iPhone as 007: Is your Apple smartphone listening in on conversations?

You probably always have your iPhone with you. Sometimes you even charge it next to your bed. So your phone hears everything, but is anything being done with it? Is the microphone always on and does Apple listen in? Is Siri secretly just a spy?

Your phone is probably indispensable to you. You use it to call your friends, find the route via Google Maps and of course you take beautiful pictures with it. It is your personal information and you do not want to share it with anyone unsolicited. But what if Apple itself listens in on your iPhone?

Are Apple and other companies listening in on my iPhone?

You’ve probably experienced it. Have you just had a conversation about something, suddenly you see all sorts of commercials about the subject. It makes sense to think that your iPhone is eavesdropping on your conversations. But is that really so?

Let’s just get straight to the point. It is of course possible that something or someone is listening in on you. It is also possible that your phone has been hacked to eavesdrop. However, that chance is small, because you are probably not that interesting to eavesdrop. Unless of course you are Mark Rutte or an important CEO.

Can Apple eavesdrop on you?

Okay, but what about Apple itself? Is the company itself not listening in on your iPhone? Apple previously said no to the US Congress. And that also seems very likely.

For example, the company does not cooperate with the FBI to create a back entrance for security services. It therefore claims that if it does listen in for development purposes, it will first ask for permission.

What about Siri?

Siri is the voice assistant on your iPhone. So that service seems to be listening all the time since the program responds when you call ‘Hey Siri’. However, there is no indication that Apple includes all that information.

Would you rather not have Siri listen in? Then you simply turn off the service via the Institutions. That’s where you go Siri and search. There you uncheck ‘Listen for Hey Siri’ and Siri will no longer listen on your iPhone.

So it is with all your other apps on your iPhone

For other apps like Facebook, you can take control yourself. You can give permission per app or who can use the microphone of your iPhone. We explain everything in the box below.

It is therefore possible that apps listen in on your iPhone, but you can at least give permission when this happens. Apple itself does not do it.