Mobile phones and virtual assistants can listen to and record users’ conversations, providing relevant ads and suggestions. Many users unknowingly give permission to do so through app usage terms, and some apps send recorded data to third-party companies. This technology is controversial, as some users feel that their privacy is being violated.
Hey all.. this might have happened to you!
You were discussing football, and you got ads related to the FIFA games, upcoming football events etc….!
or
You might have spoken to your friend about a holiday tour, and you get ads about holiday packages!
Yes, ” I ” am listening to you and delivering you the relevant ads that you signed the agreement for!
Earlier, it was not possible for mobile phones to even read your conversation, but today with the evolution and introduction of AI technology, it has become quite possible. Apple first introduced this technology in the form of Siri in 2011, which was copied and followed by Google and more. These assistants not only fulfil the demand of the users but also make their life easy by just giving suggestions as to what the user can desire based on their previous usage of the gadget.
Is it really True!? Do they agree??!
Shockingly, this is not it. Mobile phones not only listen to you when you are commanding it, but also when you are not using it. Here are seven shocking revelations to know about:
- Our mobile phones listen to us legally. When we are just clicking and agreeing to the terms of the usage of the app without even reading it, we are actually giving our phones permission to listen to us or even record, sometimes even when not in use.
- All social media apps keep an eye on your keyword algorithm. Even the WhatsApp you use notices the words you use and shows advertisements or posts related to it.
- Apps such as Alexa, Siri and google assistant listen to your conversations even when you are not talking to them, record the information and provide them to the companies in the form of anonymous data.
- A study conducted by Choffnes, a US researcher, claimed that many android apps secretly took screenshots, recorded a user’s activity, and sent the data to research agencies and analytical firms.
- Some apps use microphones and offline speech recognition tools to trigger recording. For example, when we enable the voice assistant and say “Hey Siri” to our iOS phone, we initiate recording.
- The public authority can genuinely hear us through our telephones. Assuming you are utilizing a dated telephone with a module on the wall with a wire, the public authority commonly gets a court request and sends that request to the telephone organization. Afterwards, the telephone organization taps your line and allows the public authority to tune in. On the off chance that it is a PDA call, the public authority should do a similar definite thing however, since cell signals are really radio waves, and the radio waves travel unreservedly in the air, and on the grounds that the public authority workers have hardware that can pay attention to any radio transmission, they can tune in with next to no assistance from the telephone organization.
- While mobiles and chosen applications “listen” to you constantly, they don’t continually gather your sound information or transfer it to the servers. Also, you want to permit every application to get to your mouthpiece physically — this usually happens when you turn the application interestingly after introducing it on your telephone.
Even though many surveys are collected, and research is done on this topic, mobile companies don’t accept that their technology enables them to listen to users’ conversations. But many customers complain that what they type or say with someone over a call gets reflected on them the next day in the form of recommendations or advertisements on the browser and the social media they use.