The mobile has become an extremely used tool, or 3 hours and 40 minutes, according to the Digital Consumer by Generation Report. More and more Spaniards live by looking at the screen and on it the advertising shown on it tends to become oddly precise. Does this mean that the mobile listens to what users say without them knowing?
Personal information about tastes and possible buying preferences is valuable, and it is true that some people may want to take advantage of it for their own benefit. And they don’t have to be cybercriminals using malware or adware, but totally legal Google Play apps.
Fortunately, Android has security tools capable of detecting the use of the microphone by these types of applications which, although they are not considered viruses, they take advantage of the permissions granted to them.
microphone access
For years, Android has had a system through which users can decide what items and information apps can access that they installed. In this way, it is possible to restrict access to key elements such as the camera.
It’s a good way to have control over what apps can do, because in recent years it has been possible to verify that many of those that seemed harmless, such as a flashlight or to play pranks, ended up being malicious. It is advisable not to grant any authorization that is not strictly necessary for the development of its functions.
That is, if a game, like a version of Tetris, asks for permission to know the location or manage files on the phone, beware. The best solution is uninstall this type of application and look for other equivalent ones, but don’t meddle so much in the sections that don’t concern them.
According to collect The Economista consultant for NordVPN said that many apps that request microphone access without needing it, collect user information through inaudible ultrasonic beacons for the human ear and that they can transmit information.
If you don’t want to uninstall the app, just remove its permissions from settings, because in many cases it may even continue to be used. On Instagram, for example, you can remove the microphone and camera and continue watching content Like nothing ever happened. However, when uploading an image to a video on the social network, they will have to be tuned again.
Applications that do not need to collect user audio should not be allowed to do so. Thus, the mobile will be more protected against the transmission of information by ultrasound.
When the camera or microphone of an Android device is used, it shows a green dot on the top right
In some mobiles there is also the possibility of disable access to these two sensors from the notification bar itself. This is a full restriction, so if you want to use the camera later, you will need to re-enable access to the camera.
personalized ads
There are many apps and games that ask the user if they want to see personalized advertising when they first start up. It was preselected by an algorithm that takes into account the interests and more information of each person. In this way, it is more effective for advertisers and device owners, but at the expense of the latter’s privacy.
To improve this aspect, the most recommended option is to disable ads personalization. Many applications include this option in the initial user agreement or they just enable it by default. However, just access the settings of each application to disable it manually
Advertising personalization means that after performing a search in an online store, the products that have been watched later appear advertised on other different pages. Many times it comes from the hand of the cookieswhich basically collect information about a user’s visits to the websites they visit.
When browsing the Internet, each site displays a notice related to its policy in this area. Many websites do this in such a way that it is more convenient to accept the use of this element than to reject it. However, accept everything cookies may involve the transfer of certain information about the device and its use to third parties. There are companies, like Google, with Topics, that try to use alternative methods.
In any case, many websites continue to use them, and the best thing to do is to spend a few seconds in the settings and dismiss them. Although it should be clarified that these also have other purposes such as the display of analytical data on visits or the classification of the user’s profile.
If microphone permissions are limited and personalized advertising options are disabled, in addition to disabling cookies when browsing the Internet, they are unlikely to reappear more search-based ads recent.
You may be interested
Follow the topics that interest you