Have you ever had the feeling that someone might be listening in on your private conversations? If you use a smartphone or smart speaker, it’s possible that this feeling is more than just paranoia. Both Apple and Google have admitted to allowing contractors to listen to recordings from their devices in order to improve their virtual assistants, Siri and Google Assistant. This means that human employees may be able to hear what you say to your device, including sensitive personal information and private conversations.
While the companies claim that these recordings are anonymized and only used for the purpose of improving their virtual assistants, the fact remains that your personal data is being shared with third parties. This raises serious concerns about privacy and the potential for abuse of this data.
Fortunately, it’s easy to turn off these settings and protect your privacy.
Here’s how to do it:
1. On an iPhone or iPad, go to the “Settings” app and select “Siri & Search.” From there, you can toggle off the “Listen for “Hey Siri”” and “Press Home for Siri” options. This will prevent Siri from activating and recording your voice when you use certain trigger phrases or press the home button.
2. If you want to completely disable Siri, you can go to the “General” section in the “Settings” app and select “Siri.” From there, you can toggle off the “Siri” switch.
3. To turn off voice recording for Google Assistant on an Android device, go to the “Settings” app and select “Google.” From there, select “Accounts & Privacy” and then “Google Account.” Under the “Data & Personalization” section, you can select “Manage your activity controls” and turn off the “Voice & Audio Activity” toggle.
4. If you want to completely disable Google Assistant, you can do so by going to the “Apps & notifications” section in the “Settings” app and selecting “Google App.” From there, you can toggle off the “Google Assistant” switch.
By taking these simple steps, you can protect your privacy and keep your personal conversations private. It’s important to be aware of how your personal data is being used and to take control of your privacy settings.