Is Your iPhone Listening To You? We Asked Tech Experts.

The last time you spoke out loud about anything at all — whether it was yoga or Christmas — were you immediately bombarded by ads on your iPhone that offered you yoga mats and Christmas lights galore, as if it were reading your mind? 

If that’s not a sure sign that your phone is listening in, what is? 

“It’s no secret that our phones are listening to us,” said Tech Expert Oberon Copeland, founder and CEO of Very Informed. “And while there are some benefits to this (such as personalized ads), it also raises some privacy concerns. After all, if our phones are listening to us, that means they’re collecting data about our conversations and activities. This data could be used to target ads, or it could be sold to third-party companies. Worse, it could be used to track our movements and spy on our conversations. So how can we keep our phones from eavesdropping on us? The first step is to understand how they’re doing it.”

Is your iPhone listening in? You bet. Here’s what you need to know (and what you can do to stay as secure as possible). 

How Is Your iPhone Listening In?

“Our phones use microphones to listen for certain triggers, such as the sound of our voice or a specific word or phrase,” Copeland said. “Once the microphone picks up one of these triggers, it starts recording what we say and sends the recording to a server. The server then analyzes the recording and uses it to serve up relevant ads or content.”

How Can You Prevent your Phone From Listening? 

There are a few ways to prevent your phone from eavesdropping on you, according to Copeland. “First, you can disable the microphone — this will prevent your phone from picking up any sound at all, so it won’t be able to record your conversations or track your location,” Copeland said. “You can also disable other features that use your microphone, such as voice recognition and hands-free calling. Alternatively, you can use a privacy screen protector that blocks the microphone from picking up sound. Finally, you can encrypt your voice communications so that even if your phone is listening in, the recordings can’t be deciphered by anyone except the intended recipient. By taking these steps, you can make sure your phone isn’t eavesdropping on you.”

It’s not your imagination — your phone is listening. But, if the very thought of this creeps you out, taking these steps can help protect your privacy.