How Many Listens to Your Phone to Sell You Targeted Ads?
Have you ever talked about something with a friend and then received an ad about the same thing? It makes you wonder if your phone is listening to you and what you can do to stop it. But how much do our phones track us?
Is your phone listening to your conversations?
Short answer: yes, your phone is listening to you, but not always maliciously. In most cases, when you get ads for something you weren’t looking for, it’s not because your phone heard you talking about it. The truth is that the AI is almost as good at connecting the dots.
Everything you do online – from liking a photo to watching a video to following an account – leaves a record, and apps like Facebook collect all that data to send ads. In many cases, they use AI to connect data dots to determine what you like, even if it’s something you haven’t clicked on before. And since data mining companies sell their information and apps have access to a lot of our personal data, companies can interpret us pretty well without even explicitly listening .
However, in some cases, your phone actually listens to you. Your microphone is always on by default , so it can hear you use commands like “Hey Siri” or “Ok Google.” While it may not write this data, it is always listening for it, and some applications may use this feature.
Why is your phone tracking you so often?
All of this data tracking serves one obvious purpose: marketing. The average person spends 85% of their time on their phone in just five apps—usually social networks—so companies are willing to pay more to advertise on those sites.
But remember that in most cases, targeted ads are not the result of apps using your microphone data. If you really want to stop apps from tracking you, you’ll have to turn off all sorts of permissions, from location data to cookies. The most effective way to maintain privacy is to remember that every action leaves a trail and be more mindful of what you do online.
How to make sure that your phone is not tapped
If you want, you can turn off phone listening if you want better control over your privacy. On iOS, open Settings, then go to Siri & Search. Disable “Listen for Hey Siri”, “Press the side button for Siri” and “Allow Siri when locked” and your phone will stop listening.
On Android, open Settings, then go to Google, then Account Services, then Search, Assistant, and Voice. From there, tap “Voice” and turn off “Hey Google.” After that, your phone will no longer listen in the background.
Disabling voice assistants will prevent apps from using your voice data. However, some may have access to your microphone while using the app. Luckily, there are built-in functions to help you notice these cases.
In iOS 14 and later, an orange dot appears at the top of the screen when an app is using your microphone. You can then go to settings, find that app, and turn off its microphone access. On Android, open Settings, go to Apps & Notifications, then Advanced, then Permission Manager. You’ll see which apps have access and you can disable it from there.