Your phone is listening to you and making it easier for marketing companies to target you. What can you do about it?
Music: Lily J
Over the past year, there has been a 5% increase in the installation of monitoring apps, according to the NordVPN study.
This is a truth. Virtual assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa listen to their users all the time.
The best way to see if your phone is helping marketing companies target you is by cheating on it.
Choose a good theme:
It should be something that doesn’t normally associate with your personality, something you’d never talk about.
Isolate the theme from your phone:
Don’t use your phone or any other device you own to search for information on this topic.
Choose the keywords:
Think of a list of topic-related keywords that search engines can use.
Do this for several days in a row. Make sure you never look for information about the topic in any other way: your phone should only hear you talk about it.
Discuss the topic aloud next to your phone:
Music: Lily J
Once you’ve cheated, check to see if new ads appear on your social media or other digital channels that are related to this topic.
If this happens, then your phone is probably helping you receive this advertising.
Music: Lily J
Is it legal to listen to users?
This only becomes illegal if an app spies on you without your consent.
How can you protect your privacy?
First, you should review your apps’ permissions.
Some apps may want to access your microphone for no reason.
Also, delete logs of your activities from time to time, and turn off the audio recording feature.
Finally, install a VPN on your smartphone to enhance your privacy.