Has it ever happened to you that you were talking to another person about a topic and, suddenly, when you looked at your mobile, you found an ad about what you were discussing ? Without looking for it on the Internet or having seen anything on the subject on your smartphone. A new study has made it clear why it happens and yes, your mobile may be listening to your conversations.
A study by NordVPN has shown that almost half of Spaniards have ever seen an ad for something they have recently talked about, but have not searched the internet at any time. It also happens if they have seen it on television. Specifically, they have assured that 45% of the Spaniards consulted have noticed it.
Surely you have also realized this because it has happened to us too. The only reason this could be due to, rather than reading your mind, is that your mobile listens to you and uses this information for advertising purposes.
Does your mobile listen to you? We tell you how he does it
Most people have seen these ads on their smartphone , 79% of them , although it has also happened in 54% of cases on the computer and in 30% of them on a tablet. It seems that it is the mobile that should be the most concern for users who do not want their privacy to be violated. Suffice it to say that 40% of people who have had this experience felt followed or tracked . And 10% of them even scared. We are afraid and worried about what they can do with our private conversations.
According to Adrianus Warmenhoven, Cybersecurity Advisor at NordVPN, it is mostly due to ultrasonic tracking between devices. This is because your phone has apps that may be listening for inaudible high-frequency ultrasonic sounds from the environment and collecting a lot of information about you without your knowledge. This data is shared with other devices.
Ultrasonic cross-device tracking is used to link all devices and track location and behavior. Ultrasonic sound beacons not only perceive what we speak, but also online videos, series, television programs and even apps that are on our mobile.
If you see an ad on TV, you may suddenly find something related to this ad on your mobile, even if it is not a topic of interest to you and you have not been looking for it at any time. The same as if you talk to someone or a person tells you something. While sound beacons detect if your mobile is nearby, the apps you have on your mobile can listen to them to track what you do.
This can happen even if you don’t have mobile Internet because there are many apps that have permission to access your phone’s micro, and it doesn’t require mobile data or WiFi.
you can avoid it like this
Although we must already assume that sellers track our behavior through our mobile phones is scary, and that they listen to our conversations can be somewhat remorseful. This is questioned by privacy experts for its lack of transparency, security and protection of your sensitive data.
According to Adrianus Warmenhoven, the only way to reduce the possibility of your mobile listening to these beacons is to restrict these permissions in the apps you have on your mobile. To do this, you can change the permissions of the apps, use a VPN or use a private browser .