My article last week on whether smartwatches are spying on people (their users) triggered a lot of discussion. I received calls, emails, and instant messages with feedback, and some also shared their experience on the same. What I also contributed and shared during the conversations, as a personal opinion, was that every smart device, which obviously has a microphone and embedded GPS receivers, may do exactly the same.
Practically, most of the smart devices today carry those two components as part of the mechanics and build of the device, so you can talk/record or identify the location of the device. Well, I decided to focus my article today on sharing the exact steps that one needs to follow in order to stop a mobile phone from listening and tracking. Obviously, the same can be followed with any smart device that uses an operating system (Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, or Huawei’s Light or Harmony) and has a similar interface and settings that are universal and applicable to all (with little differences, of course).
To give a brief background on the subject, and for those who missed my article last week, there is a feeling that smart devices (watches, phones, tablets, TVs, wristbands, etc.) are spying on us. Something that you speak about (or even think of to some extent) pops up on your device as a form of promotion some moments later.
How that happens is mostly via utilizing two components of the device, i.e., the embedded microphone and sensors/receivers (GPS for the location, for instance). This has caused a lot of concerns to many people about their privacy (a word I feel would sooner or later vanish as far as our world progresses digitally).
How do they do it? These smart devices constantly collect data on the user's location, surroundings, and movements, which are first held on the device and then later sent to the cloud/internet for storage and analysis.
This data is often packaged and sold to third parties for targeted advertisement or other marketing purposes. In 2023 itself, Apple sold approximately 40 million smartwatches. This number has most probably increased as the adoption of the Apple Watch became more widespread. The same applies to Google Android- and Huawei-based smartwatches. So what can you do today in order to stop smart devices (starting with mobile phones) from listening and tracking you? Let me share the steps.
Simply remove and disable microphone and location access to applications that you personally feel shouldn’t have access to it. On Apple iOS devices, just go to Settings, then scroll down to Privacy & Security from the menu, and finally click on Microphone and Location Services to see which apps have access.
Set access to “never,” “ask next time,” or “while using the app,” depending on what you wish to do. For Android devices, go to Settings, then Privacy, and finally click on the Permission Manager. Check both the microphone and location separately, and ensure you disable access for apps that don’t need it as well. That’s it; you will now block third-party apps from listening (via microphone) and being able to track you (via GPS/location).
To conclude my article this week. I would like to emphasize that the steps shared today will surely help and protect you from being tracked; nevertheless, this would only work at the application layer. You would not know if the operating system itself continues to do so (which is something I believe would always remain unless you physically remove the components, i.e., the microphone and related sensors).
The world, thanks to the information superhighway, has become smaller, yet reaching, listening, and finding us, wherever we are, has become easier and faster too. Until we catch up again next week, stay safe and be alert.
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