Experts warn that such access to both a voice sample and a phone number enables malicious actors to generate fraudulent calls or synthesize voices for scams. Neon does not disclose which companies purchase the recordings or how they are ultimately used. Even if Neon itself operates in good faith, users remain vulnerable to leaks or misuse by partners. Troublingly, the app displays no indicators of recording during a call and does not notify the other party. Technically, it behaves like a standard VoIP application with spoofed Caller ID.
Neon’s founder is identified as Alex Kiam, reportedly operating from an apartment in New York. In a LinkedIn post, he referenced investment from Upfront Ventures, though the investor has issued no public statement.
The emergence of such a service—and its rapid success—signals a profound shift in attitudes toward privacy in the age of AI. In 2019, Facebook faced a wave of backlash for installing surveillance apps on teenagers’ devices; today, similar practices spark less outrage, especially when users willingly sell their own privacy for pennies.
Legal experts emphasize that the danger extends beyond individual users: anyone who communicates with them may have their conversations recorded in the background without consent. This is particularly alarming in an era when AI is already embedded in video calls, transcribes meetings, and analyzes voice data. The trend suggests a new norm: if surveillance is inevitable, why not profit from it? The answer, attorneys caution, may ultimately cost far more than those thirty cents per minute.
