Do Our Phones Actually Listen to Us?

Image Source: Consumer Reports

Everyone likes to joke that their phones are listening to them; that there is an FBI agent on the other side of the screen following all of your internet searches and updating the file they have on you. However, while this might be a frequently used joke, it might not entirely be false. For example, if you ask an ad company if they were directing ads based on analytics or snooping via your phone's microphone, many companies would probably say that they use the analytics from your computers like cookies or terms and service agreements. If they use these methods, how do websites develop such personalized ads? 

Some arguments claim that electronics listen to us when we talk and surf the web and say that they do this mainly through virtual assistants. This argument says that they listen to us for three reasons: 1) to send messages, 2) to track our data, and 3) to personalize the advertisements we receive. We consent to most electronics listening to us when we accept the terms and service agreement. To stop our phones from listening to us, we should go into settings and disable any virtual assistants, not allow any microphone access for apps, and, if you want to go an extra step, cover up your webcam.

However, there are also arguments against the notion that our phones listen to us. One such argument brings up the fact that if an app brings up a request to access your phone's microphone and you decline, the app cannot listen to you. There is also the question of complexity and how, if electronics were to listen to the human language(s), would it be able to understand the innuendos, sarcasm, slang, and misuse of words? 

However, it is undoubtedly that targeted ads are used daily by companies. These ads focus on specific things about the user, like preferences, interests, traits, hobbies, etc., and use their findings to make specialized ads based on this information. That might make it seem like your electronics are listening to you when you talk about vacation one day and get an ad for Disney.

There is a lot of speculation about whether our electronics are listening to us as we surf the web, but there seems to be little to no concrete evidence to prove either side correct or incorrect. All that is known is that the advertisements out there now are scary-accurate.