Zoe Ball talks nonsense to her phone because she’s “scared” it might be snooping on her private conversations, as the Daily Star revealed this week. The radio host reckons her algorithm changes after chats she’s had out loud.
But is your technology really keeping an ear out for things you say around the house? Here Meg Jorsh looks at the evidence…
Smart speaker
Is it listening? Yes.
If there’s one thing that really pays attention to you, it’s your smart speaker. It sits there in the corner, constantly alert, just waiting for you to say an activation phrase like “Hey Siri,” “Alexa” or “OK Google.”
It starts recording when it hears one, then uploads the audio to the cloud so it can figure out what you said. But it can’t tape continuously, or broadcast conversations, unless it has been hacked.
Smart phone
Is it listening? Probably.
You know that AI assistant on your phone? Well, it’s basically a smart speaker. It follows the same rules – but in this case you can go to your settings and turn it off.
What’s not always clear is how it uses the information it collects. There’s no concrete evidence major ad platforms use audio data for targeting, which Google, Meta and Amazon all deny.
Having said that, modern algorithms are so fiendishly clever, it can feel like they’re reading your mind. To be on the safe side, check your settings whenever you download a new app. If you don’t think it needs to access your microphone, you can always say no.
Vacuum cleaner
Is it listening? Probably not.
This one’s easy if you’ve got some kind of dark ages model, from the time before everything connected to the internet. Even if you’ve splashed out on a smart vacuum, most of them don’t come with microphones.
What they can do is take photos and make detailed floor maps of your homes. But according to manufacturers, these are either stored on secure servers or on the devices themselves.
Washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher
Is it listening? Almost certainly not.
Again, even the smart models rarely have microphones. They’d only get bored hearing you talk about your laundry – and to be honest, they can’t be all that clever. Otherwise they’d realise you can’t use them at a distance, making all those apps completely pointless.
Home security system
Is it listening? Yes.
To be fair, you did ask for this. And if it’s listening to you, it’s definitely keeping tabs on any baddies lurking in your garden.
Can you trust it with your information? As much as you can really trust anything. And remember, there’s still time to go off and live in the woods.