Are You Being Heard by Your Phone? Is it Really a Thing?

The phrase "I swear my phone is listening to me since I just saw this ad regarding the exact issue I was just talking about" is one that we frequently hear. Online advertisements unquestionably have a way of promoting the same goods and services that we discuss (and consider). Therefore, does your phone actually record your conversations? What's Worse? Your phone does not record your chats and sends them to a distant server where they are analyzed to create adverts that are then sent back to your phone. Yes, given how eerily relevant some commercials can feel, it's difficult to imagine that's not happening. We can promise you that this isn't the case, at least not for audio chats, as your phone isn't listening in on them. Photo Credit: WIRED Is It The Advertisers? It's alarmingly simple for advertising to infer accurately what you're saying and hearing without taking any audio recordings. In order to determine what others like you (and the circles you hang out in) are interested in, they can use current trends in combination with the fundamental information they already have about you, such as your demographics, location, search history, purchasing patterns, daily routine, and more. You will naturally talk about whatever interests you. It's truly that easy to promote advertising that align with your thoughts and conversations, but it's also quite effective. In actuality, listening in on your face-to-face interactions is much less effective than what advertising agencies do. Photo Credit: Inmobi Your Conversations Don't Matter Let's say large Internet corporations had a sizable underground lab where recordings of everyone's real-world interactions were kept and processed for ad targeting. The issue is that it would be a huge waste of time and effort to complete the entire project. Why? Because ultimately, for advertising at least, your conversations with loved ones aren't even worth listening to. Also Read: How to Utilize Remote Printing over the Internet? How to Stop the Unsettling Ads? What can you do to avoid those strangely relevant adverts from surfacing if covering your phone's microphone won't truly give you any genuine privacy? regrettably, not much. The idea of online privacy is untrue. Your smartphone acts as a tiny sponge, soaking up all the useful information it can, and anyone requesting that information typically has access to it. By making adjustments to your Google account's privacy settings or by using privacy-focused substitutes for well-known services like DuckDuckGo for search and Signal for messaging, you may reduce the amount of data that is gathered and shared. Additionally, you may make it more difficult for advertisers to monitor your surfing activities by using a VPN along with private browsing mode. However, there is no foolproof fix. Many privacy technologies are compromised by the ability to archive, catalogue, and trace your browser activity itself across sessions. You can try using Tor to browse in order to get some anonymity, but that has its own disadvantages and hazards. Geolocation tracking is difficult to block even when GPS monitoring is off since additional data points, such as neighboring Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals, are involved. In order to avoid worrying about voice recordings, all you really need to do is keep in mind that you shouldn't use your phone or take it anyplace that you wouldn't feel fine with advertisers knowing about.