Ever Thought Your iPhone Was Listening to You?

"Many people are convinced that their iPhones, Alexas, or Google Homes are secretly recording their every word. You mention going on holiday with your husband, and hours later an ad for cheap flights or new luggage pops up on your social feed. Or you're chatting with a friend about worn-out running shoes, and soon after you're shown an ad for Nike or Brooks. Coincidence? It feels too precise to be random."

"Voice assistants use a local wake-word detector -software that continuously listens only for a short sequence of sounds, like "Hey Siri" or "Alexa." It keeps a few seconds of audio in a rolling buffer, overwriting it every fraction of a second. Nothing leaves your phone until the wake word is detected, at which point a short clip is sent to the cloud to process your request. Independent audits and peer-reviewed studies confirm this: your device is not streaming or storing full conversations 24/7."

"The real trade-off: not listening, but learning Even without constant recording, smart devices are relentless data collectors. Each interaction produces metadata-what you asked, when, from where, which device, which voice profile, and even background noise. Combined with your search history, shopping patterns, and location, this feeds a powerful web of profiling algorithms. So, the ads that feel like they're based on a conversation aren't, but they still result from a quiet infiltration into your daily behavior."

Voice assistants use local wake-word detectors that continuously listen only for a short sequence and maintain a rolling buffer of seconds of audio. Nothing is transmitted until the wake word is detected, at which point a short clip is sent to the cloud for processing. Independent audits and studies confirm devices do not stream or store full conversations 24/7. Each interaction generates metadata — what was asked, when, where, device, voice profile, and background noise — which combines with search, shopping, and location data. AI and big data convert these signals into user profiles and sensitive inferences, driving ad targeting, pricing, and potential discrimination.

Read at Apaonline