Many people happen that shortly after a conversation on a topic, the smartphone gives us properly selected search results and advertisements. You can then get the impression that smartphones are eavesdropping on us.
Do you also feel that your smartphone is listening to you? We explain how it works
Is it really? In a way, yes. Ad companies collect data about users, such as search terms, websites visited, location, etc. They then use this data to display personalized ads.
Smartphones can also record our conversations accidentally. They do not actively record our conversations. However, if we use the Google Assistant that listens to voice commands, we may be recorded.
How do advertisers know what we want? The smartphone helps with this
Most advertising is based on data that is passively collected, such as our web searches and location. Thanks to the fact that most people use applications with access to this data, e.g. Google Maps, banking applications or social media, advertising companies already have a lot of information without the need to record our conversations. It happens that this data is supplemented with information from captured recordings. Importantly, the system does not have to record us, but the applications that run in the background.
There are many other ways smartphones can process data. For example, Google may collect information about your location and search queries, Facebook may collect information about your posts and online activity. This information may be used to display relevant advertisements.
Are you afraid of eavesdropping? Disable this feature
What to do to protect your privacy? First, disable the audio recording features in Google Assistant or other apps that use this capability. This can be done in the smartphone settings. Then you should limit the sharing of data with individual applications. This can be done in the privacy settings. It is also worth regularly deleting cookies and cache in the web browser to prevent the collection of data about our activity on the Internet.
Whether the smartphone has collected any sound data can be checked in your account under this . We will also delete the collected conversation fragments here.
Apps can hear
We should pay a lot of attention to application permissions. It may happen that the terms of use contain provisions on the possibility of taking sound samples. You sometimes allow your device’s microphone to be used to record ambient sounds. Some applications may abuse these permissions, so it is not worth installing a calculator on your smartphone that wants to make phone calls.
In newer versions of Android, we are informed that our microphone is in use – this is indicated by the icon appearing in the top bar.
Microphone access can be restricted to essential applications only. You can control which app is “spying” on you by following these steps:
- Open your Android device’s settings.
- Select the “Apps” or “Apps & notifications” option.
- Find the app whose microphone you want to restrict
- Open its settings.
- Find the “Permissions” section.
- Find the “Microphone” option and turn it off
The above steps must be repeated for each application separately.
You can also use the help of applications such as “App Ops” or “Privacy Guard”, which help to supervise access to our data.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
