Vote now: Do you think your phone is secretly listening to you?

There you are, peacefully browsing the Internet from your couch, when a strange advertisement for beard trimmers appears on your screen. Then you remember that yesterday you and your friends had a long, deep discussion about beards and wondered which trimmer was best. Coincidence? Maybe not.

Some people think our phones are perfect tracking and spying machines, capable of recording our every word and maybe even taking our photos. There are dozens and dozens of anecdotal stories, like the one above, and even serious accusations.

Two years ago, Google representatives were summoned by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology to answer questions about Google Assistant and claims that it listens even when a user has not triggered the AI ​​saying, “Okay, Google. »

The company issued a clarification stating that “Google Assistant is designed to wait in sleep mode until it is activated, like when you say ‘Hey Google.’ In sleep mode, it processes short audio clips (a few seconds) to detect activation. . If no activation is detected, these audio clips will not be sent or saved to Google.”

If you ask me, I’m not sure Google, Facebook, etc. listen to us through our phones, but I bet the US government does. This makes sense, and it probably has all the necessary backdoors, both from a purely technical and legal perspective.

Anyway, the question today is simple: do you think your phone is secretly listening to you? Vote in our poll and share your stories in the comments section below.