Have you ever felt that your smartphone is listening to everything you say? Your intuition is not wrong! You might have noticed that after talking or surfing about some product or service, you start seeing advertisements or notifications regarding that product/service on your smartphone. It is not a coincidence, but it clearly means your smartphone is spying on you. Your smartphone has virtual assistants like Google or Siri that have listening capabilities to carry out your commands. So, based on your recent conversation or surfing, you will start getting ads and notifications.

For some people, it might not be a big deal. However, few people are concerned about the privacy and security consequences smartphones can cause if they are listened to constantly. People fear that someone will hack their phone and access their audio data, or what if people get access to confidential data they don’t want to share? If you also have this fear and wonder how to stop your phone from listening to your conversation, this blog is for you.

What are the Three Categories of Smartphone Listening?  

Generally, there are three categories of smartphone listening that you should know about.

1.     Advertising

Usually, companies use microphones to collect audio data. This data will allow them to target users through tailored advertisements.

2.     Hacking

It is the most concerned category involving malicious actors who access your smartphone’s Microphone for unauthorized activities, leading to serious consequences such as identity fraud, data theft, or personal safety risk.

3.     Product Improvement

Some apps and services gather audio data to improve their product/service. Their intention is genuine, but as they are collecting data without consent, so it can put your privacy at risk.

Whenever it is permission-based listening, you can have control over your smartphone’s Microphone.

The next section will discuss how to switch on/off microphone listening and voice assistants.

How to Stop Android Phone from Listening to Your Conversation

Here are a few steps that you need to follow to stop your Android phone from listening to conversations.

•   Launch Settings
•   Click on Security and Privacy -> Privacy
•   From the Privacy dropdown menu, choose Privacy Controls.
•   Now turn off/on the Microphone access toggle to switch ON or OFF the permission.

How to Stop iPhone from Listening to Your Conversation

Here are a few steps if you are an iPhone user and want to secure your microphone privacy.

•   Choose Settings
•   Click on Privacy & Security
•   Select Microphone
•   You will get a permission screen. From that, you can manage the microphone permission for each application by turning ON/OFF the toggled switch.

Like the Microphone, the Turning Off voice assistant is also vital if you want to stop your phone from listening to your conversation.

How to Stop Voice Assistant on Android?

If you are using an Android phone, you have a voice assistant named Google Assistant. Here are a few steps that you need to take to stop using voice assistants on Android.

•   Open Settings
•   Tap on the General tab -> choose Google.
•   Choose Account Services -> Search, Assistant, and Voice.
•   Click on Voice -> Voice match
•   Now, turn off the Hey Google toggle.

How to Stop Voice Assistant on iPhone?

Without any doubt, Siri is useful, but it listens to your daily activity while keeping its ears open. Therefore, if you are concerned about your privacy, follow the below steps to stop Siri from listening to your conversation.

•   Open Settings
•   Click on Siri & Search
•   Now, you will see three toggles – “Listen for Hey Siri”, “Allow Siri When Locked”, and “Press Home for Siri.” Disable these toggles.
•   You will get a notification stating, “Turn Off Siri” to complete the steps.

If you use Google Assistant on your iPhone, you can turn it off by following the steps below.

•   Open the Settings app
•   Click on Google Assistant
•   Turn off the Microphone toggle.
•   You can even remove the Google Assistant app from your iPhone.

Following the above-discussed steps prevent Siri and Google Assistant from listening to your conversation. However, it will not protect you from third-party apps with microphone access. You must go through the app permissions and ensure you restrict microphone access.

Conclusion

In summary, you can take control over what your smartphone can hear. Of course, your smartphone might be listening to you, BUT it happens ONLY if you allow it. There might be some exceptions because of the vague apps you downloaded or your smartphone being hacked.

This is because you have not read the terms and conditions properly when downloading an app, and your phone is not permitted to listen to you. By denying microphone access to apps and voice assistants,  you can take control of why your smartphone is listening to you.