I finally found a way to stop my phone from listening to me for ads

I kept getting ads for things I only talked about near my phone, like a specific brand of dog food. It felt creepy. I went into my Google account settings and found the 'Web & App Activity' page. I turned off the setting that lets Google save my audio from searches and other apps. The weirdly specific ads stopped showing up after a couple of days. Has anyone else tried this and noticed a difference, or found a better way?

3 comments

3 Comments

anderson.jason2mo ago

Wasn't that just a microphone permission thing?

iris_jones892mo ago

Check your router's privacy settings too, since @anderson.jason might be right about the mic but data comes from everywhere.

elizabeth_ramirez1mo ago

@anderson.jason yeah but it's not just the mic. Routers track everything. Log into your router settings and turn off WPS, UPnP, and remote access. Did that after my smart speaker kept picking up random stuff. Night and day difference.