You Don’t Need to Test It Anymore

I used to joke that my phone was listening to me. Until one night, I tested it.

I whispered a random word out loud. Something I’d never searched, never typed,

never said before. Then I put my phone face down and waited. Ten minutes later, my screen lit up

by itself. No notification sound. Just… on. An ad appeared.

For the exact thing I had whispered. My stomach dropped. That’s when I checked my microphone permissions.

They were off. Camera access? Off. Location? Off.

So I did something stupid. I whispered again. This time, my phone didn’t

show an ad. It showed a message: ‘You don’t need to test it anymore.’ I haven’t whispered