CybersecurityWatch out: Your Devices May Be Listening to You

Published 11 September 2019

We have become accustomed to carrying our mobile phones and tablet devices everywhere we go. The mobile phone has essentially become an integral part of our everyday lives, helping us to communicate, make payments and socialize. Unfortunately, the smart devices of today are equipped with many different types of sensors that may be listening in on our conversations.

We have become accustomed to carrying our mobile phones and tablet devices everywhere we go. The mobile phone has essentially become an integral part of our everyday lives, helping us to communicate, make payments and socialize. Unfortunately, the smart devices of today are equipped with many different types of sensors that may be listening in on our conversations.

Ragib Hasan, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says these sensors include accelerometers, GPS, gyroscopes and more. 

“In reality, we have threats from two directions — malicious apps that hijack the phone sensors to spy on us, and otherwise benign apps secretly listening to or sensing our activities, and then sending the data ‘home’ for advertising and other activities,” Hasan said.

Hasan says the first type of threat — malicious apps — are easier to prevent, especially if users install apps only from trusted sources. The second types of threats — otherwise benign apps secretly eavesdropping on us — are harder to identify and prevent.

“A tell-tale sign is what kinds of sensors an app is accessing — does it really need access to that for the advertised operation of the app?” Hasan said. “For example, if a user is installing a calculator app, does it need access to the microphone or camera? Most likely, no. However, if the app requests access to such sensors, then it may indicate that the app is going to use that privilege to gather information.” 

Nitesh Saxena, Ph.D., professor in the UAB Department of Computer Science, says consumers need to be sure they trust the apps downloaded to their devices.