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TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and Co. Suddenly tailor-made advertising and content! Are apps on our smartphones listening in on us?
Many people have long been of the opinion that cell phones are listening in on us!
Why else would you suddenly get advertising or personalized content for things you talked about? Manufacturer Apple denies this, but is paying around $95 million to settle a legal dispute on the issue. Now four journalists have researched the subject of cell phone eavesdropping and found out interesting things. In the video you can see the results of the exciting experiment.
Secret eavesdropping or coincidence – what can cell phones do?
The journalists are sending four cell phones into the race. Two test social media apps such as Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and Co. – the other two testers looked at audio apps such as Shazam, Duolingo and Babbel. In the presence of their cell phones, they talk about a topic that none of them had previously had anything to do with: fishing and fishing bait. None of them had ever googled anything about this. So they talk about it diligently. Without liking or commenting on anything on social media.
Reading tip: Does the cell phone listen when we talk? The big experiment!
Lo and behold: On the TikTok app, RTL journalist Anke Reichardt suddenly sees a lot of water content – and then a few minutes later she actually gets a tip for fishing. A coincidence? That's hard to believe. When asked, TikTok assures that no conversations are being listened to and refers to a highly intelligent algorithm that the app is supposed to have.
Experts can make possible eavesdropping visible
The result of the journalistic experiment also aroused the curiosity of experts in the Federal Association for IT Security who work on behalf of federal authorities. In a special testing center of the Federal Office for Security in Stuttgart, cybersecurity experts want to check the TikTok app under professional conditions. Because it cannot be ruled out that certain Chinese companies may be more curious than they should, they say.
Reading tip: Makes sense or not? This happens if you restart your phone every day
The test from the beginning is repeated – with three newly formatted cell phones, each of which has TikTok installed. The federal association's experts hope to be able to make possible wiretapping visible. Because their computers can show in color when exactly data is sent from the cell phone to the server. This time the conversation revolves around pottery while busy scrolling on TikTok.
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By using the app, videos are downloaded every second and the news feed is constantly updated – According to the experts, this data traffic has so far been unremarkable. Audio data could flow, but it doesn't have to. You don't know that. “The app can of course also hide audio data in the mass of data traffic, that would definitely be possible”said Jan-Nicolai Braunmiller.
With another cell phone, the app is examined even more closely. The experts want to find out whether the microphone generally turns on when you just scroll and speak. But: the all-clear. Here, too, the theory that an app like TikTok records audio content cannot be confirmed. A remarkable result. Maybe TikTok didn't listen now, but it did during the first test? Or is the algorithm actually as good as TikTok says? According to the experts, it is entirely possible that when you scroll you subconsciously reveal what you want to see. If you just spend a longer time on a video, the app could already know that this content is of interest. You can't protect yourself from it.
But important: If you want to prevent camera and microphone access in apps, you can always turn this off!
