IT is a common experience: You are chatting with a friend about planning a trip to Thailand, and suddenly, your phone starts showing you ads for flights to the country. It feels like your smartphone is eavesdropping on you, but is it really?
Many have reported being bombarded with eerily relevant ads, with social media platforms being able to predict their plans and uncover their interests with uncanny accuracy.
This phenomenon has fuelled the widespread belief that our phones are actively listening to us, recording conversations to unleash targeted ads.
Educated guesses
Technology and privacy experts said phones are unlikely to be eavesdropping on us – at least, not in the way we think. Apple, Google and Facebook (now Meta) have all denied using audio recordings from phone microphones for targeted advertising. Even a 2018 study by Northeastern University in the US found no evidence of phones secretly recording conversations for that purpose.
Instead, social media companies emphasise that their advertising algorithms rely on other data points, such as:
➤ Search history: If you recently Googled “best Italian restaurants,” ad networks can infer your interest
in Italy.
➤ Location tracking: Your phone knows where you are and may suggest ads based on nearby businesses or travel plans.
➤ Social media activity: What you like, comment on, or engage with can be used to build a consumer profile.
➤ Friends’ activity: If someone in your social circle is searching for a topic, you might get related ads due to shared interests or demographic similarities.
Rather than eavesdropping on live conversations, ad networks actually leverage the vast amounts of data they have stored based on every internet user’s search history. Now with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-driven analytics, targeted ads are becoming even more precise and granular.
This cumulative predictive technology can make it seem like our phones are listening in when in reality, they are simply making highly educated guesses based on our online behaviour and habits.
Not out of woods
While tech companies deny active surveillance for ad targeting, everyone’s smartphone microphone can still be accessed by apps with the right permissions.
For example, apps such as Google Assistant and Siri are always in a passive listening mode, waiting for wake words like “Hey Google” or “Hey Siri”.
However, according to Apple and Google, the data from these assistants is processed locally unless explicitly authorised otherwise by the user.
The Northeastern University study tested over 17,000 apps and found no evidence of constant eavesdropping. However, the study still highlighted concerns over apps collecting screen activity and location data, sometimes without users’ knowledge.
If the idea of being constantly watched (or listened to) makes you uneasy – a fair concern – here are some steps to take control of your digital footprint:
➤ Review app permissions: Check which apps have access to your microphone, camera and location.
➤ Limit voice assistant usage: Disable or restrict access to voice assistants when not in use.
➤ Use privacy settings: Opt out of personalised ads in the phone’s settings.
➤ Clear cookies and history: Regularly deleting browsing data can reduce ad tracking.
The belief that our phones are secretly listening to us may stem from how eerily precise modern ad targeting has become. However, the evidence suggests that rather than covertly spying, companies rely on legal yet invasive data collection methods. In other words, your phone might not be listening, but it definitely knows you.
The next time you open Instagram and are immediately carpet-bombed by several back-to-back sponsored posts of a product, it is probably not because your iPhone has been listening to you, but rather because it already understands you better than you think.
