Is Your Phone Listening? What to Know About Privacy Protection

No matter what your phone’s microphone picks up, know that your personal data is being sold to data brokers

If you’ve ever asked a question of Siri, Alexa, or the personas behind any other voice assistant app, you might have wondered whether the reply you received was the end of the story. Is it true that your phone and other smart devices continue to “listen” even when you’re not directly speaking to them?

The answer is yes, your phone is listening to you. It can do so even if you’re not specifically speaking to it. But that’s not all it’s doing. While it’s important to know the circumstances in which voice assistants, smart speakers, and other digital devices might be picking up conversations in the room, it’s equally important to recognize all the other ways that a device can record and track your data, including your search history and your social media footprint.

In short, whether or not your phone is actually recording private conversations, know that your personal information is being sold. Here’s how it happens, and what you can do to mitigate the risks.

Privacy Risks of Voice Assistant Apps and Smart Devices

Voice assistant apps and devices like Siri, Amazon Echo (Alexa), and Google Home play an ever-greater role in our lives, but there’s a tradeoff in privacy. According to a survey conducted by Ponemon Institute, 69% of Americans say they have concerns about protecting the privacy of their data when using these apps and devices.

Some of these concerns involve safety and security. For example, Amazon Echo’s microphones record sounds in the room, whether or not you’re directly speaking to Alexa. This poses a number of potential security risks, including the opportunity for scammers to hijack control of the device through hidden audio commands. Meanwhile, when you grant permission for an app or smart device to access your phone’s camera and microphone, you could be opening the door cybercriminals secretly recording audio or video without your knowledge, identifying you through facial recognition, and more.

Your Spoken Words Are Data, and They’re for Sale

By far the biggest privacy tradeoff, however, is the ability of voice assistant apps and smart devices to build a profile of you, track you while you’re online, and sell your information to so-called data broker websites, which in turn sell your information to advertisers and other third parties.

It’s completely legal for them to do so, because you gave these apps and devices permission to track you when you agreed to their usage terms. This explains why, if you ask Alexa how much a certain car costs, you might soon start seeing digital ads for local auto dealers. You’re being tracked through your search history, much as if you had typed that same query into Google.

How to Minimize Privacy Risks from Your Phone and Apps

So, how can you continue to enjoy all of the convenience and functionality of voice assistant apps and smart devices, while reducing privacy risks and limiting the exposure of your personal data?

Consider a comprehensive privacy protection package of the kind offered by IDX. It gives you access to valuable tools designed to safeguard your personal information, regardless of how your phone or other smart device receives and records the data. These tools include:

• ForgetMe Personal Data Removal – Once your information lands on a data broker site, it’s difficult and time-consuming to get it manually removed. ForgetMe does this for you automatically. It also watches for your profile’s reappearance on these sites and automatically requests removal as many times as necessary.

• Tracking Blocker – When you visit a website directly or via a search query, that site can plant tracking cookies on your device, which gather your personal data and “follow” you around the web. Tracking Blocker scans websites for these cookies, prevents them from activating, and drastically limits the site’s ability to track and collect your data.

• Private Search – If you want assurance that your search queries won’t result in your personal information being collected and sold, use this powerful search tool powered by DuckDuckGo. You’ll receive the high-quality search results you expect, without the privacy risks.

Beyond using these privacy protection tools, follow these steps to further limit the privacy risks from voice assistant apps and other smart devices:

• Before using any smart device or app, carefully read both the privacy policy and the terms and conditions, and choose the strongest possible privacy settings. It’s especially important to do this for any app or device requesting access to your camera and microphone.
• Amazon Echo gives you the ability to view your recording history. If you’re concerned about privacy, you can delete any or all of its recordings.
• Use a strong password for your home Wi-Fi network, along with a VPN (Virtual Private Network) like SafeWiFi from IDX, to help prevent your virtual assistant from being hacked or hijacked.
• Make sure the default browser in your phone or smart speaker is set to one like DuckDuckGo, which has strong privacy controls and the ability to block tracking cookies whenever possible.
• In your phone’s or smart speaker’s settings, manage which apps can access your microphone and camera, and under what circumstances.

There’s no doubt that voice assistant apps and smart devices make our lives easier and better. But it’s critical to recognize the privacy risks behind them, and to leverage the best privacy protection tools available to mitigate those risks. As long as selling personal data remains big business, you can't afford not to.