Friday, January 10, 2025, 10:31 p.m
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Smart devices, such as phones, smart speakers or even TVs, have become an integrated part of our lives. However, many users wonder if they are “listening” to their conversations to collect information. The reality is that smart devices are programmed to capture keywords or commands to perform their functions, but sometimes they can record more than they should. Here’s why this happens and how you can prevent such situations.
How do smart devices “listen”?
Most smart devices have built-in microphones that stay active at all times to detect commands like “Hey Siri” or “OK Google.” This allows them to respond quickly to your requests, but may also mean that bits of your conversations are recorded and sent to the companies’ servers for processing.
Why is this data collected?
Service Improvement: Recorded snippets are used to improve voice recognition and device functionality.
Personalized advertising: Some collected data may be used to create targeted advertising based on your interests and habits.
Technical errors: Devices may unintentionally record if the microphone is accidentally activated or if they misdetect a keyword.
How can you stop devices from “listening” to you?
If you want to protect the privacy of your conversations, there are some simple steps you can take:
Disable voice assistants:
On your iPhone, go to Settings > Siri & Search and turn off “Listen for ‘Hey Siri’.”
On Android, go to Settings > Google > Assistant Settings and turn off “Hey Google.”
Review app permissions:
It checks the apps that have access to the microphone and disables the permission for non-essential ones.
Turn off smart device microphones:
For smart speakers like Amazon Echo or Google Home, there are physical buttons to mute the microphone.
Clear voice history:
On Google, go to your account, go to My Activity and delete saved records.
For Amazon Alexa, use the Alexa app and clear your voice history in settings.
Use of physical protection:
Although large companies claim that the collected data is processed securely and anonymously, there have been cases where voice recordings have been accessed by employees for verification or compromised following security breaches. Therefore, prevention is the best solution.
Source: ziare.com
