How to Stop Your Phone from Eavesdropping On You

Have you ever mentioned something in passing to a friend and then suddenly see ads for it everywhere?

They say it’s a coincidence. They say it’s because you searched for it before.

But Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class action lawsuit over Siri privacy concerns… so if you are concerned, there are several settings on your phone that you should change.

🍎📱 Most of the instructions below are for iOS because we only have iPhones in our home. You can usually find similar settings for Andriod devices too.

Shut Off the Microphone

Your phone’s microphone is listening to you and not just for wake up words like “Hey Alexa” or “OK Google” – and you may have inadvertently given access to apps without realizing it.

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone to see a list of all the apps with access to your microphone. Shut off the ones that don’t need it.

Be Strict About Bluetooth

Bluetooth can be used to track your location while you’re in the store using what’s known as Bluetooth “pingers.” Many times, it’s integrated with their mobile apps and used to track your location, send you promotions, or help you navigate the store. This New York Times article explains how it works.

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Bluetooth and disable it for any apps that don’t really need it.

Shut Off Analytics & Improvements

You might want to be nice and share analytics and improvements so Apple can improve Siri, it’s dictation, and other services but it opens you up to data collection on motion patterns, app usage, and other items.

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements and turn off:

• Share iPhone Analytics
• Share iCloud Analytics
• Improve Siri & Dictation (go to Settings → Siri & Search → Siri History to delete voice history)
• Improve Assistive Voice Features
• Improve AR Location Accuracy

Shut Off Precise Location Tracking

Precise Location is scary accurate when it’s able to use GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. It can get it down to 10-20 feet (3-6 meters) so they will know which building you are in (though not necessarily which floor).

How many apps need that level of accuracy? I’d argue none. You can switch it from Precise Location to Approximate, which shows a large blue circle that covers several kilometers.

Shut Off Background App Refresh

Background app refresh is when apps are allowed to update their data in the background, which slowly drains your battery but also your privacy. Every time it goes to get data, it’s connecting to a tower and providing your device information and status.

Go to Settings → General → Background App Refresh and shut it off. Your apps will refresh when you open them.

Disable Cross-App Tracking

This is where your phone is connected to your desktop which is connected to your smart TV, etc. It’s linked together through your various logins and allows companies to build a full profile of you across different devices.

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking and turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track. There’s little benefit to having this on, unless you really want to see better targeted ads.

As an added bonus, you can remove ad personalization IDs too. Your phone as a unique advertising ID used across apps, you can disable these “Personalized Ads” by going to Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising (it’s near the bottom) and turning off Personalized Ads.

Delete Significant Locations

Your phone keeps a list of places you visit frequently (as well as how you get there) and you may not even know it. It’s buried deep inside the settings (you’ll know what I mean) and may be enabled by default.

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → System Services → Significant Locations & Routes

When you’re in the Location Services section, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom, past every app on your phone, to find System Services! Clear the history and turn it off.

Audit Camera Permissions

Much like your microphone, you should limit which apps get access to your camera. Meta/Facebook rolled out a feature last year where it would scan your photo album to help train its AI and it was met with a lot of backlash. Companies change their terms all the time and the only way to prevent them from scanning your photo album is to not allow access in the first place.

Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Photos and double check which apps have access and whether they truly need it.