By: Bryce Steiner
Do you wonder if your phone is listening to you?
You open your phone up and you see something come up on Facebook that you just talked about and you start to question if you searched for it or something recently? A conversation with a friend and now a youtube video pops up of what was just talked about? Hmm.
There is no questions about it, it is listening.
Even though Facebook has been in hot water over this in the last year they still continue to violate your privacy. The Facebook app defaults to listening to you, trying to target you with advertising and other media.
It’s not new, but quickly you realize that you cannot trust these devices since they are always listening and recording your conversations. You might be able to help the situation by uninstalling apps that are listening. You can still access it through your web browser that has more security in place.
If you are dependent on the apps you can use the privacy settings of the phone and turn off microphone access:
If you are an iPhone user, go to Settings >> Facebook >> Settings >> slide the Microphone switch to the left so it turns from green to white. That turns it off. Alternatively, you can go to Settings >> Privacy >> Microphone >> look for Facebook then do the same. Here at the privacy/microphone setting you can see which apps are listening and that you can toggle the mic on and off for those apps, too!
For Android users: Try Settings >> Applications >> Application Manager >> look for Facebook >> Permissions >> Turn off the mic.
On Android in the past, Facebook has been known to circumvent this, but right now it should be adhering to the rules.
Facebook is commonly used, but there are other apps out there that are also listening so you will want to make sure that those are also turned off if you feel your conversations should not be recorded.
Since the EU has required that companies who work in the European continent to make the information they have on you freely available, you in the US can take advantage of that too.
Do you have a Facebook account? Do you have a Google account? Watch Youtube? Want to know even the documents you have deleted? Facebook and Google has literally millions of pages on you if you use your devices much at all.
https://www.facebook.com/help/131112897028467
google.com/takeout
Both Google and Facebook are also selling your data. They do this because it makes them money by targeted advertising.
Microsoft and Apple, other giants in technology also collect data but not near as much as Google and Facebook.
Get data from Microsoft here by visiting your ‘Privacy dashboard’ at account.microsoft.com/privacy
