COLUMBUS, Ohio—“Hey Siri, are you listening to me?”

“I’m listening.”

Turns out—a lot of things are listening.

  • Your devices are listening to the words you say
  • The information you are volunteering makes you vulnerable
  • There are ways to protect yourself, such as disabling your camera and microphone

Devices answer to “Hey Siri,” “Hey Google,” and “Hey Alexa” because they pick up on key words. They’re able to do so only because they listen to everything.

“The fact is, it must be listening to be able to focus on a key word. If it’s not listening, it does not have the ability to hear the key word,” said Matthew Curtin, founder of Interhack.

Curtin says listening devices are ubiquitous—whether we realize it or not.

That includes things like apps, tablets, even facial recognition technology in public places.

“The issue is that we have microphones and cameras now imbedded into things that we have not historically thought of as listening devices or watching devices,” said Curtin.

That recently got the home-security company “Nest” in trouble, after a customer found a microphone hidden in a device. Nowhere on the packaging or materials did it say a microphone was included.

But even if Nest was listening, what’s the big deal?

“I don’t think it’s the companies we need to worry about what about the bad guys that break into the devices,” said Curtin. “The bad guys that break into the companies, what about the government that decides they want to seize data that’s been captured by a third party?”

To find out just how much information is being gathered and stored, Curtin and Spectrum News 1 Reporter Molly Martinez conducted a little experiment.

For 5 minutes they discussed duvet covers— talking about wanting to buy one, where to find one, etc.

The result?

In one morning, Martinez received four ads for bedding, three adds for home improvement, and two ads for room redecorating.

If Big Brother gives you big pause, there is a way to protect yourself.

Just say no.

To keep apps from listening to you, you can go through these steps:

1.     GO TO SETTINGS on your device

2.     GO TO PRIVACY

3.     SELECT “CAMERA” OR “MICROPHONE” AND SIMPLY TURN THEM OFF for each app.

But, it does come at a cost.

“Turning off your camera and microphone might mean giving up your favorite snapchat filters,” said Martinez.

Curtin says it’s a small price to pay for privacy.