What type of Google activity is running in your mobile and you don't know

There is a widespread concern among the users of smartphones namely Google is closely watching you through your mobile tracking and recording millions of conversations. In fact some experts claim that Google has made your phone into a listening device. If you will learn where to look for, you will see what Google is doing on your phone without your knowledge.

If you have an Android phone, you might have used Google Assistant that works somewhat similar to Apple’s Siri. Google claims that it only gets turned on to record what you say only after you say “OK Google”. Contrary to this claim, a Sun investigation has discovered that the virtual assistant in in fact a little hard of hearing. Sometimes, just uttering the word “OK” is enough for the Google Assistant to switch on your phone and start recording an audio of about 20 seconds.

Google records you unknowingly

On a regular basis, Google switches on the microphone when you are busy with your daily chores. Once the recording is done, it is automatically uploaded to its servers known as the cloud. These files can be accessed from anywhere on the earth provided you have an internet connection. The length of the recordings can be 10 to 20 seconds in an average and the conversation’s text version is also saved.

Google further says it keeps these recordings only for “improving speech recognition against all Google products that use your voice”.

Recent developments

Recently Google launched a smart Assistant Google Home. The program takes inputs from the day to day voice recordings from the general public to know how humans communicate naturally and use the findings to train its software. Know that Google’s prime product is targeted advertising which it offers for giant brands on the earth. The billions of web searches that happen on its platform and the location and email data help the company target the masses with customized marketing strategies. So, why will not the company use the voice data for this reason is a big question.

You can listen to the audio files Google has recorded from your phone

While Apple does not publicize the voice data it has saved, Google gives a full access to the audio it recorded from your device. If you wish to find this out, follow these simple steps.

• Sign into your Google or Gmail Account
• Type “history.google.com/history” into your web browser
• You will be led to a hub that will display your entire footprint in the digital world.
• The data you will access here will include Map searches you made and the YouTube videos you watched.
• You will also find the voice recordings from you in a chronological order under the tab ‘Voice and Audio Activity’.
• Plug in your headphones before you listen anything. The Sun Online has even discovered that the sounds around the phone were recorded even when the owner of the phone was not present in the room.
• If you want to stop Google storing this information for future, you can go to Activity Controls and switch off the blue toggle you will find under the “Web & App Activity”.