Is Your Favorite App Listening In?

Opting Out of App Spying

If you missed my earlier ariticle “[ALERT] Facebook Surveys and Quizzes”, you might want to read that for background on why it's not a good idead to give away seemingly inconsequential information about yourself.

Until recently, Alphonso was a software company known only to app developers. Alphonso develops tracking tech, software that monitors users as they play games and follows them around online, reporting their travels and doings to advertisers. I got more incensed as I read what else Alphonso does.

Alphonso’s trackware uses the microphone of your smartphone to determine what you are watching on TV by identifying ultrasonic audio signals that advertisers embed in commercials and show producers sometimes bury in the shows themselves.

The listening tech can even tell where you are watching TV, i.e. in a bar, your living room, etc. It can tell what movie theater you visited to watch the latest Star Wars movie. And it runs in the background, so it's active whether you're using an affected app or not.

This highly personal data is bundled with other bits of data gleaned from your phone and shipped off to advertisers, where it becomes part of your “global record” of habits, preferences, and things you don’t even know about yourself. They call it "one-to-one TV ad retargeting, real-time TV campaign analytics and closed loop attribution for brands and agencies." Even though this technology helps software developers distribute free apps, it’s hard for me to like Alphonso.

Alphonso software is bundled with over 1000 apps. Beer Pong, Pool 3D, and Honey Quest are just a few of the better-known examples. One way to tell if an app uses Alphonso's "listening" technology is to read the full description of the app at the Google Play Store or Apple App Store on your phone. For the latter, you'll usually have to dig a little deeper, and view the app's privacy policy to find this information.

How to Alphonso App Spying

If you suspect an app may be using Alphonso technology, check the app's permissions. If it has permission to use the microphone, and you can't see any reason why, then you should modify the permissions or delete the app.

But to give this devil his due, in this case he tells you plainly and truthfully how to escape his clutches. Alphonso has published step-by-step instructions for turning off - “opting out of” - tracking by apps that employ its trackware. The company claims the high ground of “transparency,” but of course Alphonso is counting on human nature, which tends to leave default settings untouched. Alphonso’s trackware is enabled by default. Here is how to turn it off for Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad) devices:

Disable Alphonso for ANDROID

If you have Android 6 or later, you can deny access to specific permission settings for each app. (If your phone is running an older version of Android, the instructions below will not work.) To disable a single app’s use of your phone’s microphone:

1. Open the Settings on your device
2. Select Apps
3. Select the app from the list
4. Select Permissions
5. Turn off access to the microphone for the app

To limit targeting of advertisements shown by an app:

1. Open the Google Settings on your device
2. Select Ads
3. Select Opt Out of Ads Personalization

Disable Alphonso for APPLE IOS (iPhone and iPad)

To disable a single app’s use of your phone’s microphone:

1. Open the Settings on your device
2. Select Privacy
3. Select Microphone
4. Turn off access to microphone for the app

To limit targeting of advertisements shown by an app:

1. Open the Settings on your device
2. Select Privacy
3. Select Advertising
4. Select Limit Ad Tracking

If you're not sure which apps have permission to use the microphone, here's how to identify them. For Android, go to Apps & notifications, then App Permissions, then Microphone. For iPhone and iPad, go to Settings, then Privacy, then Microphone. You can tweak the permissions as desired there.

Note that none of the above will stop ads from being shown by an app, or even reduce the number of ads shown. What it does is “dumb down” the selection of ads for you by eliminating access to personalization data. You'll have to decide if you want ads that are relevant to your interests, or ads that are selected at random.

Note that this may also prevent certain features of the app from working as designed. For example, if you deny an app permission to the microphone, it won't be able to accept voice commands. It’s an unsatisfactory trade-off but it's the best we can do for now.

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