When a smartphone starts recording a conversation that took place in its vicinity without the knowledge of the user, it leads to the crisis of ‘Sonic Snooping’. And according to a study made by cybersecurity specialists from NORDVPN, this phenomenon is taking place in practical, and half of the Britons fear that their mobile devices are collecting data eavesdropped from their personal conversation and perhaps passing the info to hackers in control of remote servers.
Among the 1000 respondents who participated in the survey, nearly 669 of them felt that their phone’s microphone might be constantly picking clues about their whereabouts.
The users got these feelings as they noticed an advertisement for a product or a service as soon as they searched or spoke about it with their friend or family member over the phone. Weirdly, two-thirds of them do not know how to stop it from happening.
Security analysts say that the data collected through such digital surveillance can be called as information gained through Ultrasonic cross device tracking, where smart devices communicate with each other by using ultrasonic waves that are too low to be heard by humans, but can establish a communication channel between connected devices for information exchange.
Furthermore, the concern doesn’t end over here, as it has the competence to expand, as smart TVs and laptops tend to operate in the same way, paving the way to Sonic Snooping aka snooping with sound.
Perchance activities such as these might have triggered a fear among the technologists such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg who follow a custom of covering their laptop cameras with a duct tape.
Keeping a tab on mobile applications and checking on what they are asking as permissions might resolve most of the troubles linked to this cyber threat. Also, using a VPN or a browser that offers exclusive privacy might also play an active role in keeping our surfing habits private to a large extent.
