Kim Komando, a Fox News reporter, shared her experience with targeted ads. She said that when she mentioned that she would like to go hiking in Patagonia, her phone started receiving ads about hiking adventures in her desired place after an hour during their dinner.
Although there's no concrete evidence that your phone's camera is always listening to you, many residents in the United States believe that apps and other sites collect their voice data for marketing purposes. Even your smart TV could be gathering sensitive data while you use it.
iPhone and Android smartphones are no exception, although Apple's iOS 14 is updated with useful new privacy options. Here's a new trick you can use to identify if someone secretly using your device's mic or camera.
Look for your iPhone's orange dot
iPhone's latest system update includes an orange dot that appears in the screen's upper-right hand corner. This serves as an indicator when your mic is in use. On the other hand, if a small green dot appears, that means your camera is in use or was recently recording.
If you're not sure which app is using your mic or camera, here's what you need to do;
1) Navigate to the device's Settings, then scroll down and choose the "Privacy option."
2) You can tap either the "Camera" or "Microphone" option. Each of these will show you a list of apps.
3) Choose the apps you want to turn off.
How to identify if your Android's camera or mic is in use
Right now, Android devices don't have the feature to notify you if the camera or mic is working. However, you can use the Access Dots app, which will show an icon just like in iOS.
You can also adjust the indicator icon's color to your liking. If you see the indicator and want to turn off your camera or mic, you can just swipe from the bottom up to the middle of your screen. After that, you need to swipe from left to right, then tap the "Clear all" option to close all the apps at once.
You can also check your device's permissions. Here's what you need to do;
1) Go to Settings and scroll down, then click the "Personal" option.
2) Choose the "Privacy and Safety" option, then go to App Permissions.
3) You can either choose the Camera or Microphone, then choose the app you want to turn off by toggling the slider to the "off" position.
For more news updates about Android or iPhone smartphones, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
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Written by: Giuliano de Leon.
