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Don’t miss => How to Stop Your Devices from Listening to You [Infographic]
Q. Call me paranoid, but I think my cell phone is listening to me. I was planning a funeral and searching on Google for funeral homes. I had just typed “funera” and Google suggested funeral homes near me and other funeral-related topics.
Just then, a friend called me and recommended I make funeral potatoes for the reception I was hosting after the service. (I have an iPhone, but I was talking to my friend on a landline phone.) I had never heard of funeral potatoes before so after I finished talking to her, I went to search again.
This time, when I typed in “funera”, Google suggested funeral potatoes first.
I felt surprised and a bit creeped out by this. I wondered if my phone was snooping on me.
So I called my nephew and told him what happened. He thought it was a coincidence but then he experimented and the exact same thing happened to him.
Here’s the email he sent me —
I ran the following experiment:
1) Typed “funera” into Google. Before backspacing, obtained the following auto-complete entries:
funeral
funeral songs
funeral homes near me
funeral homes2) Said the words “funeral potatoes” out loud. Retyped “funera” into Google. Obtained the following auto-complete entries:
funeral potatoes
funeral
funeral songs
How is this happening? Is my cell phone always listening to me? How can I turn it off?
A. You’re not alone. Our phones may indeed be listening to us, even when we are not using them. Stories on 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.
See, CNET, Coincidence or is my phone listening to me?
When you give an app permission to use your microphone, you don’t know when the app is actually using the microphone. Cell phones don’t have any lights or icons indicating when their microphones are turned on. Unlike location services, which show an arrow on the upper toolbar of the phone when in use, microphone access isn’t shown when active.
According to the BBC, Google and Facebook deny using voice data for advertising or other 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.
Testing Whether a Phone Can Listen to You
The BBC asked developers find out whether they could create an app that could activate a phone’s microphone and transmit what was being said near the phone, without the user knowing this was happening.
The developers were successful in creating such an app and called the process “remarkably easy.” The app worked without using much power or data, so the user of the phone would never know that the app was using the microphone or how the information collected was being used.
See, BBC, Is your smartphone listening to you?
Benefits of Tech Listening to You
Many services on the Internet are free, such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other sites. But advertising is sold to pay for these free services.
=> Don’t miss, How to Find Out What Google Knows About You.
By listening to you, apps may be able to give more relevant search results and ads.
Or, you may not want your phone listening to you.
[note] I have tested to see whether my search results or ads I saw changed based on what I said out loud around both an Android phone and an iPhone. I have not seen any search results or ads change based on my spoken words. [/note]
How to Stop Your Phone from Listening to You
You can do your own experiment to see whether your phone is listening to you. But regardless of whether you think your phone is listening to you, be sure to check the permissions you’ve given apps to access the microphone.
Some apps need the microphone access to work properly, but others don’t. Never give permission to use your microphone unless the app needs access to it.
Some apps need the microphone to function. For example, Shazam, an app that identifies a song as it’s being played, must use the phone’s microphone to listen to songs. But other apps may not need the microphone to work so shouldn’t have access to it.
Turn off the microphone for any apps you don’t want to have access to your microphone. You may want to turn off microphone access for all of the apps on your phone. If you find that you miss the app having microphone access you can always turn it back on again.
iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
To make sure apps aren’t listening to you, turn off microphone access on your iPhone. Go to:
Settings => Privacy => Microphone to see a list of the apps that have asked for permission to use your microphone.
Turn off permission for any apps you don’t want using your iPhone’s microphone.
Android Phones
Some Android phones allow you to see which apps have permission to use your microphone and turn off that permission.
To turn off microphone access, go to:
Settings => Privacy and Emergency => App permissions => Microphone to see a list of apps that have permission to access your microphone.
If you have an Android phone that does not let you turn off app permissions for the microphone, you can turn the phone’s power off or leave the phone in another room to make sure you aren’t being listened to.
Or you can try a microphone blocking app from the Google Play store. These apps have had mixed reviews so you may need to try different ones to see if one works well for you.
Your Thoughts
Have you ever suspected your phone was listening to you? Do you wish your phone indicated when the microphone was in use? Have you tried the “funeral potatoes” test or a similar test to see whether your phone is listening to you?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
My thoughts?!? YIKES! LOL
Really, it kind of creeps me out when I look at a book on Amazon or an item on an ad in FB and then it shows up wherever I am online. But this….
Sharing this, Carolyn! Thanks!
Lori
Hi Lori,
Thanks goes to The Wonder of Tech reader who asked this question. It took me a while to research this issue, but I was amazed at the stories I read that must be more than coincidence.
We really do need to be careful when we’re giving microphone permissions to our apps. We get no indication that the microphone is in use so we really don’t know when our conversations are being listened to…
We as humans are conditioned to look for patterns and our brain is very good at finding them or even making us think we found them when there is none. Maybe I’m crazy, but I believe Google when they say they don’t do it. They have a lot to lose if they were ever proven to be lying.
In your example, it could be that the second most popular usage of “funera” is for potatoes. Since your first query was not successful, Google took a guess at the next most popular thing.
FYI I tried the experiment. First, I tried doing multiple searches without saying anything. Then I tried talking about funeral potatoes for a little bit. Each time my suggested results were the same 🙁
Hi Eric, Your search results match mine. I was unable to replicate the funeral potatoes results that the reader and the reader’s nephew got. But the more I researched this article and read the accounts of other ads and search results changing, the more I wondered whether some sort of surveillance was happening.
Whether or not this is happening, everyone should be mindful of giving permission to apps to use their phone’s microphone. There should be some indicator on the phone screen when a microphone is in use. But there isn’t.
When apps ask for permission to use the microphone, many people agree without considering whether the app really needs that access. Better to refuse permission and then later figure out whether access is needed. You can always turn on permission later if you find the app needs it to function.
If you own an Android phone, or use Google/Facebook apps, you should assume that everything you do is being harvested for advertising purposes – and that’s definitely not cool.
Hi Ben, We are very used to getting our Internet services for free. Imagine if we had to pay even a penny every time we did a Google search or posted on Facebook. The Internet would be a very different place.
A book I highly recommend is Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson which discusses how companies make big profits by giving away services for free on the Internet.
I understand the cost of free only too well – and personally I don’t feel the trade off is evenly remotely fair Carolyn. There’s a very big difference between displaying ads in my search results and stalking me across the web in an attempt to build a personal profile.
I’ll see your book and raise you this very well-reasoned article on Surveillance Capitalism: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-digital-debate/shoshana-zuboff-secrets-of-surveillance-capitalism-14103616.html?printPagedArticle=true
Wow nice article. I will definitely turn off the mic. Been wondering if Google is reading my mind
Hi Joyce, Yes, I’ve been hearing from many readers who have had similar coincidences happen to them. Best to turn off your microphone unless an app needs it to work.
Hi Carolyn,
Great blog. I’m a fan!
This post reminded me of a shopping excursion with a friend: I took an iPhone photo of boots she liked in a major dept store and later that evening when I checked email an ad popped up on my Mac with a photo of the same boot.
Hmmmm….interesting coincidence.
Thanks for the interesting info,
Jules
Hi Jules, Wow, that’s very creepy how shoes that you took a photo of in a store ended up in an ad you saw when you opened your computer. Coincidence is a bit difficult to believe…
So glad to hear you’re a fan of The Wonder of Tech. Stay tuned for more articles about tech that can help you in your everyday life!
Do you use Google Photos?
No, I don’t use Google Photos.
That’s very strange then Jules – Apple makes a big thing of *not* sharing personal data. Their policies state that they do collect personal information, but that:
“We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t “monetize” the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you. Our software and services are designed to make our devices better. Plain and simple.”
In this case it sounds like your experience really is a spooky coincidence. That or one of your apps *is* collecting and selling your personal data.
You can read the complete statement on Apple privacy here:
Hi Ben, Yes, Apple does have a strict privacy policy. But as the iPhone has permission settings for apps using the microphone, it also has permission settings for apps using the camera. Perhaps an app on Jules phone was using the camera in a way not intended? Just a thought.
Jules story is very interesting and may be an indication of a violation of privacy or, as you suggest, a coincidence.