Russian expert give tips on how to protect yourself from “eavesdropping” on your smartphone

A smartphone can “eavesdrop” on its owner, said information and computer security expert Sergei Vakulin. In an interview with Radio Sputnik, he explained who might need to record conversations and how to protect sensitive information

Some smartphone applications may record our conversations when we do not expect them to. Moreover, we ourselves provide them with this opportunity, giving them permission to access the microphone during the installation of the application, explained the expert on information and computer security Sergei Vakulin.

According to him, advertisers are primarily interested in obtaining such information.

“The app can spy on you to analyze your data and sell. Not just to collect it, but to sell it. We often have the situation where you took a loan from one bank, and you immediately get a call from another bank and offer another loan. Selling data – this is already a banal topic,” the expert said in an interview with Radio Sputnik.

He clarified that once the app has gained access to the microphone, it will be able to turn it on whenever it wants, not just during a phone call. Sergey Vakulin claims that the recording function can be turned on even on a locked device.

“If you’ve given the app permission to access the microphone, it will be able to ‘listen’ to you even when it’s locked. If you have access, the app can turn on the microphone at any time it wants and collect information,” the expert explained.

According to him, you can protect yourself from eavesdropping by limiting the number of applications with access to the microphone.

Also, for particularly important conversations you can buy a phone without the ability to connect to modern communication networks.

“If you look closely at many officials and billionaires, both Russian and foreign, they walk around with push-button phones. A pushbutton phone will be very difficult to listen to, because there is no 3G, LTE and so on,” explained Sergei Vakulin.