Cell phone spying Is your cell phone listening in? Take the test!
You talk about something and minutes later you get matching ads. Just coincidence? Or is there an easy way to test whether your smartphone is spying on you?
The rumor that big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple and others have been secretly listening to us for matching ads has been around for years. The emergence of AI has fueled this suspicion even further, as such practices now seem entirely possible. And this much can be said: yes, it is possible. Theoretically.
Technically possible, but rather unlikely
If we give apps permission, they can certainly access our smartphone's microphone. However, there is no evidence to date that such methods are actually used by the major companies. Google and Meta repeatedly and explicitly deny such eavesdropping practices for suitable advertising and there is nothing in their terms and conditions to suggest this.
The following reasons also clearly speak against such a procedure:
1. overloaded servers: Permanent monitoring means hours of audio recordings and therefore gigantic amounts of data, which would put a massive strain on a corporation's data volume. Even if such a program were able to react to keywords instead of constantly listening in, the effort would still be immense.
2. battery power: Constant eavesdropping and transmission of conversations would be extremely energy-intensive and would put an additional strain on the cell phone battery, which would certainly not go unnoticed.
3. secure operating systems: Newer Google and Apple operating systems (from Android 12 and iOS 14) now also no longer allow apps running in the background to access the microphone or camera unnoticed.
By the way: check your smartphone settings to see which apps you give access to your microphone and revoke permission if necessary.
Creepy algorithms and your tracks on the internet
Eavesdropping on your cell phone would also be extremely inefficient - especially as companies collect enough data about us as it is. For the most part, we provide this information voluntarily and consciously, often all too willingly ticking the boxes under miles of small print and agreeing to the terms and conditions.
Search engines and social media know a lot about us: thanks to modern algorithms and the use of AI, it is possible to analyze our online behavior in detail, evaluate it meticulously and derive amazingly precise predictions about our future purchasing behavior.
To a certain extent, the algorithm knows what we want before we know it. This can give the impression of being "bugged". And personalized advertising is not fundamentally bad. After all, we see far fewer ads that are potentially irrelevant to us and more that really interest us.
If you are still suspicious, you can simply put your smartphone to the test.
Here's how the test works:
- Choose a topic: Think of a search term that is as atypical as possible for you, i.e. has nothing to do with your habits, interests or hobbies and could not be an obvious search term for you anyway. Ideally, this item should be available online, otherwise there will be few advertisements for it. This is not as easy as you might realize. But you're bound to find something suitable - or unsuitable.
- Talk about it: Within earshot of your smartphone. Over and over again, for a few days. Talk about it with friends and weave your "supposed need" naturally and casually into conversations in your everyday life.
- Check your feeds: Have any relevant ads appeared anywhere? If so, this could be due to the algorithm or simply coincidence.
Our test
So anecdotally, we can also give the all-clear: In our test, even after days, we were not shown a single matching ad - neither for "beekeeping supplies" nor for "alpaca wool", let alone for "laboratory microscopes".
