Do iPhones and Androids listen to us? Legislators want to know

Legislators are asking Apple CEO, Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO, Larry Page, how our smartphones could follow us without our knowledge.

In separate letters to both leaders, House Energy and Commerce Republicans information on how iPhones and Androids collect data about their users.

For example, they want to know how phones collect audio.

Can an iPhone listen to its user even when that user does not ask him? Siri for help? And, "Do Apple's iPhone devices collect audio recordings from users without consent?"

As for Android devices, lawmakers ask: can they "listen to consumers without a clear and unambiguous audio trigger?" Consumer data collected via mobile phones, including location information and user records, can be used unexpectedly by consumers, "wrote committee chair Greg Walden, R-Oregon and D & ## 39; others. They then asked if these reports could apply to Apple products, and asked Google for help to understand the accuracy of these reports.

For example, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has sworn that the social networking giant does not listen to the users' phone. audio for advertising purposes. But lawmakers cited a June article in which the journalist wrote about how certain phrases that he said aloud within earshot of his phone seemed to trigger Facebook ads afterwards. In addition, in the case of Google, lawmakers cited a Quartz report on Android devices gathering information from nearby cell towers, even when location services are turned off and it does not occur. there is no SIM card in "

In the case of Apple, lawmakers have referred to Cook's comments as part of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, in which he touted Apple as a champion of user privacy. Still, they pointed out that Apple has recently announced changes to its App Store to try to limit the amount of data that third-party application developers collect from users. This raises "questions about how data from Apple device users are protected and when they are shared and compiled," the letter says.

They also asked Google about third-party developer access to Android user data. legislators asked companies to respond no later than July 23, and to inform committee staff of the issues raised in the letters, which were also signed by Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, Gregg Harper, R- Mississippi and Robert Latta, R-Ohio.