- You were just talking with your friend about your upcoming trip to Disney. - Good morning Disney World. - Next thing you know, you see Disney ads on your social media feed. Is your Android listening to you or is it just a coincidence? - Yes and no, but this feature has been very concerning for a lot of people there've have been news stories about it. - It's almost like the app is listening to you conversation. - Yeah, so it is true that some apps do have access to your microphone because you gave them access to use your microphone. And it makes sense for apps like Zoom, where you need to talk to people. So they need to have your microphone access. But for some other apps, it doesn't make a ton of sense to have a microphone access. It's also true that your virtual assistants like Google assistant or Alexa are also listening to you all the time waiting for those trigger words. But that doesn't mean they're recording all of your conversations. - But are they using it to build some sort of a marketing profile about you? They wouldn't be doing that, right? - Yes, they absolutely are Google and Amazon both do. - So they're listening to what I say when I ask for something, and then they're gonna build a marketing profile based on the keywords that they hear in my speech. - Yes. - Well, at least they're perfect, right David? - They're not. - They're never make mistakes. - That's the thing they're always supposed to listen for these trigger words and then activate when they hear those trigger words. But sometimes they get set off accidentally or there's some sort of software issue and then it starts actually recording some of your conversations. And then sending that off to Google and Amazon. - Have you ever been watching a TV show and all of a sudden somebody says Alexa, and then all of a sudden it's recording what the TV show says. What a brilliant way for them to know who's watching that TV show. I'm just saying. - It's also interesting, you know, for Alexa, you can change it to computer or echo. I wonder if you're watching "Star Trek," for example, and they say computer over and over again, if that might accidentally trigger your Alexa. - Okay nerd. - Yeah. - I wonder if you're watching "Star Trek." I fricking love "Star Trek." Let's just be honest about that. - But the truth is that big tech companies don't need to be tapping your microphone and listening to you all the time to start delivering you targeted ads, because they already have so many ways to track you. And they have built this massive advertising profile about you. - They aren't all the time truth, but they don't have to. And most people aren't aware of all the ways that they can track you. In fact, I wouldn't even say that we're aware of all the ways that you can be tracked because it's a black box. - Well, we learned about one recently with accelerometers that was kind of, you know, mind blowing to us because accelerometers are something that we don't even have control over. We can't restrict accelerometer access. - Right, so accelerometers what's tracking the movements of your phone, very subtle movements. So David I've turned off a bunch of settings on my phone so I think I'm super safe. And then I get on a bus to New York city. Then what happens? - Well, if you are sitting next to someone on a bus... - David. - They can see that the accelerometers are moving in the same direction at the same speed and they can connect your phones that way. It's really cool. So it's also frightening. - Yeah so just the little subtle bumps of the bus ride. They're gonna be able to match that up with the bumps of your phone. The wheels on the bus go round and round and your marketing profile gets built. - Yes, so I think the big misconception here about, you know, tapping microphones to deliver targeted ads is just that they already have enough information about you and it comes down to something called frequency illusion. I'm gonna read what it is instead of trying to define it. After noticing something for the first time, there's a tendency to notice it more often, leading someone to believe that it is has a high frequency of occurrence. Put plainly the frequency illusion is when a concept or thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere. So let's transition to some tips to cut down on the amount of data these advertisers can collect about you. So we're gonna open the settings app, swipe down upper right-hand corner of the screen, tap that settings gear. Let's go down and tap on privacy, then tap permission manager. So, let's talk about microphone right off the bat. These are the apps that can access your microphone. I think the one to be concerned about is allowed all the time. - Yeah, that's the one to be most concerned about anyway, but all of the apps that you see in this list allowed well in use could be recording you whenever you're using them, which could be kinda scary. Google. - Google, Facebook, Amazon. I mean Facebook, for example, if I'm not uploading videos of myself I don't think I really need Facebook to access my microphone. - Right, If only there was a way that it could just ask every time. - Oh, well you could tap on Facebook and then ask every time. - Boom, much safer setting. - The one to be more concerned about is allowed all the time I actually went through and I couldn't find any apps that asked for microphone access all the time. So that was... - And if you do like drop a comment below, let us know which apps. - Yes, so let's step back to permission manager one more time and we are going to tap on location. So as we mentioned location, your location can be used to build these massive advertising profiles about you. There was one story where this woman, she started seeing her boyfriend's ads because the advertisers were able to connect to their phones because they were together so often. - And it gets really specific. If a hospital is trying to recruit nurses, they might target the parking lot of another hospital and then target all those nurses for job ads. Now, if you're a nurse you might actually get a better deal. So maybe, but really it's kinda scary how much they know about us. - So right now Amazon Shopping has access to my location all the time even when I'm not using it. - Well, how else are they gonna sell you things that you wanna buy? - Yes, so let's tap on Amazon Shopping and again, maybe ask every time. - Well I mean, ask every time is like, I'm gonna put on my detective hat and see when it's asking my location. And then you can sort of get an idea of what it's using it for. - So let's tap ask every time. - Or just don't allow it, up to you. - Or just don't allow it, you know. Google, do you want Google to have access to your location all the time or do you want it to only while using the app, If you deny this permission, basic features of your device may no longer function as intended. - Oh it's very scary. They're trying to scare you into leaving it on. - Yeah, so we're gonna leave it on. Cause we have to talk about another Google location setting. Let's tap back to the main privacy page. Let's scroll down to
Google location history. This saves an account of everywhere you've been all the time. Even when you're not using Google apps. - You're gonna see a lot of features on your phone, like
personalized experiences and recommendations just for you. But the way that works is Google has the biggest ad network in the world. And they're just gonna sell advertisers your attention, which is what ads are. They're selling your attention based on where you are. - So for me personally, I would turn this off and it's tapping that turn off button. If you wanna leave this feature on, we recommend tapping auto delete and then auto delete activity three, 18 or 36 months. I think the 36 months one is just kind of ridiculous. - Ridiculous. - I would select three months there if you wanna leave this setting on. But if you just wanna turn it off altogether, tap that turn off button, scroll, tap pause. - I like how it pause. It's not just like, you know, just disable They're like, you'll be back. - You'll be back yeah. - You'll be back. - Got it. Let's tap back again to the main privacy page in settings. Next we're gonna tap on ads, ads personalization. Turn the switch on to opt out of ads personalization. You'll still see ads, but they may not be based on your interests. - You might see ads for Disney. If you're on a Disney website, but you won't see ads for Disney on a car battery website. - We're gonna tap okay. It also says you might not see fewer ads. That's the claim that Apple makes you won't see fewer ads, but that might not necessarily be true. If you can really restrict all the ways that advertisers collect information about you, you might see fewer ads. - Right, you become less valuable as a product and companies will not bid as much to show you an ad. - Next, we're gonna go back to the main page of the settings app and scroll down to apps and tap that three dots, upper right-hand corner of the screen. Then tap special access. It's really buried down here. Usage data access, tap on that. - I mean, how many levels do they have to hide this in? - So let's just pick on Bixby Voice for example, allow apps to monitor which other apps you use and how often and identify our service provider, language settings and other usage data. - Apps can monitor every other app and see everything you're doing. - I think for pretty much every app you're gonna wanna just go ahead and turn that off. - Yeah, I like how they put other usage data at the end. - Yeah. - It's kinda like, and everything else. - If you just go back and then just look through all this list of apps. You got a long list here. Google's already not allowed, but just go through, I think 99% of the time the answer is gonna be, turn it off. And then if you'd find yourself in a situation where you actually do want it on, just come back here. If you can find it. - If it's fuzzy to you, if you don't understand specifically how Android System Intelligence needs usage data access maybe try turn it off for awhile. - Next we're gonna talk
about specific apps, how they collect information about you. So let's go to the home screen and we're gonna start in Chrome. Tap Chrome, tap those three dots, upper right-hand corner of the screen. Then tap settings, scroll down to privacy and security. Tap on that and then tap do not track, turn this on. - Yeah, this is where people get a little bit frustrated sometimes because we now have to go into specific apps that you use frequently and turn more settings off because there isn't an enabled privacy feature on your phone. And if you wanna stay in touch with us about these new sort of security holes that pop up, consider joining our channel because we are always making new videos. And we'd love to hear about the problems that you have with your phone. - It can also be frustrating too, cause sometimes after software updates, everything gets reset. - Yeah, exactly. - Some things get turned back on somehow. - And then they move it around. - Yeah. - So it's not in the same place. - Let's go back to the home screen. I'm gonna swipe left to right, to get some of my apps here. Facebook, that's a big one. Tap on Facebook and then tap on the hamburger menu. Three horizontal lines, scroll down, tap settings and privacy. Then tap settings, then scroll down. It's a maze, to permission section tap on ad preferences okay. Then tap ad settings, and then tap data about your activity from... (laughs) Personalized ads based on your activity and other websites, tap on that. - I actually haven't seen this before. David did the research on this. - Yeah, it's really deep. So choose where we can use data from our partners to show you personalized ads, Facebook and Instagram. - So it's just gonna link all of your accounts together so that they can track you. - Yes, I'm gonna turn both of these switches off. There we go now next up, how about Twitter? Tap on your account icon upper left-hand corner of the screen. Then tap settings and privacy. Scroll down to privacy and safety. Then scroll down to ad preferences, personalized ads. This feature is not available because you've opted out of personalized ads. So you wanna turn this switch off. So let's go back to the home screen. How about Snapchat? Another big one. - Totally secure. - Yep, tap on your account icon upper left-hand corner of the screen. Tap on the settings gear upper right-hand corner of the screen. Scroll down and tap on
ads and preferences. Here we go, ad preferences, audience-based, activity-based, third party ad networks. - Yeah, so third party ad networks of just whoever the heck they want to, will be able to target you based on personal information. They're still gonna see, yeah. I mean, it's not like you can turn off ads but you can turn off some of the tracking. - Disable, disable, disable. - I mean, who's gonna read that? - Nobody, well they're not counting on you going to this section of the Snapchat settings and turning off these switches. How about another app? How about Amazon? - Amazon's totally secure. They would never do anything to track us. - Tap at your account icon bottom of the screen and then tap on your account icon, upper right-hand corner of the screen. - Just kind of a... - Tap on, go to your account. Then scroll down to app preferences down there you'll see advertising preferences. Tap on that. Show me interest based ads provided by Amazon do not show me interest based ads provided by Amazon. Tap that switch turn it off. This can also be really good for your bank account. - Yes. - You know, Amazon has a lot of information about you. They are very good at targeting and finding things you want to buy. One thing that's interesting about Amazon too, is that it can learn from your patterns. So if you buy cat food every two weeks, don't be surprised that, you know, 14 days go by you start seeing those cats food ads all over the place. So let's tap submit. There you go. One more app we're gonna talk about is TikTok, but guess what? You can not turn off personalized ads on TikTok in the US in the European Union where we have GDPR, you can turn it off but we're here in New York. - And isn't it true that you used to be able to. - Used to be able to and they turned this feature off. - They're were like, you know what? We don't have to be giving Americans the right to turn off this feature. So we're just gonna put it on for all of them. - We hope this video helped you learn. Is your Android listening to you and really cut down the amount of data that these advertising companies can collect about you. It's a long one, it's a lot of work, but it's worth it for your personal privacy. - And there's really Ano perfect solution. - Right. - But this is a lot better. - This is about as good as you can do. Thanks for watching. Please hit that subscribe button down low, down below. - Yeah, the down the DL. - For more great videos like this. - Whenever you wi... We probably did. I wonder if on "Star Trek," they were building marketing profiles of their crew of the enterprise. Enabled privacy mode feature or something on your phone.
