Is your phone listening to everything you say?
Imagine you just say to your friend, 'Yaar now I want to buy a bike' and after a while bike ads start appearing on facebook or Instagram. Sounds strange, right? It seems as if our phone is silently listening to our every conversation. So is this true? And if yes, then how to avoid it?
Why does the phone listen?
The voice assistants like Siri, google Assistant or Alexa in your phone are always active to listen to commands like 'Hey Siri' or 'OK Google'. That means your phone is always listening to something so that it can respond immediately. But the problem arises when this habit of listening is not limited to just commands, but reaches your personal conversations.
What is the benefit of this to the companies?
It is a simple thing, the more the information, the more personal the ad. If companies come to know that you were recently talking about track suits, then the next moment you start seeing ads of track suits and all this happens from your data, your words, your actions and your app permissions.
How to test whether the phone is really listening to everything?
If you want to know whether your phone is listening to you or not, then it can be found out in these three steps. Firstly, choose a topic that you have nothing to do with, like 'cutting a cat's nails.' Talk only on this topic near your phone for a few days, but in the meantime do not search anything related to it in the mobile. Then see if you have started seeing ads related to it? If yes, then something is wrong sir!
How to stop phone 'spying'?
To stop this spying, first of all users have to tell their phone's voice assistant to turn off and how it will happen in iphone and Android, we are explaining to you step by step below.
In iphone (iOS): First of all you have to go to the Settings of your iPhone. From here you have to click on the option Siri & Search. Go there and turn off both 'Hey Siri' and 'Press Side Button for Siri'.
In Android: First of all open the google app, from there go to Profile. Then go to Settings. Then turn off google Assistant by clicking on the General option in google Assistant.
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