Your smartphone may be LISTENING to you; Learn how to protect yourself

The concern that smartphones can listen to us and create ads based on our conversations is a recurring question among modern device users.

This concern is related to the concept of “surveillance capitalism”, in which companies obtain profit by collecting data about our behaviors and selling that information to other companies.

A survey by NordVPN revealed that 45% of UK residents and 53% of North Americans suspect that cell phones are audible and that there are people ready to listen to any conversation.

The company points out that one of the techniques used by advertisers to display targeted ads is known as “ultrasonic beacons”.

These signals consist of high frequency sounds, usually between 18 and 20 kHz, which are inaudible to humans but may contain data picked up by applications on other devices.

Are they listening to us by ultrasonic signals?

For example, the company pointed out that, when listening to an advertisement on TV about a certain brand, its device is able to capture ultrasonic information from that moment.

After the commercial, you will certainly receive a proposal from the same brand as a notification or in the form of an advertisement on social networks.

Also, it's worth mentioning that Sony filed a patent that proposes a way to allow users to stop commercials for certain brands on different devices, simply by mentioning the brand name in out loud.

This patent raises questions about whether devices are always “listening” and processing contextual information.

In 2017, a study carried out by Technical University of Braunschweig, in Germany, the technique for detecting ultrasonic signals in devices was detailed.

These signals had the ability to capture information and generate advertisements based on them, as we commonly perceive.

How to prevent someone from "hearing" the conversation?

It is possible to prevent companies from listening to your conversation with a simple and easy method. To do so, disable some app permissions, not allowing, for example, their access to the cell phone's microphone.

So, whenever an application requests permission, the ideal is not to grant access. This setting can easily be done in your device's privacy settings.

By reviewing and managing app permissions, you can have greater control over what information is being collected and shared.

This is an important measure to protect your privacy and reduce the risk of unauthorized surveillance using ultrasonic signals or other data collection techniques.

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