PR92822

LONDON, Nov. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Your phone is listening and helping marketers to target you. What can you do

about it?

Last year, there was a 5% increase in the installation of monitoring apps, a

study by NordVPN [ https://nordvpn.com/blog/rise-of-parental-monitoring-tools/] shows.

Yet some users suspect that their smartphones are spying on them even

if they have no monitoring apps installed.

This is true. Virtual assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa listen

to their users all the time. They have to constantly listen so they can hear

the voice command and assist. However, some of the things people say are being

recorded for companies' own benefit, like improving the service quality or for

marketing purposes.

"When you ask Google Assistant or Siri to find something, this information is

used for online advertising. It's no different from typing something into

Google Search. If you're looking for car dealerships in your city, related ads

will start chasing you across the internet. In a way, virtual assistant is just

another search engine," says Daniel Markuson, digital privacy expert at NordVPN

[ https://nordvpn.com/download/ ].

The expert shares how you can check if your phone is spying on you

[https://nordvpn.com/blog/phone-listening-test/ ].

How to test your phone?

The best way to see if your phone is helping marketers target you is by setting

up a trap.

- Select a good topic.

- Isolate the topic from your phone.

- Select keywords.

- Discuss the topic out loud next to your phone.

Once you set up the trap, notice if any new ads have started targeting you on

social media or other digital channels. If they have, then your phone is

probably helping these ads reach you.

How can you protect your privacy?

First of all, you should review your app permissions.

"Once access is granted, the app can do whatever it wants with that data. So,

build a routine to review your phone's app permissions and think twice before

agreeing to an app's demands," Daniel Markuson, digital privacy expert at

NordVPN [ https://nordvpn.com/ ], emphasizes.

Some apps might want to access your microphone without any reason. This might

allow bad actors to spy on you in the background or collect ad-targeting data

when you don't want them listening.

Also, clear your activities once in a while and turn off the audio recording

function.

Finally, install a VPN on your smartphone and enhance your privacy. A virtual

private network masks your IP address and encrypts traffic.

Source:  NordVPN