Clubhouse is one of the most talked about apps lately. It started to be news to be the first app that works exclusively with your voice, you can’t send pictures or text messages, only use your voice to communicate with the community that is part of the app.
This is also news due to its exclusivity and the difficulty of having a Clubhouse account (we’ll tell you how to get an invitation to use the Clubhouse app), but most importantly, it has been in the news recently for its terms. and conditions of confidentiality.
Clubhouse admitted to recording user conversations. However, the company justifies these recordings on the grounds that they are intended to support incident investigations.
“We temporarily record the audio of a room (or chat room) while the room is live. If a user reports a violation while that room is active, we retain the audio for the purpose of ‘investigate the incident, then we delete it when the investigation is complete. ”
Clubhouse records conversations thanks to the fact that when a user starts using the application, it gives them access to the phone’s microphone. However, many other apps that we use frequently such as WhatsApp or Facebook also require access to our microphone. The same is true in the case of Echo smart speakers or any other type.
After all, have you ever noticed that you start to see advertisements for something you’ve talked about? Don’t you have the feeling that sometimes they listen to you? It is most likely happening.
Which apps are listening to us and how to avoid them
First of all, you must understand that the purpose of these “taps” is related to advertising. They want to know what sparks your interest so they can show you related ads.
Obviously, you have to understand that the conversation itself is not heard consciously, but rather that the applications are programmed to detect certain sounds, like when you say “mobile” or a keyword that the algorithm of l application is able to detect. capable of serving you related advertisements.
It is also guaranteed that this information is not stored at any time, but even so, it is normal that we feel concerned about our privacy as it is being violated more and more without even realizing it.
To find out which apps are listening to you, just look at one thing: which apps have access to your microphone?
To do this, go to ‘Settings’ on your smartphone and then choose the ‘Application permissions’ option. A list will open with all the permissions that you have granted to the different applications that you have installed on your smartphone.
In my case, I can see that out of 67 apps that could have access to my microphone, I tuned it to 22 apps. You can remove the permission at any time if you want, just open the list to see all the apps that have access to it and turn off the switch (it turns gray when you remove the permission).
On the other hand, you should keep in mind that if you remove the microphone access permission from some apps, they may not work or provide all of their functions. This would be the case with WhatsApp and voice notes. So you decide for yourself what to sacrifice, if it’s a part of your privacy or whether to send voice notes in this case.
Another way to make sure your conversations aren’t overheard is to turn off your mobile’s voice assistant. It will be Siri in the case of iPhones or Google Assistant in the case of Android.
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