Targeted advertising: how to know if your smartphone is monitoring your chats

Time and again, people report the same phenomenon: during a discussion with friends, their smartphone nearby, they bring up a subject that they have not researched before on the Internet. However, a few days later, they receive advertisements strangely related to these exchanges.

However, it seems that this fear of being tapped is unfounded according to a 2018 study. But that does not mean that your smartphone does not use any data from your microphones for targeted advertising. Between apps and virtual assistants, tech giants have enough ways at their disposal to know your interests and needs without needing to secretly spy on you.

Voice assistants, on the front line of targeted advertising

To the question “can my requests made to voice assistants then be used by companies?”, the answer is yes. After all, no wonder, these programs behave mainly like search engines, and therefore retrieve this information like Google or an application can do when you want to obtain information.

In 2019, Apple was forced to apologize and review its practices after The Guardian revealed that certain subcontractors had access to voice recordings from conversations with Siri, but also from mistaken activations of the ‘assistant. These recordings were sent to employees so they could note interactions between users and Siri. But from time to time, these samples contained private conversations, recorded by the voice assistant that had been activated by mistake. Workers had access to medical data, witnessed illegal activities or even heard intimate moments.

Although Apple has stated that it is changing its practices following this investigation, this does not mean that the company no longer has access to this data. By default, audio recordings are no longer retained, but automatic transcriptions of conversations are created, sent and used. They are not the only ones to use this technique. An April 2022 study on Amazon’s voice assistant concluded that interactions between users and Alexa were used by the web giant and its advertising partners to serve targeted advertisements on Echo devices but also on the web.

Amazon has confirmed that it uses this information for targeted advertising on its site, but also in all places where the company publishes advertisements. However, she denied reselling them without consent to advertising partners. Here too, direct voice recordings are not sent, but are transcribed into text before being shared, which is more than enough to obtain all the necessary information. And of course, Google uses similar techniques.

Who else listens to my conversations?

Voice assistants aren’t the only apps that can record your voice. Some downloaded apps will also ask you for permission to access and listen to your microphone. Sometimes it will be for a good reason, like a language learning app. Other times, the intention behind this request will be completely different.

Certainly, there are these spyware-type malware that spy on you illegally and, in the worst case, use the information obtained to blackmail you. Furthermore, some applications that appear perfectly legitimate try to obtain as many authorizations as possible from users due to the fact that users are not interested in retrieving as much information as possible.

Let us also remember that Facebook is not left out and even allowed itself to activate the smartphone’s microphone without the user’s knowledge.

How do I know that my conversations are being listened to and how can I avoid it?

Whenever you use a voice feature in an app, assume that this information will be picked up by the developers. Sometimes, they will only be there to improve the service, but if you want to keep control of your data, you will have to look at the authorizations given to each element on your phone.

Disable voice assistants

The first step to avoiding targeted advertising on your phone is to avoid the use of voice assistants. But to be sure that they are not activated, even by mistake, it is safer to go through your settings and deactivate the functionality as much as possible.

At Apple, you will need to go to the Settings menu and Siri & search. In this section, you will find multitudes of options to personalize your daily use of Siri, but also how to deactivate the voice assistant. You can also prevent it from triggering if you press certain buttons and turn it off when your phone is locked. It might also be a good idea to disable Siri in your iCloud. If you ever change your mind later, you can always reactivate it in these same settings.

At Google, the steps are a little longer. Go to settings, Google menu → Google app settings → Search, Assistant and voice commands → Google Assistant → Hey Google and Voice Match and deactivate the “Hey Google” option. Likewise, when you want to be able to use the functionality again, you will just have to follow these same steps.

In the settings of your smartphone, it is generally possible to view and delete the history of your voice interactions. Amazon offers this feature directly from its website. These recordings can be useful for improving voice recognition on your device, so deleting them may make your experience less pleasant. Up to you.

Check and control app permissions

You may not necessarily remember it, but it’s possible that an app downloaded a while ago and left in a corner of your phone still has permission to access your microphone. Good news, whether on iOS or Android, it is possible to access the permissions requested by each software and delete them if necessary.

Of course, you have to use your best judgment: removing an app’s ability to record your microphone when it’s necessary for its operation will prevent you from using it to its full potential. However, checking these permissions is also a good way to spot suspicious apps that request too much access and know that it is time to remove them, in order to even better preserve your privacy.

How do I protect myself from targeted advertising on my smartphone?

Audio data provided to applications is not the only information used for targeted advertising. All your actions on your smartphone, especially on the web, are scrutinized and used to personalize the ads returned to you on the sites you visit. In addition to developing good voice assistant habits, you can also use a VPN to protect your privacy.

A VPN preserves your anonymity by hiding your IP address and encrypting your requests to prevent what you search for or what sites you visit from being used to determine your interests for advertisers.

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