Samsung Phone Batteries Have a Spy Chip-Fiction!

Samsung Phone Batteries Have a Spy Chip-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
Some people have questioned whether Samsung mobile phone batteries are equipped with a spy chip that lets the company track phone usage.
The Truth:
Samsung batteries don’t have a spy chip, but that doesn’t mean phone usage can’t be tracked.
The rumor about the Samsung battery spy chip started on a WhatsApp message board. A user posted photos of a Samsung battery with the wrapper removed. It had what appeared to be a plastic chip with circuits attached to it. The post quickly led users to question whether it was a spy chip:

“Yesterday I saw an WhatsApp message in that one person showing the Samsung phone batteries He remove the rapper and take out the black color thin paper or plastic sheet which is attached with the body of the battery and there is some lines on that like a circuit and he claimed that, This is a kind of chip to spy our daily use of mobile phone is it true? Please answer me I am so confused.”

The question made its way to a forum for Samsung developers, and they quickly shot down the idea that spy chips are attached to Samsung batteries. Rather, they explained, it’s what’s called a Near Field Communication (NFC) antenna. It allows phones to share information at short distances, like making a transaction using Google Wallet or “bumping” phones to share a contact.
But that doesn’t mean your phone usage and browsing data are secure. Cell phone providers routinely sell subscribers’ search and browsing history to advertisers. AT&T made waves in March 2015 when it unrolled a plan that promised privacy to subscribers for an additional $29 per month.
There are a number of ways to adjust your phone’s security settings to manage how your usage information is collected and shared with advertisers, USA Today reports:

iPhone

If you’re an iPhone user, you need to go into Settings, and then tap Privacy. Scroll all the way down to Advertising.

You’ll see a button labeled says, “Limit ad tracking.” If it’s not showing a green color, slide the button so that it shows green. This will stop ad companies from tracking what you do with your phone and serving up targeted ads.

Right underneath that setting, by the way, you’ll see the “Reset Advertising Identifier” option. Tapping on that will zero out the anonymized identifier linked to your personal data on Apple’s servers.

In other words, to trackers you’ll appear to be a new user. This can make it more difficult (but not impossible) for advertisers to build up a profile on how you browse.

Android

To turn off the Google “AdID” system, you don’t go to your Android phone settings, but your Google Settings app. You might have to look under your full list of apps to find it.

Once you’re in Google Settings, tap the Ads link and then tap “Opt out of interest-based ads.” You can also see your advertising ID and tap “Reset advertising ID” to make a new one. This will make you look like a new user to advertisers.

Ads aren’t the only way you’re tracked on your phone. Google and Apple might be tracking your searches. Use this search app instead to make private searches.

Windows Phone

To turn off Personalized ads in Windows Phone, go to Microsoft’s ad opt-out page and under “Personalize ads whenever I use my Microsoft account” click “Off.”

You will need to be signed in with a Windows account to do this. Make sure you sign in with the same account you use on your Windows Phone. This also turns off personalized ads for Internet Explorer in Windows 8.

So, Samsung does not attach spy chips to batteries, but that doesn’t mean your phone usage isn’t being tracked.