We know that our smartphones are really, really smart. No sooner have you Googled something, you start seeing ads related to it – a product, travel destination, etc. As soon as you exhibit some interest in a topic – by making a comment or clicking on a link, Facebook promptly modifies its suggested content and sidebar ads to dovetail with this. However, sometimes it seems as though our phones are actually ‘listening’ to us as well! This is both strange and disturbing; creating serious implications for our privacy and the safety of our personal information.
Some of us have experienced it ourselves; others may have heard others speak about such experiences: speaking aloud about something – a brand, a particular place is followed by matching ads displayed on social media. A woman spoke to her boyfriend about a migraine only to find that she was followed by a migraine support group on Twitter, the very next day. Someone else was discussing taxes with their sister; the next day Facebook started to show adverts about tax experts! There is no Google search, no email written or matching page visited; in other words, no way for one’s interest to be known except if someone was actually listening to words uttered. Is it an eerie intrusion or just coincidence?
One BBC report last year spoke about an incident, where a woman was doing some ironing when her mother told her about a friend being killed in a Thailand road accident. She was not using her phone at the time. However, when she opened the phone's search engine, the name of her friend and the words ‘motorbike accident Thailand’ popped up. It could be that she had looked up something in the interim and then forgotten. But it also occurred to her that her phone may have been listening to her – literally!
The BBC reporter then asked a couple of specialists to try and find a way to listen in on conversations made close to a phone anywhere in the world. It was demonstrated, that is actually quite simple! Tough the terms and conditions of apps require that there should be no such tracking tools in apps, it is hard to say how scrupulous companies are about observing these rules.
A recent Business Today report spoke of the same phenomenon. It spoke of hidden trackers that many companies deploy via their apps on Android, iOS as well as more obscure platforms. There are a number of permissions that apps ask you at the time of installation. Surely we don’t grant them the right to listen in!
According to a report published by Yale Privacy labs, many popular Google apps could have trackers hidden in them. The report mentioned Uber, Skype, Tinder, Spotify, Twitter and Snapchat among those who may be surveying users in a clandestine manner. Location tracking, behavioural analytics and targeted advertisement are some of the reasons these trackers are used.
An app such as FaceGrok (grok is geek-speak for recognition) recognises faces that the camera looks at. The app also includes advertising trackers. Though FaceGrok does not transmit data pertaining to facial recognition, it could easily do so by adding a few functionalities to the app.
There is much that we don’t know yet. Perhaps, the report is a bit alarmist; it is unlikely that reputed apps are actually breaking the law and ‘listening’ to our conversations. However, you certainly want to be careful about what app you download to your phone and what permissions to give out.
Maybe it all seems innocuous now; but you don’t know when you may be speaking about something sensitive – after all फ़ोन के भी कान होते है! Phones have ears too - literally!
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