Some applications for mobile phones spy on you through their microphones, the problem being a very big one, but unfortunately people do not know how to protect themselves. According to some companies specialized in monitoring the activity of the applications, some of them use the microphones of the phones to detect certain types of sounds emitted around the users, even when the applications are not open.
We are talking about applications for mobile phones that use a software called Alphonso, which monitors the space around users to detect TV commercials, TV programs and various other similar sounds. The software downloads this data with information about GPS, also taken from the phones, and thus personalized advertisements are played to their users when they surf the Internet.
Applications that spy on you using phone microphones
No less than 250 games and applications from the AppStore or Google Play have this software installed, most of them being thought to be attractive for children. All these applications and games definitely have access to the microphone of the phones to be able to retrieve the respective data, otherwise they would not be able to do the monitoring, so blocking access to it saves people from spying.
"The apps use software from Alphonso, a start-up that collects TV-viewing data for advertisers. Using a smartphone's microphone, Alphonso's software can detail what people watch by identifying audio signals in TV ads and shows, sometimes even matching that information with the places people visit and the movies they see. The information can then be used to target ads more precisely and to try to analyze things like which ads prompted a person to go to a car dealership."
The major problem with these types of applications is not only that they monitor TV shows, but also that while they are recording these sounds, they could be recording our conversations. Private information that should not reach other people's ears could be included in these conversations, so you must avoid at all costs granting access to the phone's microphone for applications that do not need such a thing.
Unfortunately, it seems that monitoring mobile phone users has reached a whole other level at the moment, and the next step is video monitoring using front cameras. Since application developers fearlessly use software that monitors what is heard around users, it is very likely that video monitoring will be integrated as well.
