By Katherine Goff

I will never forget my first encounter with my iPhone listening to me in 8th Grade. While watching the movie It, I decided to scroll through Instagram to try and distract myself from what was known as the scariest movie at the time. As soon as I opened the app, my explore page was filled with pictures of the infamous clown, the red balloon, and characters from the movie. My heart was already racing from the movie, and now my Instagram feed, that was supposed to distract me, was in on the game. I remember frantically showing my friends, and we all started to believe that the movie had placed a curse on us.

Instagram’s logo and app icon. Image credit: The New York Times.

Since then, I have experienced my phone listening to me nearly every day. For example, I will be discussing how I want a new pair of shoes while having lunch with my friends, and the next day I will receive an Instagram ad from one of my favorite stores advertising new shoes. At first, I found it to be extremely creepy that my phone could practically read my mind. Now, I have gotten used to it and see it as a helpful tool at times.

I have noticed within the past four years that my phone listening to me extends further than just my Instagram ads. When making a phone call, sending a text, or drafting an email, my phone will provide suggestions on who I should call, who I should text, and what I should say in my email. Again, these features can be beneficial to the user; however, they made me realize that Apple heavily tracks my activity on my phone.

iPhone suggestions to contact people, open apps, etc. Image credit: iDownloadBlog.

When I enter my car to go to school, I have noticed that Siri will suggest directions and an estimated time of arrival without me opening the Maps app. I find it odd that my phone is able to detect that I have entered my car and can suggest directions to Collegiate School on a Monday morning. These features are seen as helpful by some Apple users, but they have only made me feel more paranoid. 

Whenever Apple users download a new app, browse Google, or set up their new phone, they are bombarded with questions about turning on location services. Like some Apple users, I tap through these questions mindlessly. When I respond “yes” to these questions, however, I am allowing my phone to find and use my location. Apple states on their website in their location services and privacy section that they use “GPS and Bluetooth along with crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations to determine your device’s approximate location.”

For many iPhone owners, this may sound like a complete invasion of privacy. Will Edwards (‘22) believes that “it’s sometimes helpful, but creepy.” Mackenzie Ferguson (‘22) feels like her phone “just knows too much about [her].” And Maggie Rohr (‘22) states, “I find it really creepy… but overall, it doesn’t really bother me that much.”

After asking other classmates and family members, there was a general consensus that almost everyone is aware of their phone tracking their location and listening to their conversations. However, Will Pace (‘22), alongside the other students I talked to, chooses to “turn a blind eye to it.”

Apple and Android users have been slowly getting desensitized to this aspect of technology since Alexa was introduced to the world in November 2014. Like the rest of the world, I saw Alexa as the introduction to the future. But, little did I know that this small speaker that sits on my kitchen counter would soon turn into my greatest nightmare.

Alexa’s logo. Image credit: Amazon Developer.

Alexa is one of the most popular conversational artificial intelligence interfaces. Amazon explains that “through a voice user interface (VUI), voice services like Alexa can communicate with people in ways that feel effortless, solve problems, and get smarter over time.” 

Alexa can be awoken by the phrase “Hey Alexa,” or something of that manner. While she may be annoying at times, she can really do everything. She can set alarms and reminders, add items to your Amazon Prime cart, and answer any random question, whether it is about the Grammy awards or a river in Antarctica. And her abilities extend beyond that. 

Charlotte Smith (‘22), a fellow Amazon Alexa owner, states, “I love Alexa because she can play music when I am baking… it’s practically hands-free music.” And Jennifer Goff, my mom, explains, “Everything would be burned for dinner if it weren’t for Alexa and her timers.” On the other hand, Elizabeth Harman (‘24) hates Alexa because “she interrupts my conversations.” 

Alexa is notoriously known for activating at the wrong time, and this is because she is always listening to you. According to BrinksHome, Alexa “[records] and [saves] a substantial amount of what’s said in your home.” 

Since I am a relatively normal high school student, my conversations around Alexa do not contain much confidential information. However, for a family in Portland, Alexa intervened with their personal life, and could have nearly influenced relations with their business partner.

USA Today reported, “A Portland family’s private conversations were recorded by their Amazon Echo smart speaker and emailed to a random phone contact of the father in an incident that has given fresh life to concerns that popular smart speakers are recording more than their owners realize.”

The couple did not intend for Alexa to hear this conversation; therefore, they did not say any of Alexa’s wake words out loud. Alexa misheard them and sent the conversation without them knowing. 

Although Alexa has over 6,000 one-star views on Amazon, sends personal messages, and listens to conversations, I do not think she, and similar AI assistant programs, will be going away any time soon due to their rising popularity over the past few years.

A variety of different Amazon Alexa products. Image credit: Amazon.

The same thought applies to Facebook, the most popular social media platform today. With an estimated 2.9 billion active users, Facebook reigns high above Instagram (which is owned by Meta, the new entity that includes Facebook) with an estimated 1.41 billion users. 

While many teenagers, including myself, might believe this app is going extinct, it is far from that point. The app, initially intended to connect college students, now acts as 54% of users’ primary news source, as well as a place to gossip for all people above the age of 40. 

In 2012, Facebook started collecting users’ data in order to perform an experiment. Over the course of a one-week period, Facebook controlled users’ feeds and showed viewers pictures that would affect their mood. Facebook recorded the users responses and later published their findings from the experiment. 

Facebook faced backlash over the article since users, according to Wired, believed that they “intentionally tried ‘to make users mad.’” Also, users were never aware that their feed was being influenced by Facebook. 

This experiment lost the trust of Facebook users and introduced an ethical discussion behind the manipulation of social media feeds. 

Over the past five years, Facebook has introduced new ways they collect and share an individual’s information. An article from The New York Times reveals that Facebook “collects biometric facial data without users’ explicit ‘opt-in’ consent.” To put in simpler terms, Facebook uses photos and videos from your profile in order to recognize your face.

Image credit: Facebook.

Aside from facial recognition, Facebook also detects your activity on other social networks and websites and uses your behavior to personalize your feed.

Since I do not own a Facebook account, I have not experienced their tracking first hand like I have on Instagram. My mom, on the other hand, has taken precaution by resetting her Facebook passwords and turning off all settings that could be related to Facebook collecting her information. 

I am aware that my phone and my downloaded apps use my information, but it can come to a point where my information being shared is out of my control.

A few months ago, my grandmother, Dolores Sabo, frantically called me telling me to update all of my Apple devices. Shocked that my grandma knew what an update was, I questioned why she was so panicked. She responded that all of us were getting hacked, and we did not even know it. I was not entirely sold by her short explanation, so I decided to complete further research to figure out why she was concerned. As soon as I googled “iPhone hacking,” the Pegasus spyware scandal came up. 

Created by Isreali’s NSO Group, Pegasus spyware was designed to infiltrate users’ devices without their knowledge and view their photos, messages, and videos. At first, this spyware was initially only found in Android products. However, more recently, Pegasus has been discovered on iOS products as well. 

Initially, Pegasus spyware recruited their victims through mysterious text messages and emails in 2016. While a large portion of the recipients fell into the trap, there were some iOS and Android users that realized the messages seemed unusual, so they avoided clicking on them. 

More recently, NSO Group discovered that this method did not get full participation from the recipients of the messages; therefore, they have created “zero-click attacks” that allow them to access an individual’s phone without having to send any message or require participation from the user.

Ever since I was little, parents and teachers have always told me to never click on any pop-up ads or messages, since they can often lead to hacking. Now, with NSO’s new invention, hacking cannot always be blamed on the user. Anyone and everyone’s device can be attacked within a matter of seconds.

Image credit: McAfee.

Collegiate’s Director of Technology Louis Fierro provided suggestions in order to avoid hacking as much as possible. He explained that anti-virus software like “McAfee and Sophos can help with potential malware and ransomware.” McAfee and Sophos are two forms of software that can be downloaded on your computer in order to provide security. 

While downloading software can be complicated at times, updating your phone and computer when a new update is available can be equally as beneficial. Fierro states that this step towards protecting your device is “crucial” since they often have “security enhancements” in place. 

During my conversation with Fierro, I did not have to say more than three words about Pegasus before he knew exactly what I was talking about. He explained Apple’s reasoning behind their recent update and how it applied to Pegasus. Fierro describes that, “Apple had a loophole or some glitch in their operating system that allowed for potential spyware, so they asked everyone immediately to do the most recent update that included the security enhancement that covered up the loophole.” 

After his short but detailed explanation, I understood where my grandma was coming from. If I were to hear this on the news, I would be equally as concerned. 

iOS has a setting that users can turn on in order to have automatic updates. For the most part, this setting is beneficial because people, including myself, always forget to check their settings for new, available updates. However, having this feature set, according to Ntiva, “creates a false sense of security.” As Fierro stated, not all updates are designed in order to strengthen security, but rather enhance the performance of the device. 

So, for now, users can protect themselves by keeping up with their iOS and Android updates and potentially downloading protective software to their computers, but we have learned from Pegasus that we must always be aware of unusual activity on our phones. 

No matter the amount of steps we take to protect our devices, there will always be hackers that can outsmart us. What I learned from Fierro is that we must prepare for the worst and take extra precautions when we can. 

Also, privacy should always outweigh involvement in social media. By not sharing phone numbers, messages, or personal information, users can still be active online without sacrificing their security. 

It remains to be seen what steps Apple, Amazon, and Facebook take in the next few years to ensure that their company keeps their users safe. 

Featured image credit: Ting Mobile.