You casually bring up something in conversation. A pair of shoes, a place you have always wanted to travel to, a restaurant that someone else mentioned. You scroll on your phone and in a matter of hours, an advertisement pops up for the very same thing you were talking about. It seems too perfect to be coincidental. It seems like an invasion of privacy. The idea of whether your phone is listening to what you say or perhaps even performing some kind of trick that may seem far more ominous requires some thought and action.
WHAT YOUR PHONE DEFINITELY IS COLLECTING
Begin with the proven facts, since this is already enough to surprise people.
The behavior of all big platforms is monitored with impressive accuracy. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media apps know which videos you are stopping the feed to watch, how much time you spent watching each one, where you tapped, which keywords you were searching for, and even what video you liked and shared. All that information goes straight to ad systems. What follows is no mere guesswork. They build your profile based on statistical modeling.
Location data is being gathered by many more applications than what you might think. According to an analysis conducted in 2023 by the Washington Post, a normal smart phone shares location data with a lot of other entities on any given day and some of these entities are names that the user does not even know exist. This occurs regardless of whether the particular application appears to be using the location services.
Your contact list, your call history, and your browsing history are all collected through the permissions you grant to the application when you set up a new app on your phone.
THE LISTENING QUESTION: WHAT THE EVIDENCE ACTUALLY PROVES
The prevalent idea is that smartphones are listening to your conversation to show targeted ads. You say something out loud and shortly after you see the ad related to what you said. This seems to be one of the most frequently mentioned cases in modern tech. The common solution offered by most people is that the microphone works without their awareness.
The truth is that not a single study done by researchers has proved the active use of ambient audio to generate targeted ads in popular advertising systems such as Meta or Google. In 2018, researchers from Northeastern University performed a test in which they exposed several phones to different audio triggers while analyzing the network data sent by apps that were allowed to access the microphone.
But this doesn’t make it an irrational fear either. Predictive behavioral models have reached such a high level of sophistication that it feels like they are picking up information from a conversation. If your significant other was looking up a product on their phone, then algorithms can use network sharing, location proximity, or even signal contact. The prediction would work without any microphone involvement at all.
What’s true is that apps that allow access to microphones will be able to turn on your microphone while in operation. The likes of Google Assistant, Siri, or even Amazon Alexa have been known to accidentally record conversations if wake words weren’t caught. This might fall into a different category of danger than ads, but still a valid one nonetheless.
THE PERMISSION ISSUE THAT NOBODY DISCUSSES
In Android and iOS, users are asked for permission when they install the app or first try to use some feature. Very few people read what they are allowing.
Permission requests include things like asking permission to access your contact list in order to open the flash light in an app; to track you precisely just because you download a game for free; or asking for all data you type into a keyboard app. All these have been seen time and time again in both Google Play store and Apple App store.
The critical permissions from the point of view of user privacy are microphone, camera, location on always mode and contact lists. If any app does not require them to work, then they can be safely ignored.
HOW IOS AND ANDROID DO THIS DIFFERENTLY
App Tracking Transparency was introduced by Apple for iOS 14.5 in 2021. The new feature requires each application to get your permission to track your activities across other applications and websites. Users rarely give their permission once asked. As a result, advertising services that rely on data gathered from iPhones have had difficulties gathering information since the introduction of the new feature.
Another feature introduced by Apple involves visual indicators in iOS. There will be an orange dot at the top of your screen if your microphone is activated and a green dot if your camera is active. When none of those dots appear during regular browsing activity, this means something is accessing your device without your consent.
The Privacy Dashboard was introduced to Android 12 allowing you to see which apps have been accessing your microphone, camera, and location data, and even the times they did so. In addition, instead of sharing your precise location, iOS is only capable of sharing your approximate location.
While iOS is stricter about third-party tracking, Android provides a little more flexibility but requires a bit of effort on your part to access those options.
PRACTICAL STEPS TO ACTUALLY LOCK IT DOWN
These are not broad recommendations; they’re specific steps you need to take on your phone.
In iPhone: Click Settings > Privacy and Security. Begin with Location Services, and review each and every application under it. Mostly all applications should be toggled to “While Using the App” instead of “Always”. There is a logical explanation behind allowing an app like the weather, maps, or food delivery app access. But most others don’t require this type of access. Move on to the next two options – Microphone and Camera – and revoke access from those apps that you aren’t using to record audio or videos.
Still within Privacy and Security, click on Tracking and turn off the option to “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”
Android: Open Settings > Privacy > Permission Manager. Go through Location, Microphone, and Camera individually. For Location, move from “Allow All the Time” to “Allow Only While Using App” where applicable.
Uninstall any app that you haven’t touched for the last three months. Even if those apps are inactive on your phone, they continue to retain their permissions.
In case of browsers, stick to using Safari on iPhones with Intelligent Tracking Prevention turned on, and Firefox on Android devices.
While your phone isn’t out to get you, it is being put to work for companies who thrive because they know everything about you. This isn’t some kind of conspiracy. This is simply how the system is designed and there are solutions available to you that come pre-installed in your phone.
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