For me, this was a very self-assuring video. As it turns out, I don't use Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, or Tiktok. Hence, cleaning up my phone was quite easy. I always believed this social media garbage was just that; garbage. As time goes on, my original sentiments only seem to gain affirmation. Great video!!
I don't have any of those apps either. I also have an Android. But it sure seems to me like somebody's listening in. The pop-ups and ads are way too targeted
Thank you for showing us how to turn off unnecessary intrusions into our privacy. I too don't use any social media except for RU-vid, but I have turned-off many other things on my iPhone that you have recommended. You two are providing a real service to those of us who are not tech savvy.
You can’t turn it off. It’s just like google saying you can turn location off but forced to admit to Congress that it really never goes off. If something can do something that benefits the people controlling it, then it’s doing it.
@@cmcer1995 Kinda. Unless you want to just not use a smart phone. I have one, but it stays at home, and I treat it like a land line. Here's an extreme measure. Build a lead box to place your phone in as you travel and only take it out at places you need it when needed. Your phone will suddenly know where you are but it won't know how you got there. If you attend any type of demonstration or protest, always leave your phone at home. Don't take it anywhere that might incriminate you or your ''customers'' (bit of a drug dealer tip there, but it might be a useful tip... I don't know what you do for a living :) I know. It's a bit ''tin-foil-hat'' sounding, but if you really are concerned...
totally IS happening. I have 'mysterious" YT recommended videos on things I have NOT searched for, i.e. I had a podcast running on my phone and walked into the living room, where my son showed me a video he was watching about trains. I commented on how cool the trains were and .... 2 days later, there was a video recommendation on YT about trains- something I have Never searched for in any way. So, I tested out this theory by calling someone and intentionally talking about some random things I have never thought about searching for, and lo and behold, within a day, there were video recommendations for these things right there in the top 10 of my YT videos. btw, I have Not set up Siri or Alexa on any of my devices. also, I am using an iPhone.
beatitudes it really is incredibly unnerving. The TV is unplugged and covered with some tapestries. I don’t know if that stops it? The only reason we keep it is in the small chance we ever want to use it again.. it hasn’t been turned on in 6 years. But,other stuff is listening or connected because it still happens....our son is fully connected to stuff in his own home,but,we share things like Netflix and Spotify and I suspect we are monitored through him...
Just say no to Facebook, Twitter etc. Never had them, never will. Same goes for other addictive platforms such as Pinterest, Tumblr and all the dozens of others. Hint: Your device is your servant, not the other way around.
Thank goodness for the ability to pause a video! Thank you though. I’ve switched off a whole bunch of stuff. I’m sure my phone listens to me and reads my messages. Do you have any tips on how to reduce spam in emails?
I am on Android and deactivated all "ok Google" on every possible devices. The other day i was telling my wife about lawyer fees and within 5 minutes I had an ad about "you won't believe how much lawyers charge in your area"... I only mentioned to my wife, never googled it or anything... so these devices clearly listen even if you deactivate the features.
Of course they are Why are you even surprised ? Every smart speaker listens every smart device monitors you Every camera watches you Every comment on RU-vid every email Buy a smart toilet it will monitor your biological leavings And even if you opt out your dipshit friends will have devices recording you
@@Walter-wo5sz I cover the camera and microphone on my turned off android phone too! My phone made a funny noise one day, even though it was turned off. Paranoia set in so i started covering my phone...smh the only way to 100% secure your phone is to pull the battery when not using the phone....geez!
I realized this a few years ago when after talking to a friend about something I immediately started seeing ads about it on my MAC. Very useful video, thank you!!
Great video! You know, this is quite interesting. I live in Germany, and I followed your instructions, and I was surprised to see that everything you recommended to turn off (or on) had already been preset (turned off) like you recommended. I believe this is because Germany is VERY much invested in privacy (GDPR) - which on the downside also means that sometimes we are not able to interact with certain non-German websites that are not conform with the Germany Privacy Laws. Sometimes I click on articles or videos and will then be informed it is not a "safe" site and I would need to actively change the settings to read it, which in 100% of the cases I don't, as I am too lazy or don't think it is worth the trouble.
Thank you for wading through all the intricacies of setting up roadblocks for securing our privacy. And thank you for making this simple to follow guide. Us older folks need this guidance.
Thank you for the tips but also for sharing your screen as you are navigating. My phone is set up in French, so I often need to pause and find the equivalent translation, therefore how you are shooting the videos is very helpful. :)
Good stuff as always guys...Thanks! Also, when something is using your microphone there's an orange color icon on the iphone, upper right that lights up, you'll see it when you put your phone on "speaker" ....so keep an eye on that maybe?
THANK YOU!! I haven't even finished watching this video and I'm grateful it was made. I've worked in tech (including Ad Tech) for about a decade and constantly have to tell people that it's highly unlikely that your Phone is listening to you for the sake of selling you stuff or serving you ads. There are much more efficient and accurate ways of doing that NOW without listening. That said, if you are under government surveillance or something similar -- it makes it a non-zero chance your phone is listening to you, but still, not for ads.
One of creepiest experiences I had was after I did some searches about winter boots with my PC, several advertising about winter boots popped up later while I was using a tablet. I was surprised because the two devices were independent and they don't even have the same account. I always think they use only cookies to track my shopping habits. But I suspect now they also use my IP address for the same purpose.
Get rid of ur iphone i too found the earwigging by using a nokia n 63 not meant for the public as there's different levels of security. I heard the police recording my call as he read out dob name pulse number n who i was calling . I sent them on a trip n chase by saying we have to sell all that powder.... they followed us for over a year just because of an iphone . Be lucky .
FB drives me nuts. Fortunately, I had my ad settings/prefs switched off already. I probably did it in the past based on another one of your videos. However, Amazon pegged me and so did Twitter. I turned them off too. Thank you! ❤️👍
Did everything as instructed here, all good in all apps until Amazon, when I follow the step to disable in privacy as directed I can't even get an option to turn off or disable because Amazon conveniently pops up with a UH-OH Something went wrong on our end. Below that it reads GO TO AMAZON HOME. For that I just deleted the app off my iPhone. This is a great channel, very glad I found it, Thank you!
It may have been the phones, Smart TV, or just triangulating our digital location, but when I used to work in an office with 3 other colleagues, just about any time we would talk about a certain product (Apple or Android phones, a GPU, CPUs, Sneakers, Collectibles, tools, just about anything really) I'd get ads in my browser searches the next day or day after that. Big Data is definitely "listening" in somehow.
I appreciate the video. Many of the settings were more deeply hidden than they were 2 years ago. I had to do a bit more searching than what was shown in the video, but was persistent and was able to turn most off. I noticed that you did not cover privacy settings in youtube
Thank you. At age 74 I’m overwhelmed but with play and replay several times I think I got most of it. We still have a dial up phone in our house so you might understand my dilemma!
I'm stunned that out of all the steps, I had only two that had to be turned off. I think there was a day I was fed up with Apple, Facebook, Amazon, etc. I went through everything thing on the phone settings, not knowing what a lot of them were about and just clicked them off. This was extremely helpful. Great job.
Unfortunately this won’t completely stop it from listening in. Just stops recommending things for you that you may be interested in. As long as you have a phone in this day and age, big brother and the gov will always know where you are and what you’re doing.
I mentioned to my daughter that I had been to Greece. Following which, I got ads for Greece. I do not use Siri, so after this video, I realised to disable Siri functions in every app.
I've experienced this at least 20 times. I'll be speaking about something totally random, of course never having searched for it online, and it will start popping up on banner ads. I don't have Alexa, so the only thing it could be would be my iPhone sitting next to me in the room.
These large companies control much of government due to collusion, etc. They don't care about basic human rights. That's why they deploy mass censorship while simultaneously accusing Putin of the same. Putin is a crook and so are they.
I’m new to Apple. I bought an IPad 3 weeks ago after only using Samsung androids for years. I’m done with androids and Samsung. They’ve always been very invasive, in my opinion. I’ll be buying an IPhone 13 pro sometime within the next few months. The IPad is a good way for me to get acquainted with the Apple world. This is great info, thanks! I’m a new subscriber.
I was on my work computer checking out violin stands (yes, we're allowed to). Someone asked me what I was looking at and I explained i was looking at violin stands for my violin. When I got home and got onto my MacBook, low and behold, ads for violin stands popped up! My work computer is not connected to me in any way and, due to my work, is pretty heavily firewalled. However, my personal iPhone was sitting on my desk when I explained to my colleague that I was checking out violin stands...
It happens all the time….I can talk about things and then RU-vid will push videos base exactly on my conversation on apps where the microphone turned off
Ok the scary thing for me is that I’ve only THOUGHT about needing something and never spoke about it. Suddenly there are ads for it or Amazon suggestions. Weird!
I had one problem and that was Amazon. When I went to ad preferences a message with a dog saying “UH-OH something went wrong on our end” So I guess they don’t want me to turn it off? Other than that everything you said was easily shutoff. Thank you
This happens among my family members ALL the time! All they have to do it talk about something and I am three states away but I will get YT adds for their niche interests when those adds have NOTHING to do with me or my life activities. Big Brother is DEFINITELY listening!! 😱
You can now turn off ad preferences in tik Tok. they moved it from privacy to creator tools. hope this help :) love this channel - you guys are amazing. Appreciate all you do!!!
Okay, but in order for the phone to be able to parse the sounds you make in order to recognize “hey Siri” it has to send that voice information to a server where a machine judges whether or not you’re trying to get it’s attention. Meaning it *literally* is sending every sound it hears.
I am so sure that "Hey Siri" recognition is done offline on the device. It would generate simply too much data if an iPhone would constantly transmit what it records via the microphone. No server infrastructure in this world could handle a constant stream of audio from 1B devices and probably no network could handle traffic I would guess.
@@bbrown5887 you can always try asking her. I asked where would be a good place to dump a dead body? I was asking for a friend obviously, not myself! 😅🤣
Hey Siri is one of THE MOST ANNOYING THINGS EVER. It’s a constant no I didn’t even say anything even close to that, shut up Siri, so turned it off after just a few days of her constant interruptions. Like notifications. Don’t need a needy phone thanks.
Great video! There's one setting that was off when you got there but wasn't mentioned at 4:53, "Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement". If it's off, is that turning off the privacy or is it turning off the ability to measure any ads?
Google were caught out by this. Their app reacted to certain words and turned on the microphone without telling the user, unfortunately the words it reacted to included many used by people in sensitive occupations - deliberate or not, I'll let you decide - and it meant that a lot of doctor's consultations were being recorded without their knowledge. The recordings were then sent to the US government dept that deals with illegal recordings and, as far as I know, are still there. It all came out when Google were caught and it was splashed all over the local media headlines. Many were left wondering just who in government, bit business or security here was in line to be blackmail material as a result of a ''confidential'' medical consultation which is now residing in the files in Washington. Worse, they couldn't or wouldn't reveal who had been recorded (so could be anyone) and couldn't return the recordings because they were residing in the USA now and out of their reach (they claimed). Google were fined heavily but I have no idea if they ever paid up and they were forced to change their software, in this country at least.
Thank you for all the information. I really don’t understand why Apple or any phone needs to know so much about someone. George Orwell” Big Brother” 1984, by group Spirit, came and went. Here we are. Thank you for trying to help. With old 6s-my wife & I were woken in middle of night. After 50 year, we DON’T talk in our sleep, yet SIRI woke us up. I wonder if Apple upper echelon would enjoy us watching their every move. Sad, really
I’ve been creeped out several times by my iPhone. We were receiving small items from Amazon that we never ordered or were charged for. I called Amazon and they had no ideas. Several days later my husband and I were talking, at home, no phones. I said “we should get a dashboard camera. Two days later a dashboard camera showed up from amazon(?). Too weird. Sis and I were talking in person, no phones. Discussing where we wanted to visit…next day places we discussed popped up on my phone. Sorry but…they are listening!
@@thexshattered yes, they were. You’d think that was cool until you realized that they were sending you stuff that you had discussed in the privacy of your home. Creeped me out - ready to unplug!
Do you have a video about how to clean up old 'breached' online accounts? My iPhone now shows how many 'compromised' accounts I have and it goes back decades. Not sure the best way to clean up/remove accounts I don't even remember creating. Sigh... PS you 2 are the clearest, simplest, speakers on tech topics I have found. I'm not subscribing but I will market your videos for you lol.
This is one of my favorie videos who guys have done.... It's great that you all are helping all of us understand what these big tech compamies are doing and without really saying anything...Not one word ... Keep up the great job that you both are doing ... So until the next video have a great day .... Beaufort SC hear BTW ...
My FB page does not look like yours and I was unable to do anything there. I just upgraded to a new phone and fortunately most of my settings were secure Thanks to You guys! But am pulling my hair out with some apps. Heading back to the phone store tonight to get help. I mentioned your channel, by the way, as being The Best! Thank you for keeping us safe.
I’m not even kidding… this type of burying the lead on so many things should be ILLEGAL!! What about our rights as consumers??? It’s beyond frustrating. Vent over! 😬 Appreciate you guys!! 🙏🏻
I’ve been subscribed for several years and this video was one of the best. I share these with friends and family. Thanks so much for the important information you both share!
Believe me this information is so tightly packed I’m hitting pause and reverse a lot but very useful. Thank you! And I told my friend who has an android that they are listening to you!
hi guys! thanks for the very informative video. A question is there a way to turn off on facebook ( noticed this while I use in my laptop) those suggestion pages. they drive me nuts!! thanks
Thank you guys for showing us layman people how to protect our privacy. I really appreciate all the info you have given us. Keep doing what you’re doing.
Yo, I did all these steps because I’m not about to have nobody be tracking. Nothing I got going on on my phone it works. It works on my iPhone just fine.
The weird part is when I be on RU-vid and I’m watching a video and then I get ads about that are about what I’m watching for example if I’m watching someone clean a car I get out about products that help you clean a car it’s creepy and not only that I’ll get ads about local businesses in my area on RU-vid as well and I’m like what the do you know where I live
Yeah, I hear you! There are options in Google Ads where companies can run ads based on your geography or even by what video you're about to watch. After all, someone who's about to watch a video about how to clean a car is much more likely than the average person to buy a car cleaning product right then and there - and that's what it's all about. And the Hokey Pokey.
Oh course our phones are always listening to us. I'm almost certain that there's some fine print that we all agree to with most phones upon first setting them up. Something that tells us what our data is going to be used for.
I used to be an apple fanboy until I woke up and realized it’s just another big corporation that doesn’t give a crap about your privacy anymore but rather the big $ is the only thing they care about.
Thanks for that Amazon tip, that was one I hadn't found on my own. One you didn't mention is in Siri and Search on individual apps under settings. I disable "Learn from this app" and "Suggest app". Not as big a deal as the social apps but will prevent you from being told to use an app you already know you have. (The Siri app list can also be found under "Siri and search" at the top level Settings page.
Thank you for your help. I’m constantly trying to figure out how to keep them out of my business. I’m not for sale and don’t appreciate them selling me without my permission. How do I leave Google forever?
You can search for videos about how to DeGoogle your phone. Also, you should switch your keyboard, if you use Android, to another. Not Gboard, which records everything you type.
Yes exactly our brainwaves are literally electricity or currents which is what the phones are 4g 5g I’ve studied neuroscience this isn’t too far off . Lookup project blue beam scary stuff
If you turn off ten trackers there are probably ten more you don't know about. Even the ones you turned off will probably get toggled back on the next time they update the app. I think privacy is a thing of the past.
Here is my experience I was talking to my friend about vitamin supplant. Then I mentioned to him that if he knew about IHERB. He has never heard of it. But as he opened his phone to search it, IHERB add was right there.
Don’t mean to be rude. If you’re a Luddite why do you have a phone? Really interested in why you wouldn’t trust new technology, but trust a phone. Do you have a flip phone, or a smartphone?
Wow !! First time here ! This was awesome, thank you so very much! Yes i already subscribed right before I wrote in the comment section. This is a big keeper site 👍
The cross website tracking is necessary when booking online appointments using third party booking widgets on websites. So when you click on book now on my website it takes you to Vagaro’s booking system and it knows that you are booking a service with me and not my competitors and it continues the booking experience on my website. That is the main reason that the tracking is on phones. So that it understands third party applications on websites. Telling your viewers to shut it off limits what they can do on their devices.
I found that my RU-vid feed is filled with topics I’ve just talked to someone about, ie prescription glasses and many other things. The microphone is turned off but this phenomenon keeps happening.
Awesome guys!!! Thank you for posting this! ps: I saw Saranac, my sis went to "NCCC"and lived on Lake Flower! which had the ice sculptures, back in the 90's!
love this your channel but can you please slow down the beginning of each section?? im struggling finding the correct setting section on my phone to change the setting. please help me!?
Thanks from a geezer. Maybe speak with euphony, it would help in my understanding you. Each time I follow your suggestions, I get a little faster on the buttons!
Thank you, in reference to the Amazon add preference screen, I’m from CA and it looked different. You are opted out if you wanted you have to opt in to receive cross reference adds from Amazon. I love CA.
WOW ! Thanks you two! This is such valuable information! I was shocked at how many apps were were tracking my location “ ALWAYS “ ! But not anymore , thanks to your expert and easy to follow advice. Please continue making these helpful videos- you’re literally rescuing us from deceptive and misleading Big Business data miners.
I say it’s discouraging because Facebook and Google have had my info and likes for 15 years so they have such an accurate algorithm, they don’t need much else even if I now have it off. Kinda scary that they saw me grow up and know me better than anyone Edit: btw thank you for showing me how to reduce it
