“Smart” features are everywhere: keyboards that suggest whole sentences, photo apps that remove objects, chat apps that summarise conversations. Many of them work by sending your text, voice or pictures to an AI service on the internet. That is not always bad, but you should know which apps do it.
Why apps contact AI services
- Writing help: keyboards and email apps that rewrite or complete text.
- Photos and voice: editing, captions, transcription and translation.
- Assistants and chat bots built into apps.
- Built-in toolkits: an app may include another company’s AI toolkit (SDK) without saying so on its main screen.
What may be sent
It depends on the app. It can be what you type or paste, a photo you edit, or a voice clip. The AI company may keep it for some time under its own rules. The app’s privacy policy and the Google Play Data safety section are the official places where an app must describe the data it shares.
How to check on Android
1. Read the Data safety section
On the app’s Google Play page, open Data safety. It lists what the app says it collects and shares. Google explains this section here.
2. Look at permissions
Settings → Security & privacy → Privacy → Permission manager shows which apps may use the microphone, camera and photos. Remove what an app doesn’t need.
3. Watch what apps actually do
The first two checks show what an app says. To see what it does, you need to see its connections. TacUNS AI Radar lists the apps that connected to known AI services in the last 7 days. It alerts you the first time an app reaches an AI service, and stops it with one tap if you don’t want it.
What a tool can and cannot tell you
| Can see | Cannot see |
|---|---|
| Which app contacted which AI service, and when | The content of encrypted (HTTPS) traffic |
| How much data the app sent out | What the AI company does with the data afterwards |
| Services on its list of known AI addresses | A new AI service that is not on the list yet |
Simple rules
- Turn off AI features you don’t use inside each app’s settings.
- Don’t paste passwords, ID numbers or bank details into apps with AI writing features.
- Prefer apps that do AI work on the phone itself (“on-device”) for private things.
- Check AI Radar once a week and block what surprises you.
TacUNS’s own assistant, SI Mind, follows the last rule: it runs on the phone after a one-time download, and nothing you ask leaves the phone. See how TacUNS works.