Two out of three Swedes think they are being monitored through their mobile phones.
This is shown by a new report from the Internet Foundation.
– If you look at how the technology works, we know that mobile phones cannot eavesdrop on us, says Måns Jonasson, internet expert at the Internet Foundation.
The Internet Foundation has come out with a new report on online surveillance. There it emerges that the majority of Swedes want to facilitate the fight against crime through surveillance, but also that as many as 62 percent of internet users believe that their mobile phones are eavesdropping on them.
– Two out of three Swedes believe that their mobile phone is eavesdropping on them all the time, says Måns Jonasson.
Get advertising about what you just talked about
He believes that the reason why many people feel they are being eavesdropped on is that they receive advertisements and commercials about what they have just talked about. According to Måns Jonasson, the explanation for this could be that you would have received the ad anyway, but that you notice it more because you recently talked about it.
– The other explanation is that if the two of you sit and talk about winter jackets, Martin might Google winter jackets later, but you don’t. Then the systems know that you have been in the same place, so you are probably also interested in winter jackets because he is.
Instead, it is all the data that the mobile collects about us that causes us to receive these targeted advertisements.
– Both Facebook and Google say that we don’t even need to listen, we know so much about you anyway, says Måns Jonasson.
Fewer older people than younger people believe that mobile phones are eavesdropping
Older internet users are less likely to believe that they are being eavesdropped on their mobile phones than younger ones. Three out of four under the age of 65 believe that mobile phones are eavesdropping, compared to only one in four pensioners. There are also more women than men who believe they are being eavesdropped.
– Security experts all over the world have tried to prove that this is happening and have failed. So we can be quite sure that this is not happening technically, but on the other hand we obviously have a long way to go before people feel safe anyway, says Måns Jonasson.
Today 07:25