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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1420529
How You Can Stop Shady iPhone Apps from Listening to Your Conversations By Sergio Velasquez Many apps need to use your microphone and camera so they can work properly – how else is Siri going to know you’re calling for it? Even though most apps use these features responsibly, you might be a little uneasy about giving every app so much freedom. Fortunately, Apple figured out a way to let you know when an app is using your microphone or camera. If you have iOS 14 or later, you’ll notice a small dot at the top right corner of your iPhone every time you’re using your camera or microphone. If the dot is green, that means an app is using your camera. If the dot is orange, it means an app is using your microphone. This works even if you’re using Apple’s apps! Still, if you want to take it one step further, you can completely deny an app’s permission to use your microphone and/or camera. That way, there will be no way a shady app could be listening to you without your consent. Here’s what you need to do. How to Deny an App’s Permission to Use Your Microphone By default, apps have to let you know that they’ll use your microphone before you install them. But if you’re like me, you usually just accept the warnings without reading them and move on. If that happens, you’ll need to do the following to deny the app permissions: 1. Open the Settings app. 2. Scroll down and select Privacy. 3. Scroll down again and tap on Microphone. 4. Now find the app you want to deny, and toggle off access to use the microphone. And you’re set! Now the app won’t be able to use or access the microphone at all. If you try to use the app again and you need to use the microphone, the app will tell you that it doesn’t have permission to use it. You’ll need to repeat the steps above so the app can use the microphone again.