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technology1d ago
Is your phone listening to you? Here's how to test it
- Latest guidance explains a simple at-home test to see if your phone listens to conversations through ads.
- Choose a random topic and repeatedly speak it near the phone to observe ad changes over days.
- Disable voice activation and review app permissions to limit background microphone access.
- Indicators like orange or green dots show when a microphone is active on iPhones and Androids.
- The test is not scientifically rigorous but can help users assess privacy settings and ad behavior.
- If ads match spoken topics, users should tighten privacy controls immediately.
- Phone listening occurs in the context of wake words and background access, according to manufacturers.
- The article cautions that false positives can occur, misinterpreting ordinary conversations as triggers.
- Users are advised to revoke microphone permissions from apps that don’t need them.
- Test results should be logged to track when and where ads appear.
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