TIKTOKERS are falsely claiming that their iPhone is listening to them, peddling a long-running myth.
People have repeated questioned whether smartphones and apps can spy on you using the microphone, with some convinced it is real.
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TikToker says an ad appeared on his phone little after talking about PeruCredit: @knoxstudy
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Bloke found it weird how he got similar ads for ages – then they stopped when he bought the productCredit: @seaclamp
As user @knoxstudy explains to more than a million followers, it comes down to adverts that mysteriously appear after you’ve spoken about them.
“One time, my wife was doing a crossword and she asked me what the capital of Peru was,” he said.
“I then responded by saying the capital is Lima.
“Two or three minutes later, I opened up Facebook and there we go, visit Peru was the first advert.
“Now, no disrespect to people from Peru but I hadn’t thought about your country for months maybe years, there was nothing about me that suggested I was on the verge of visiting Peru.
“I’m convinced that it’s listening to you.”
And he’s not alone in coming to the same conclusion, user @seaclamp said he was being bombarded with adverts about manscaping products.
“So I put the order in, told my friend that I got it, I’m excited for it,” he said.
After that, he claims the ads stopped, suggesting they had given up for now because he bought one.
@ljwalker33 claims the same thing when you see a red light on your iPhone, urging people to go into settings to manually turn off microphone permissions.
While it is true apps can access your microphone, you should get a request warning each time, meaning the app in question doesn’t just listen to you 24/7.
Does my phone listen to me?
There has never been any evidence that your phone listens to you in this way.
There have been several studies investigating whether it is true, but nothing untoward was ever uncovered.
Tech giants behind smartphones and apps have repeatedly denied it too.
While some apps like Facebook hoard plenty of data, it’s extremely unlikely that any company secretly records hundreds of millions of people.
And though it may be hard to believe, experts say it is more likely to be a mere coincidence.
This is because we are exposed to hundreds and thousands of adverts every day.
Most of them you ignore but now and again, out of the blue, one will relate to a recent conversation.
Because that conversation is still fresh in your mind, the advert stands out above the rest.
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Users can choose to switch off microphone permissionsCredit: Alamy
In other news, Apple has revealed a bunch of new emoji for iPhone, including a pregnant man and two saucy symbols.
Experts have warned that future space launches could be jeopardised if “stupid” regimes like Russia don’t stop blasting the skies creating debris.
And the most popular phone since the millennium has been unveiled, with many shocked to find out it’s not an iPhone.
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Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/17506727/does-my-phone-listen-to-me/
