What if you could earn up to $30 a day just by talking on your phone? That’s the tantalizing promise of Neon, an app that skyrocketed to the top of the App Store charts in late September 2025. Its premise is simple: let Neon record your calls and get paid. The data is then sold to train artificial intelligence models.
On the surface, Neon looks like a quick way to earn extra cash. But a closer look at its terms of service and expert commentary reveals serious concerns about privacy, legality, and data security.
How Neon Works (and How Much It Pays)
Neon’s model is designed for viral growth, offering a clear financial incentive:
- Pay Rate: $0.15 per minute for calls to non-Neon users and $0.30 per minute when both parties use the app.
- Earning Cap: Users can earn up to $30 per day, plus bonuses for referrals.
- Payouts: Neon advertises instant payouts via PayPal or direct deposit once a user has earned at least $0.10.
This payment structure was incredibly effective, helping propel Neon into the App Store's top ranks. CNET’s coverage confirmed the app briefly outranked titans like TikTok, Temu, and even Google.
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| Neon ranking at the top of the Apple App Store charts |
What Neon is Really Recording
Herein lies the first major red flag. There is a significant disconnect between Neon's marketing and its legal terms.
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Neon’s Marketing Claim: The app only captures your side of the conversation, unless both parties are Neon users.
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Neon’s Terms of Service: Users grant the company a sweeping, irrevocable license to “sell, use, host, store, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, create derivative works, and distribute” recordings, in any format, now or in the future.
TechCrunch’s in-depth report highlights this contradiction, warning that Neon’s legal terms allow it to do far more with your voice recordings than its simple marketing suggests.
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The Billion-Dollar Market for Your Voice: Why AI Needs Real Conversations
Why are AI companies willing to pay for this data? Training large language models (LLMs) to understand and replicate human speech requires massive datasets of natural conversations. Synthetic audio often fails to capture the subtle nuances of real-world speech, such as:
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Filler words (“uh,” “like,” “you know”)
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Natural interruptions and pauses
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Authentic emotional tone and inflection
“The industry is hungry for real conversations because they capture timing, filler words, interruptions and emotions that synthetic data misses,” explains Zahra Timsah, CEO of i-Gentic AI, in CNET’s piece.
Is Recording Your Calls Legal? Neon's Risky Approach to Wiretap Laws
Recording phone calls is governed by a patchwork of state laws in the U.S. The key distinction is between “one-party” and “two-party” (or “all-party”) consent.
| Consent Type | What It Means | Example States | How Neon Might Approach It |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-Party Consent | Only one person on the call needs to consent to the recording (i.e., the Neon user). | New York, Texas, Virginia, Ohio | ✅ Legally Simpler: Neon's business model works as advertised here. |
| Two-Party Consent | All parties on the call must consent to being recorded. | California, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania | ⚠️ Legally Risky: Neon would need explicit consent from the non-user, or their “one-sided recording” faces a major legal challenge. |
Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes and is not legal advice. Laws are subject to change.
Privacy lawyer Jennifer Daniels told TechCrunch, “Recording only one side of the phone call is aimed at avoiding wiretap laws… It’s an interesting approach.” However, critics warn this is a legally gray area at best.
Your Voice is Your Password: The Unseen Risks of Voice Data Collection
Even if Neon successfully removes your name and phone number, your voice itself is a uniquely identifiable biometric marker. Sure, $30 a day sounds nice — but would you sell your voiceprint to strangers for that price?
The risks are significant:
- Voice Cloning & Scams: Malicious actors could use high-quality recordings of your voice to create “deepfake” audio to impersonate you to friends and family.
- Authentication Fraud: Many banks and financial institutions still use voiceprints for identity verification. A clean sample of your voice is a key for thieves.
- Re-identification: AI can easily infer identities from contextual clues left in conversations, even if personal details are redacted.
TechCrunch’s analysis makes it clear: Neon’s anonymization claims offer little protection against these advanced threats.
Early User Experiences: A Tale of Two Apps
- iOS App: A runaway success, hitting the top of Apple’s free app chart with users reporting successful payouts.
- Android App: A different story. The app sits at a dismal ~2.3 stars on the Google Play Store, with a flood of reviews reporting network errors, failed recordings, and an inability to cash out their earnings.
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| Neon app |
Who’s Behind Neon?
The company maintains a low profile. According to business filings reviewed by TechCrunch, Neon was founded by Alex Kiam (listed only as “Alex” on the official site) and operates from a New York apartment. While the company has reportedly raised money from Upfront Ventures, the VC firm has not commented publicly.
Final Takeaway: Should You Use Neon?
The rise of Neon is a sign of a major shift in public attitude. Many now assume their data is already being collected and sold, so they might as well get a piece of the profit. But the hidden costs — exposure to fraud, identity theft, and the permanent loss of control over your biometric data — are very real.
Before you download the app and start recording, ask yourself these three questions:
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Am I okay with my voice being sold to unknown companies for unknown purposes, forever?
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Do the people I’m calling have a right to know they are being recorded for a company’s profit?
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Is $30 a day worth the risk of my voice being cloned for a scam or used to bypass my bank’s security?
The extra cash might be tempting, but the potential risks could last a lifetime.
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