How To Stop Your Iphone From Being Tracked

For privacy reasons or other practical issues, you might be wondering how to make your iPhone stop listening to you.
Your iPhone's microphone is on by default, so that it can hear you when you use the "Hey Siri" phrase to activate Siri remotely.
You can easily disable "Hey Siri" and the microphone function for specific apps through your iPhone's Settings app.
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The iPhone's microphone and Siri smart assistant can be a handy tool for hands-free commands and dictation.

But they can also both backfire spectacularly — like when you find yourself accidentally calling your boss at midnight because you accidentally woke Siri with your voice, or if you're worried about someone hearing your recordings.

Fortunately, there's a way to prevent these sort of miscommunications before they happen by disabling microphone access for Siri and any apps you're wary of recording you.

Here are the easy steps to disable microphone access on your iPhone, along with the "Hey Siri" wake phrase.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

How to make your iPhone stop listening to you

Disable microphone access for specific apps

1. Open your iPhone's Settings app.

2. Scroll or search for the "Privacy" settings page.

3. On this page, tap "Microphone."

Microphone settings can be found under Privacy, via the Settings app.

4. You'll see a list of every app that has access to your microphone. Tap the slider next to each one to revoke their access — the slider will turn gray when turned off.

You may want to disable microphone access for some apps but leave it for others, like a language-learning one for instance.

You can also prevent microphone access when you install a new app — when asked for access, hit "Don't Allow."

Disable "Hey Siri"

1. Again, open Settings.

2. Scroll down to the "Siri & Search" page. If you use the search bar, be sure to select "Siri & Search" and not just "Siri."

3. Disable "Listen for 'Hey Siri'" at the very top by tapping the switch next to it.

Turning this setting off will mean that you can't activate Siri remotely.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:

How to enable and use Siri on any iPhone X model in 2 different ways
How to stop your iPhone from tracking your location, and manage each app's location-tracking
How to record a phone call on your iPhone using third-party apps
How you can easily delete all the photos on your iPhone at once

Emma Witman is an Asheville, NC-based freelance journalist with a keen interest in writing about hardware, PC gaming, politics, and personal finance. She is a former crime reporter for a daily newspaper, and has also written extensively about bartending for Insider. She may or may not judge your drink order when behind the bar. Follow her on Twitter at @emwity.