Researchers tested 17,000 apps for secret eavesdropping. What they found instead should change your settings tonight.

August 13, 2026

By Kim Komando

At dinner last week, I said out loud, to actual humans, that I want to hike Mount Fuji. Never typed it. Never searched it. My friend had just gotten back and was passing her phone around the table, showing off her sunrise photos. 

An hour later, I pick up my phone and bam: Fuji everywhere. Trekking poles, flight deals to Tokyo, “2-Day Sunrise Summit Tour.” My phone’s a snitch with a microphone.

Not so fast. Northeastern University researchers ran 17,000 popular apps through a year of testing, hunting for eavesdropping. Secret recordings sent to advertisers: zero. Not one. (They did catch apps filming your screen for analytics companies. Different creepy, still creepy.)

But didn’t a company admit snooping? Sort of. 

Cox Media Group pitched a product literally named “Active Listening,” bragging it could target ads off what you say near your devices. Its deck listed Google, Facebook and Amazon as partners. When 404 Media published the pitch, the claims evaporated, and Google booted CMG from its ad partner program. Marketing bravado, meet consequences.

And Apple? It paid $95 million to settle claims that Siri woke up by accident and recorded private moments. Apple denied wrongdoing. That’s the kernel of truth here: Assistants DO misfire. That’s a bug, not a business plan.

🎯 So how did they know?

Advertisers don’t need your voice.

• Your receipts: Consumer Reports found the average person’s info was handed to Facebook by 2,230 different companies. Stores, apps, credit bureaus, data brokers. The study covered 186,000+ companies in what CR called “the surveillance economy.” Facebook doesn’t need ears. It has receipts.
• Your location: You didn’t talk about dog food. You stood in the pet aisle for six minutes. Your phone told them.
• Your people: Your spouse googled it on your shared Wi-Fi. Advertisers target the whole house.
• Your brain: The frequency illusion. You said it out loud, so now you notice the ad that was always there.

They built a model of you so accurate it feels like eavesdropping. Cheaper than listening, and legal.

🔒 Cut the creep factor in minutes

Note: I checked the steps below, but depending on your device, maker, operating system version and more, it may be different for you. Poke around and you’ll find the right setting.

1. Audit the mic. iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone. Android: Settings > Security & privacy > Permission manager > Microphone. If an app doesn’t need it, switch it off.
2. Kill the tracker ID. iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking, toggle off Allow Apps to Request to Track. Android: Settings > Privacy > Ads > Delete advertising ID.
3. Watch the dot. An orange dot up top on your phone’s screen means the mic is live. Green means camera. No mystery dots allowed.

As for my Mount Fuji trip? Still in the planning stages. My phone didn’t hear my dinner plans, but somebody’s data machine sure got a peek. The only Fuji I want to develop a profile of me is Fujifilm.

🎯 Send this to someone who whispers around their phone like it’s a nosy in-law.

📱 Text-worthy: Settle the argument: Researchers tested 17,000 apps and found zero secretly recording conversations. Ads feel psychic because 2,230 companies feed Facebook your data, plus your location, searches and shared Wi-Fi. Kim says: Check mic permissions, delete your advertising ID, watch for the orange dot.