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Can Your Phone Understand Your Thoughts?

Can Your Phone Understand Your Thoughts?

According to a study by NordVPN, a top protection business, 33% of Canadians have seen an ad on their devices for something they recently talked about or saw on TV but hadn't looked for. Most of them saw these ads on their phones (76%), computers (49%), or tablets (29%). Also, this made more than 4 in 10 Canadians (46%) feel like they were being watched and scared (12%).

"Ultrasonic cross-device tracking is to blame for that. Then, your phone will have apps that constantly listen to high-frequency ultrasonic sounds that you can't hear and gather a lot of information about you without you even knowing. "Later, they share this information with other devices," says NordVPN's digital privacy expert Adrianus Warmenhoven.

Cross-device tracking is useful for marketers because it lets them see how people use different devices, but privacy experts often question it because it isn't clear, safe, or protects private customer data.

Ultrasonic cross-device tracking: a growing risk

Ultrasonic cross-device tracking is a way to connect all of your devices so that your behavior and location can be tracked. These audible audio signals can be built into many things we use every day, like TV shows, online movies or websites, or apps on our phones.

Let's say you're watching TV and you see an ad for chocolate. When you pick up your phone, the same ad for chocolate pops up. Audio beacons can tell when your phone is close by using ultrasounds, and apps on your phone can listen for nearby audio beacons to track what you're doing.

"At the moment, many apps ask for permission to use the phone's microphone so they can use a certain kind of sound signal to track the user. Tracking works even when your phone isn't connected to the Internet because it doesn't need mobile data or Wi-Fi. Instead, it just needs access to the microphone to listen for markers.

"You can't stop ultrasonic transmitters from sending out sound waves in your area." Adrianus Warmenhove says that the best way to stop your phone from listening for beacons is to stop giving access to apps that don't need them.

How can you make it harder to track you across devices?

Research from NordVPN shows that 65% of Canadians don't know how to stop their phones from listening to them. Nobody likes being followed. So, Adrianus Warmenhoven suggests a few ways that people can make this less likely to happen:

  • Use a VPN: Using a VPN is one of the best ways to avoid being watched. A VPN is a tool that protects everything you do on the internet so that no one can see it. It also stops tracking based on your IP address because it hides it.
  • Use a secure browser: If you don't want to be tracked, it's best to use a private browser like Tor or DuckDuckGo instead of Google Chrome's "incognito" mode. These sites don't make profiles of you or save your personal information so that marketers can use it.
  • Change app access: Some of the rights that apps on your phone may ask for may not be necessary. For example, why would an app that lets you edit photos need to use your microphone? You should take these rights away from apps on your phone that doesn't need them.
"Because big tech companies are getting stronger, they can collect a lot of information about people across many sites and gadgets." In this way, tech giants will have even more chances to learn more about people's habits and tastes. Adrianus Warmenhove says that cross-device and cross-platform tracking may also make data security risks worse.
Rachid Achaoui
By : Rachid Achaoui
Hello, I'm Rachid Achaoui. I am a fan of technology, sports and looking for new things very interested in the field of IPTV. We welcome everyone. If you like what I offer you can support me on PayPal: https://paypal.me/taghdoutelive Communicate with me via WhatsApp : ⁦+212 695-572901
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