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Is My Phone Listening to Me?


Am I paranoid, or is my phone listening to me? I was talking to my friend about signing up for a half marathon when I'm done with physical therapy and ready to run again. We began talking about running shoes and what kind of shoes she has been using lately. I pulled out my phone and began typing "runn" and Google suggested "running shoes". Then we talked specifically about Running Warehouse and the good prices they have on shoes. I then pulled out my phone again to type "runn" into my phone but this time Google suggested "running warehouse" instead of running shoes. I was honestly a little freaked out so I didn't click on running warehouse or browse their website. Later on in the afternoon I realized I had ads on Facebook for Running Warehouse and different deals they had going on. 

So is my phone listening to me? How do I make it stop?

I'm not alone in my thinking. Our phones may actually be listening to us even when we're not using them. Stories of the Internet tell of people who say words and then either get search results or targeted ads based on words they said aloud in the presence of their cell phones.

According to the BBC, Google and Facebook deny using your microphone for advertising purposes. 

"Google said it categorically does not use what it calls utterances - the background sounds before a person says, 'OK Google' to activate the voice recognition - for advertising or any other purpose. It also said it does not share audio acquired in that way with third parties.

Its listening abilities only extend to activating its voice services, a spokesperson said.

Facebook also told the BBC it does not allow brands to target advertising based around microphone data and it never shares data with third parties without consent."
 
I don't know if I'm buying it. I've had way too many occurrences with advertisements on my phone matching what I've said for them to all be coincidences. Here's a news clip about this very thing.


You can do your own experiment to see if your phone is listening to you but regardless if you think this is true or not, be sure to check the permissions to you give to your apps to use your microphone. Some apps, like Shazam, need your microphone to function, but other apps may not need it. Turn off the microphone for any apps you don't want to have access to your microphone. 


References:

Mohr, C. N. (2020, January 3). Is Your Phone Is Listening to You? Here's How to Stop It. The Wonder of Tech. https://wonderoftech.com/phone-listening/.

Comments

  1. CourtneyJune 13, 2020 at 9:13 AM

    Great video! This topic has been very interesting to explore this week! Thank you for sharing your insight on this topic, Leah. It has been very insightful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bruce E. Screws, Jr.June 14, 2020 at 10:59 PM

    Leah,
    You shared a great tip about permissions on phones! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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