Ever wondered if your phone is listening to your conversations? Spotted personalized ads for TV shows, movies, or objects that you know you haven’t searched for?
What is going on?
Let’s consider the evidence and try to figure it out: Is your phone listening to you for ads, or is it simply a good, old-fashioned coincidence?
Does Your Phone Listen to You for Adverts?
No matter where you head on the internet, folks will claim something fishy is going on with their phones. They believe that smartphone microphones are being used to record what they say, with the information used to better target personalized Google ads on websites, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
It sounds unlikely, but the anecdotal evidence is quite compelling. BBC Technology Report Zoe Kleinman reports an occasion when she learned of a friend’s death in tragic circumstances, only to find that her friend’s name, the accident, location, and year were in the Google search box on her phone. It’s not just anecdotal evidence, either: a company was specifically advertising its “Active Listening” features for targeted advertising through microphones, confirming suspicions.
Reddit Users Think Their Phones Are Listening
Common Google search terms for this subject include “Does iPhone listen to you for ads?” “Can my phone hear me?” and “Is Google listening to my conversations?”
Various Reddit threads considering the question “Do our phones listen to us for ad targeting” (and similar) have prompted individual experiences, such as this from BasedBrexitBroker:
“The other day I went to a Mexican Paisa bar. Inside everyone was speaking Spanish and a mariachi band was playing. For 48 hours after this all my instagram, soundcloud and twitter ads were in Spanish.”
Here’s another from Redditor karlrocks23:
“My SO and I were having a chat and I was telling her about a new Nespresso shop that opened up in the city and how nicely designed it was. I don’t like coffee that much, and I’ve never even tried Nespresso. That is the only time I can remember having a conversation about Nespresso to anyone and I’ve certainly never Googled it or anything.
The next day, all my ads on chrome were about Nespresso.. I have no issues with ads popping up related to things I’ve searched by voice or type. But it did feel a bit invasive being constantly listened to and for private conversations to be used as a means to target ads at me.”
You’ll find many similar stories on Reddit and elsewhere. For example, check Reddit post of a user who noticed Google ads for everything he discussed with his wife.
Is My Smartphone Really Listening to Me for Ads?
Since this happened, Google no longer offers this sort of recommendation. However, the possibility of technology targeting customers based on their conversations is concerning. Often, the data recorded can be used to identify you.
In 2019, 1,000 Google Assistant-harvested voice recordings were leaked to Belgium media outlet VRT News. The recordings–many of which will have been collected from Android phones–included enough information to identify the device owners.
In these recordings, we could clearly hear addresses and other sensitive information. This made it easy for us to find the people involved and confront them with the audio recordings.
Google reacted to this by taking action, stating: “Audio snippets are not associated with user accounts.” But as VRT pointed out, they don’t need to be. More recently, I was brushing my teeth while reading an article about a movie when this advert appeared.
Did my phone hear the sound of my electric toothbrush and match it to an ad?
Consequently, ensuring your Android permissions don’t give apps access to your phone’s mic is a good idea. Does Google listen to your conversations for ads? Probably not, but if you’re concerned you should “de-Google” your life entirely, starting by stopping Google from listening to you.
It does seem as though this is something more than a coincidence. After all, proving that smartphone mics are collecting data to target user content is tricky (but again, I’ll refer you back to 404Media’s leaked advertising deck on Active Listening). But as we know that phones and digital assistants are listening, is it a surprise that companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook are interested in what you’re saying?
Can You Prove If an App Is Listening to You?
Could apps capture audio data using your smartphone’s microphone? To find out, cybersecurity experts Ken Munro and David Lodge from Pen Test Partners developed an app. Its aim is to record what was being said in the vicinity of a phone and display it on a monitor.
As Munro explained to the BBC, “All we did was use the existing functionality of Google Android—we chose it because it was a little easier for us to develop in.”
“We gave ourselves permission to use the microphone on the phone, set up a listening server on the internet, and everything that microphone heard on that phone, wherever it was in the world, came to us and we could then have sent back customized ads.”
David Lodge explained that the code was largely available within the host OS or in the public domain. The experiment was achieved with minimal battery drain on the device.
Meanwhile, data protection expert Mariano delli Santi told The Guardian that companies use other information to bid for and then target ads. This can result in things your partner or housemate searched for turning up as ads on your device. “…data that links you […] such as geolocation, or if you’ve given the same address when shopping online.”
Do Phones Listen to You? Companies Say “No”
Google and Facebook have both denied that their apps can use smartphone microphones to gather information in this way.
Facebook told the BBC it blocks brands from advertising based on microphone data. Google is not listening to you, so it claims, stating “categorically” that it does not use any “utterances” from when your chosen hot word is used or share them with third parties. Furthermore, when presented with the findings from 404Media’s investigation, it stated that it was no longer working with that advertiser.
All advertisers must comply with all
applicable laws and regulations
as well as our
Google Ads policies
, and when we identify ads or advertisers that violate these policies, we will take appropriate action
Additionally, app developers must adhere to the Google developer policy. This specifies that apps do not breach privacy using Google Assistant recordings.
It’s a compelling argument. Despite the feeling that our conversations are being used to target ads, it has nothing to do with chat and more to do with location and proximity to other devices where discussions have led to searches.
For example, I compiled a list of discussion points to keep within reach of my phone over the course of a week. None of the topics could be Googled or researched in any other way.
- Cookware
- Aquaponics
- Rugby league
- Soviet poets
- Bill Paxton
- Basements
- Hannah Waddingham
- Spooky Tooth
- Botulism
Surprisingly, not a single topic appeared as adverts, pop-ups, or inbox spam. There was no Google News feed item and nothing on any linked devices.
So, Why Do You Get Ads for Things You Talk About?
We know that Google records you, just as we know that Amazon does via the Amazon Echo. But is the information used for commercial purposes?
Probably not. Enhancements in mobile device privacy seem to have ended this sort of privacy breach. If you’re using a recent mobile operating system, you’re unlikely to be affected by this.
So, what is happening? Well, it’s probably simply a case of linked profiles across various devices syncing to show you adverts about things you’re interested in or have previously viewed or received emails about. In addition, some advertisers use geo-located adverts. So, if you’re standing in a shopping mall next to a watch shop, you may well see an advert for a new watch. Head to a giant Ikea? Guess what? You’ll see Ikea ads (or adverts for its competitors!).
This is somewhat unnerving, but makes more sense than audio surveillance treating you to targeted adverts.
Whatever you believe, inspect your device permissions to ensure apps don’t have access to your microphone without good reason. You can block Android apps from accessing your microphone, and there are several extra privacy boosting steps iOS users can take to secure their data.
