Do Smartphones Really Listen to Their Owners?

Almost every smartphone user has experienced seeing ads that seem directly related to something they recently talked about. Are these just coincidences, or are our phones actually “listening in” on our conversations? Experts from the company Wandera set out to investigate this question.

The Experiment

Researchers placed an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy in a soundproof room, played a pet food commercial on loop for 30 minutes, and monitored the devices. In a separate room, identical smartphones were left with a control group of people for 30 minutes a day over three days, without exposure to the commercial.

The study aimed to determine two things: whether battery usage, background app activity, or data consumption changed over time, and whether pet food ads appeared in apps after the experiment.

Results and Analysis

After analyzing the data, the researchers found no evidence that the smartphones activated their microphones or transmitted data in response to sound. Battery and data usage remained the same or changed only slightly. Data usage by voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant was minimal. If these assistants were sending user conversations to the cloud, data consumption would have been much higher. No pet food ads appeared after the experiment concluded.

How Targeted Ads Really Work

According to Wandera’s experts, advertisers don’t need to eavesdrop to target users effectively. “They have sophisticated methods for profiling users. Location data, browser activity, IP addresses, tracking pixels, and social media pages provide enough information to predict what you’re likely to buy,” the researchers explained.

Potential Security Risks

Even if advertisers aren’t spying on users, that doesn’t mean others aren’t. For example, cybercriminals can use malware like Pegasus to eavesdrop on their victims’ conversations.