Tengrinews.kz - Want to know if your phone is "listening" to your conversations? Experts have presented a simple test consisting of only four steps that allows you to determine this, according to the Daily Mail.
NordVPN offers a simple test that you can easily do at home to check if your phone is being tapped. It all started when the company was running tests and noticed that ads started showing up on devices just a few days after researchers were talking out loud about a topic they had never Googled.
"While we typically brush them off as innocent and necessary, they are a strong indicator that you are allowing your device too much access to your personal data and interests," said Marijus Briedis, NordVPN's CTO.
So, to determine if your phone is “listening” to you, experts suggest the following four steps:
1. Select a unique topic
Come up with an unusual topic that you have never talked about or searched for on your phone or other devices. Something that is completely out of your usual interests.
2. Discuss the topic
Use the topic as a “bait”. Talk about it out loud near your phone several times to create a potential trigger for advertising algorithms.
3. Maintain normal phone usage
Don’t change your habits, continue using your device as usual.
4. Observe and analyse
If you start noticing ads related to the topic you mentioned, it may be a sign that your phone is listening to your conversations.
Be attentive to anything that may be related to the topic you are talking about or thinking about.
For example, if you mentioned Azerbaijan, pay attention not only to ads that directly mention this country. These may be offers for cheap flights and tours to a given destination that suddenly start appearing in your feed.
If you notice that ads begin to reflect the specified topics and interests, this may be a signal that your device is “listening” to you and using data to set up targeted advertising. Remember that your behavior and conversations can become a source of information for companies engaged in marketing.
Company experiment
Let's see how these steps looked in a specific example. One of the study participants chose the topic of Saudi Arabia and thought out loud for several days about how much he would like to visit this kingdom.
On Thursday, he wrote "Saudi Arabia" in his notes app, and by Sunday, just three days later, ads about the topic began appearing in his feed. Although the subject's Facebook had never shown any interest in the country before, it was now pushing ads offering hotels in Alla-Ula, Saudi Arabia.
Share in the comments, have you encountered this phenomenon? Do you think your phone is "listening" to you?
