# **Millions of iPhone users need to find the orange button: Everyone should tap it once** **For iPhone, an item labeled orange in settings is very important, recommended by experts.** Your phone is probably one of the most personal items in your life. Therefore, checking your phone’s settings is something you should do regularly to see if your device has enough privacy for you. For iPhone, an item with an orange label in the settings section plays a very important role, which experts recommend users check to ensure online safety. That’s the microphone settings. There are apps that will ask you for permission to collect data, but there are also apps that will secretly track you. Therefore, you should check which applications are allowed to use the microphone on your phone. If you find the app suspicious, deny it permission to use the microphone. ## **Are apps really eavesdropping on you?** Some time ago, the New York Times reported that some mobile game apps tracked people. their users by listening to certain sounds through the microphone of their smartphone. Companies like Alphonso (which collects user data to provide to advertisers) have released software capable of eavesdropping. Alphonso’s software can provide detailed information about what users are watching by recognizing audio cues in TV commercials and shows. Then, the collected information will be used to send users the most relevant ads, motivating them to buy a certain product. Although many of these apps have been removed from the App Store, other risky names (that we don’t even know about) still exist. Most companies, including Facebook and Apple, have vehemently denied the claims of tracking users, but we have no basis to believe that they are telling the truth. The best way to protect your privacy is still to check your settings and remove risk factors in time. ## **How to deny microphone access to apps** Before you do the following, please note that there are real apps that must have permission to access your microphone before they can fully functional. For example, if you want to send voice messages on WhatsApp, of course, you must allow this application to access the microphone. Besides, recording videos with enough sound on Instagram also requires you to grant this permission. In case a strange and rarely used app is requesting access to your microphone without good reason, that is a warning sign of danger. To check the list of applications that have access to the microphone, follow these steps: – Go to **Settings -> Access Privacy & Security (Privacy & Security).* * – Select the item **Microphone – The item has an orange label with a microphone icon above it.** Here you will see a full list of applications that have (or are asking for permission) to access the microphone. on the phone. Each of these apps will have a toggle switch on the right, allowing you to approve or deny their access. Restricted access should be maintained for applications where you are certain they need microphone access to function. If you’re unsure about which apps, simply deny access and re-approval as needed. Usually, apps that request microphone access will still work after being denied permission, but they are forced to restrict some features. Your iPhone will also issue an alert when the phone’s microphone is being actively used by an app. Notifications will be represented by an orange dot in the status bar. If you’re using a new version of the iOS operating system (at least iOS 14), at **Control Center** you can perform a swipe down to see which apps specifically are using the microphone. To update to the latest iOS version, go to **Settings – General – Update Software**.
