TOEFL 2026 Speaking Practice — Level Hard (for score 100+) #21

Listen to each question and give a spoken response. Aim to speak for 20–30 seconds per answer.

Score 100 — Perfect

I remember a time when I was setting up a new banking app on my phone and it prompted me to grant it full, persistent access to my location. Honestly, it felt kind of intrusive because I didn’t see why a simple finance app needed to track my movements 24/7. I actually ended up denying that permission, but then the app wouldn’t even let me log in. It made me realize how we’re often forced into a **disproportionate** trade-off between convenience and our own privacy. It was a pretty frustrating moment, but it made me hyper-aware of how much data we surrender daily. Since then, I’ve been way more cautious about what I share, because I think it’s **profoundly** important to maintain some boundaries between our digital footprint and our personal lives.

132 words

Score 80 — Good

I remember a time when I was downloading a new fitness app, and it asked for access to my location and my contacts. I just clicked ‘allow’ without thinking because I wanted to start using it right away. But then, I read a news report later that day about how some apps sell that kind of data to other companies. It made me feel really uncomfortable and a bit worried because I realized I had given away my private information too easily. So, now I’m much more careful about what I share. I always check the settings before I click yes because I don’t want my personal data being used in ways I don’t know about.

116 words

Score 100 — Perfect

In my daily life, I’d say I’m somewhere in the middle, though I definitely lean toward being quite cautious. I mean, I’m not exactly a digital recluse, but I’m definitely not reckless with my information either. For instance, last month, I started using a dedicated password manager after I realized I was reusing the same weak password for everything—which, honestly, was a pretty systemic failure on my part. I’ve also become much more selective about which apps I grant location access to. I think I’ve adopted this approach because the potential for data breaches is just so pervasive these days. It’s a bit of a balancing act, right? You want the convenience of modern tech, but you can’t ignore the risks. So, keeping my digital footprint minimal is just my way of staying safe.

134 words

Score 80 — Good

In my daily life, I’m actually pretty careful about my digital privacy because I’m worried about my personal data. I don’t really post much on social media, and I also try to avoid clicking on suspicious links or pop-up ads. I feel like it’s important to be cautious because there are so many scams and hackers out there today. Even though it might be more convenient to just save all my passwords on my browser, I prefer to keep things private and secure. It’s just better to be safe than sorry, you know? I think I’ve adopted this approach because I’ve heard too many stories about people losing their information online.

111 words

Score 100 — Perfect

Personally, I strongly believe that individual privacy is a fundamental right that shouldn’t be compromised, even in the name of national security. I mean, once you start letting the government monitor everyone’s personal messages, it’s a slippery slope toward systemic surveillance. For instance, consider the controversy surrounding the Snowden leaks back in 2013; that situation really highlighted how easily state power can be overextended. I’d argue that the potential for abuse is just too high. While I understand that preventing terrorism is critical, the cost to our personal freedom is disproportionate. Actually, I think there are smarter ways to catch criminals without infringing on the digital lives of millions of innocent people. At the end of the day, I’m convinced that a secure society shouldn’t have to sacrifice the very privacy that defines a free democracy.

136 words

Score 80 — Good

Personally, I strongly believe that privacy is a fundamental right that shouldn’t be compromised, even for national security. Well, I mean, if the government has full access to our private messages, it feels like they’re watching us all the time. That really scares me because it could lead to people being afraid to speak their minds or share their ideas freely. I think that once you give up your privacy, it’s really hard to get it back. So, even though I know security is important, I just don’t think it’s right for the government to look at our personal stuff like that. It’s just too much power for them to have, you know?

113 words

Score 100 — Perfect

I think it would be a huge mistake to mandate backdoors in encrypted products. I mean, while the goal of assisting law enforcement sounds noble, it’s inherently dangerous because you can’t build a door that only the ‘good guys’ can enter. If a government agency has a key, hackers or malicious actors will eventually find a way to exploit that same vulnerability. For instance, look at the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack; that massive global crisis was actually caused by a leaked tool from the NSA. By weakening encryption, we’d be creating a systemic risk to everyone’s digital security. I’d argue that the potential for widespread data breaches far outweighs the investigative benefits. So, ultimately, forcing companies to compromise their security would leave the general public much more vulnerable, not safer.

130 words

Score 80 — Good

I think it would be a huge mistake to force companies to create backdoors. I mean, I understand that law enforcement wants to catch criminals, but building a backdoor creates a massive security risk for everyone. If there is a way for the police to get in, hackers will eventually find that same way too. It’s like leaving a spare key under the mat; eventually, the wrong person is going to find it. So, while the goal is to keep us safe, I think it would actually make our personal data much less secure because our private information would be vulnerable to cyberattacks. It just seems like a really dangerous idea for society.

113 words