Two warning signs you should NEVER ignore on your iPhone – someone may be listening

YOUR iPhone can warn you of snoopers – but you need to know the signs.

Apple recently updated the iPhone to give you better protections against rogue apps spying on you.

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Smartphone users often fear that apps might be snooping.

It’s a common fear that apps are using your microphone or camera to listen in to conversations.

Thankfully, Apple updated the iPhone in 2020 to add warning signs that flag if this is happening.

The iOS 14 update is available for free – check you’re using a later version in Settings > General > Software Update.

A green dot will appear in the upper right corner of the display when the camera’s activated.

And it’s orange if the microphone is activated.

By swiping into your Control Centre, you’ll be able to see details about which app is using the microphone.

If you suspect something is snooping on you when it shouldn’t be, you should check the app’s permissions in Settings.

You can deny specific apps access to your microphone or camera, for instance.

And if you’re really worried, you could just delete the app altogether.

“Privacy is a fundamental human right and at the core of everything we do,” Apple explained back in 2020.

“That’s why with iOS 14, we’re giving you more control over the data you share and more transparency into how it’s used.

“An indicator appears at the top of your screen whenever an app is using your microphone or camera. And in Control Center, you can see if an app has used them recently.”

Of course, the light will shine whenever ANY app is using the microphone or camera.

That means it will show even when you use the Camera app or record a video on Instagram.

So don’t panic the moment you see that green or orange glow – you only need to be worried if it shines unexpectedly.

Why does it feel like apps are spying on us?

If you’ve ever seen ads for products you’ve talked about in real life, it can be scary.

That’s especially true if you think you’ve never searched for them online.

In fact, tech giants are able to show you these eerie ads because they have a shockingly detailed picture of your life.

The worrying fact is that much of this is from information that you yourself hand over.

And some of it is from following you around the web, monitoring what you do.

A company like Facebook simply doesn’t need to spy on you – your own behaviours provide plenty of data.

Accessing a smartphone microphone without your permission would be a huge invasion of privacy.

The magic of targeted advertising is that it should feel relevant to you – even if you can’t figure out why.

Advertisers can use information gleaned from your activity all across the web, on multiple devices, even if you’re not logged into Facebook or other services.

They’ll likely know where you live, what you like, who your friends are, how much money you make, your political beliefs and much more.

So when you get ads for something you’ve talked about out loud, it’s almost certainly just advertisers being very good at predicting your interests.

It’s also possible that there’s an advertising campaign running, and you’ve seen an ad and not noticed. You’ve then spoken about it, never realising you’ve been advertised to, and only then notice future ads – which suddenly seem suspicious.

Let’s say you talked about a holiday to Scotland, and then all of a sudden you’re being advertised holidays to Scotland.

You may never have searched for anything to do with that before.

But Facebook could use info about your level of wealth, your past holiday interests, the time of year (ads for wintry Scottish retreats are common in the colder months), and your location.

What seems like snooping is actually just clever advertising.

Just a coincidence

But also, it’s important to appreciate that noticing an ad for a product you’ve spoken about is almost certainly a coincidence.

If you’re a regular internet user, you’ll probably see hundreds of ads in a given day.

That’s thousands a week – the overwhelming majority of which you’ll never even notice.

But maybe once or twice over a few months, you’ll notice an ad for a product that you’ve spoken about – but not searched.

The chances of this happening once in a barrage of thousands (or even tens of thousands of ads) is probably very high.

You won’t think about all of the ads that didn’t pique your curiosity – just the one that made you feel paranoid.

So take comfort in the fact that often, ads are very wrong.

In other news, Google Chrome users have been urged to delete their browser.

Facebook recently rebranded to Meta.

Check out the best iPhone 13 deals.

And take a look at your hidden Facebook rejection folder.

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