Your phone is listening to you

[mAcOdIn]

It's just a coincidence. I'm getting Valentine's app suggestions and I'm lonely as fuck.

Click to shrink...

Are they even coincidences? To me most ads are shit thrown against a wall, that some of them end up relevant to me is just statistics, every once in a while some shit will stick.

Not to say I've never gotten targeted ads, I definitely have after certain searches, thread posts or emails, but most are junk so it's hard to tell if one of those relevant ads was truly targeted or just something that finally became relevant that I'd been ignoring previously because earlier it wasn't.

 

[The Vathlonian]

shyeah. Nosey Smurf hears me yelling at Mortal Kombat all day.

 

[HammerOfThor]

I used to think this was such a load of BS, and that it was just a coincidence.

Last week I was talking to my wife about something right before dinner, then after dinner I was browsing Facebook and I saw ads for what we were talking about, and I know I've never, ever looked up that particular thing. For the life of me, I can't remember what it was, but I remember thinking to myself "we'll goddam".

I still have my doubts though, for all the shit we talk about I'm surprised it hasn't happened before.

 

[Sage Anahata]

Coincidence and Luck are the language of the Universe. You are being asked to listen. Follow the White rabbit ❤️

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

It and every device connected to the internet with a camera is also watching you wank.

 

[finalflame]

No it's not. Baader-Meinhof.

 

[Eggiem]

Hi Siri!

 

[Doctoglethorpe]

First of all, get a fuckin ad blocker. If they are listening at lEast you won't know it.

Second, unless you buy something with cash from a random dude (who isn't a spook) in an ally you just met in person in said ally (no Facebook market shit or whatever) and then never look up info on it online or anything just let its existence be completely offline in every way imaginable, if not all of that, then somebody, some company, knows you got it, and sells that info for like a micro penny to the entire planet. Cc companies, supermarkets, banks, apps like eBay, they know what you buy or even what you just looked at potentially buying. If people you live with or regularly interact with buy it or look it up, your association is another data point. Another micro penny.

Welcome to the world that just sorta became reality in just the past few years without most people noticing.

Third...

It's obvious it does. My gf and I talked about marriage and the first ads I saw were about wedding rings.

Click to shrink...

A+

 

[Cokie Bear]

Giving you an ad for something you already bought seems counter active to the claim that your phone is always listening.

 

[MrKlaw]

to be perfectly honest, in our times you cannot talk about privacy enough. people give their data away so willingly. even if this whole "your phone is listening to you" is a joke, it's still a fact that you whole online activity is used to create a advertisement profile of you, if you don't pay incredible attention not to spread your information online.

people are willing to share their daily step couns with health insurances to get bonus points they can redeem for "free" massages and stuff... without thinking twice. you can continue this list.

wether you are supporting this or not, it is important to know about it. if you willingly (and knowingly) support the business with your information, great... but if you don't know about that, not great.

Click to shrink...

focus your energy elsewhere then. They aren't listening (even smart home devices like Alexa don't send anything over the internet until they hear the wake word which is processed locally).

they don't need to listen to you because they can get enough information (that sounds like they're listening to you) from your search history, location, and connection to others and their searches.

 

[Weegian]

This shit again?

Ad targeting is much more sinister than "your phone is listening to you."

 

[Quantum Leap]

jesus christ people. No one is listening to you. It's targeted ads and or frequency illusion.

 

[signal]

Do people who make these threads and believe the claim just keep using their phone normally

 

[Deleted member 5359]

My little cousin started talking about Barbies and then all of a sudden I got Barbie ads. At that point I realized, I truly am a princess.

Click to shrink...

i wish for this to happen to me

 

[RiOrius]

I recently talked with my mom on the phone about hair soap but I hardly believe that telephone calls are something that is tracked.

Click to shrink...

Y'know, I never thought of it and I'm not super familiar with the details of telephone routing, but I'm pretty sure surreptitiously eavesdropping on phone calls would be about a thousand times easier than eavesdropping on everything.

They're not doing either, but it's a lot more feasible.

 

[xxracerxx]

Do people who make these threads and believe the claim just keep using their phone normally

Click to shrink...

Of course, but every morning and night they now say "Good morning phone" or "Good night phone".

 

[Foffy]

There are probably better ways they gather your interests than voice.

I'm always amazed at what Amazon autoreccomends me when it involves books. It's like they can personally map you out with what you believe is a handful of search samples...

 

[345]

you know how vaccine truthers and climate change deniers regurgitate anecdotes and convince themselves they know what's up despite common sense or all actual evidence to the contrary?

yeah.

 

[Hound]

The algorithms are just really, really good and it turns out people aren't as unique and special as they think they are. Anecdotal, but everyone I know with this specific complaint pretty much: doesn't know how to use an ad blocker, likes a lot of shit on Facebook, uses Chrome as their browser and is always logged into gmail, and almost every one of them is a Android user. I do pretty much the opposite of those things. The ads I get as a result are garbage that don't seem very targeted to me. I have noticed that the common link whenever an ad that actually feels targeted is that I have usually searched for "it" or something related to "it" in an app or while logged into Google. So if I use the Amazon app to shop for a recent movie, I will see ads for that movie in my Facebook app. If I look up something video game related in lets say, the Target app, I'll then get ads for video games. It's sophisticated.... if you gave them the data in the first place.

 

[hateradio]

<x-files theme music>

Click to shrink...

The internet is just a large tape recorder, after all.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

I was having butter chicken and was talking to people about butter chicken and mentioned my butter chicken in a discord. Started getting ads for butter chicken. Was talking to people about hikes I've been on, got an ad for hiking trails in my area. A friend invited me to paintball over texts and we were talking about it, I got an ad for a nearby paintball place. I was texting my brother about his cat named spatula and I got an ad for spatulas. This is in just the last week.

None of these things I have ever googled and nobody uses my wifi but me.

I dont care if it's crazy to think something weird is going on for how they get info from you but they sure as shit are taking info from you in some way that's not related to any search engine use.

 

[Titik]

If your cc is linked to your phone via Apple or Google pay, it's possible that some third party retailer is sharing that with Google or Apple every time you use your phone to purchase. In fact that's probably the primary reason why Apple and Google included this feature.

 

[Titik]

I was having butter chicken and was talking to people about butter chicken and mentioned my butter chicken in a discord. Started getting ads for butter chicken. Was talking to people about hikes I've been on, got an ad for hiking trails in my area. A friend invited me to paintball over texts and we were talking about it, I got an ad for a nearby paintball place. I was texting my brother about his cat named spatula and I got an ad for spatulas. This is in just the last week.

None of these things I have ever googled and nobody uses my wifi but me.

I dont care if it's crazy to think something weird is going on for how they get info from you but they sure as shit are taking info from you in some way that's not related to any search engine use.

Click to shrink...

It's also selection bias. You did not notice the other myriad of things you talked about that you didn't get an ad on.

 

[kirby_fox]

They pull from your credit card purchases. If you have location data on your phone turned on they can use that. If you have a store discount program. Receipt sent to your email. Mention it on certain apps- even texting apps.

We don't realize how much data we have being sent all over and are giving up.

Been testing keywords for awhile. If I never look up or buy coffee I don't get any ads for coffee even if I say I love it on social media. But I bet if I looked up Starbucks and made a purchase with my card I would start to get ads.

 

[timshundo]

ban conspiracy theory threads

 

[Yesterday]

I'll be the dull white noise that helps mask the vulnerable perverts from the FBI
Namaste

 

[davepoobond]

I feel sorry for the people who may have the job of listening to everyone's audio 24/7.

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How come there aren't job postings for this stuff

 

[LookAtMeGo]

It's also selection bias. You did not notice the other myriad of things you talked about that you didn't get an ad on.

Click to shrink...

The only other stuff I've spoken about in the last week are fitness related stuff, which I get ads for but dont question it since I google that kind of stuff all the time. Other than that I've discussed politics and video games which I also search tons about and dont question the ads related to it. Ads are usually targeted towards my interests so I dont mind or pay much attention it. It's when its obscure stuff I only recently have spoken about that it catches me off guard. Who the fuck gets random spatula and butter chicken ads? I'm not buying it

CC purchases would explain the butter chicken. And if they are getting the other info over text and stuff that's still messed up. Your phone may not be physically listening to you but it's pretty much spying on you

 

[HustleBun]

A little surprised to see all the dismissive and flat out insulting comments in this thread.

I've had obscure and very specific ads flood my Instagram within the day that I've discussed the associated item. At first I assumed it was a coincidence, but then weirder and more specific ads started to appear- one example was when I was hungover someone recommended I go buy some Pedialyte. I explained that I had no idea what that stuff was, I never really see it around.

Later that night my Instagram was flooded with adds for Pedialyte.

I had not Googled it prior but it was the newest in a pattern of exponentially specific coincidences like this.

Without being a cruel or dismissive, I would be interested to hear other explanations of this phenomenon. Because at the time (this was almost two years ago) my coworkers very matter of factly told me that the mic on Facebook and Instagram can collect and automate data that feeds into the ads that you see similar to why you see ads for what you Google.

I thought it was insane but everyone acted like I was crazy for not realizing this "known thing".

What is a more reasonable explanation for this?

 

[BarryFishFinger]

If phones aren't listening in some capacity, explain this - genuinely because I can't fathom how this happened if the phone wasn't listening in some capacity. A friend and I were discussing badminton injuries. Another guy at work is sitting with us but not actively part of the conversation; he has never played badminton, discussed badminton, talked to us about badminton, searched for anything badminton related on his phone. 5 minutes after our conversation ends, he looks at his phone, the first recommended article is on "The 10 most common badminton injuries".

I mean, that's too much of a coincidence to be showing something so very specific, so close after a conversation on the subject.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everything I say is being recorded and piped straight to Facebook, but it does seem like phones are capable of picking up on and analysing conversations without being requested.

 

[Titik]

A little surprised to see all the dismissive and flat out insulting comments in this thread.

I've had obscure and very specific ads flood my Instagram within the day that I've discussed the associated item. At first I assumed it was a coincidence, but then weirder and more specific ads started to appear- one example was when I was hungover someone recommended I go buy some Pedialyte. I explained that I had no idea what that stuff was, I never really see it around.

Later that night my Instagram was flooded with adds for Pedialyte.

I had not Googled it prior but it was the newest in a pattern of exponentially specific coincidences like this.

Without being a cruel or dismissive, I would be interested to hear other explanations of this phenomenon. Because at the time (this was almost two years ago) my coworkers very matter of factly told me that the mic on Facebook and Instagram can collect and automate data that feeds into the ads that you see similar to why you see ads for what you Google.

I thought it was insane but everyone acted like I was crazy for not realizing this "known thing".

What is a more reasonable explanation for this?

Click to shrink...

If you used your phone to navigate to a bar the night before and your phone detected that you spent a substantial amount of time at said location then chances are that you are hungover the next day. Pedialyte is a well known brand for this so it's not that hard to make the connection for an AI.

 

[Yankee Ruin X]

I have had this happen a few times before and it does admittedly freak you out but have always just thought their algorithms are just scary good.

Most recent example was talking to my friend at the pub so not online about this holiday I'm going on. He mentioned that I should set up an account with Starling Bank as they do free worldwide withdrawals for cash which is cool. I had not really thought about how I would access my money while on holiday so had no searches or anything like that and wasn't getting any ads about such things prior to this spoken conversation. Sure enough though within 10 mins while still at the pub I started getting flooded with ads for Starling Bank on FB. I showed my friend and we laughed about how they must be listening to us, it is creepy though how this stuff shows up though.

 

[HustleBun]

If you used your phone to navigate to a bar the night before and your phone detected that you spent a substantial amount of time at said location then chances are that you are hungover the next day. Pedialyte is a well known brand for this so it's not that hard to make the connection for an AI.

Click to shrink...

Thank you. This is a reasonable conclusion to come to and I appreciate the tact.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

So your phones arent listening to you. They are just tracking your every movement and your habits and creating a digital profile of your identity for an AI to predict your actions so accurately that it only appears they are listening to you. Whew. Feel much better.

 

[Version 3.0]

OF COURSE your phone is listening. How the fuck else is it going to respond to "Siri" or "OK Google"? It literally has to listen, all the time.

Whether it's recording what you say is another matter. Probably not; you're boring, and they have better ways of getting data on what ads to show you.

 

[Mendrox]

I know digital thumbprint is hard to get

 

[GreenMonkey]

I was having butter chicken and was talking to people about butter chicken and mentioned my butter chicken in a discord. Started getting ads for butter chicken. Was talking to people about hikes I've been on, got an ad for hiking trails in my area. A friend invited me to paintball over texts and we were talking about it, I got an ad for a nearby paintball place. I was texting my brother about his cat named spatula and I got an ad for spatulas. This is in just the last week.

None of these things I have ever googled and nobody uses my wifi but me.

I dont care if it's crazy to think something weird is going on for how they get info from you but they sure as shit are taking info from you in some way that's not related to any search engine use.

Click to shrink...

Did you see the blip from the article I posted?

" the guest marketing analytics team at Target correctly inferred based on purchasing data that one of its customers—sorry, guests—a teenage girl in Minnesota, was pregnant, based on an arcane formula involving elevated rates of buying unscented lotion, mineral supplements, and cotton balls"

If TARGET can figure out if a girl is pregnant from that, Google can figure out you might like butter chicken.

Remember that Google has your location info to the minute (ever check Google Location history?), data from your emails (receipts, CC emails, personal emails, social media comments), call and text metadata most likely, web history, cookies, data on which ads work on you, etc. And nowadays perhaps even your step / workout data, sleep data, etc.

And who your friends are (again even FB knows this with shadow profiles), who you have talked to recently (location data on others), and data from your family and likely who they are. And what they in turn have been up to/searching/etc.

Google can probably predict when I'm going to get Indian food better than I can.

 

[WesternHeretic]

I'm going to start telling my phone I want to be a billionaire. Hopefully they listen and hook me up!

 

[davidnolan13]

End of last year i had hearing loss due to glue ear i knew this as the doctor told me plus it happens everytime i get a cold, i didnt need to look it up online and i only spoke about how annoying it was not being able to hear to my wife. A day or 2 later i start getting spam emails for hearing aids. I dont have voice activated crap turned on on my phone. probably a coincidence but still wierd.

 

[Unknownlight]

I have had this happen a few times before and it does admittedly freak you out but have always just thought their algorithms are just scary good.

Most recent example was talking to my friend at the pub so not online about this holiday I'm going on. He mentioned that I should set up an account with Starling Bank as they do free worldwide withdrawals for cash which is cool. I had not really thought about how I would access my money while on holiday so had no searches or anything like that and wasn't getting any ads about such things prior to this spoken conversation. Sure enough though within 10 mins while still at the pub I started getting flooded with ads for Starling Bank on FB. I showed my friend and we laughed about how they must be listening to us, it is creepy though how this stuff shows up though.

Click to shrink...

I mentioned this on the last page, but the creepy thing about this is not that your phone is recording you. Because it's not. The creepy part is it doesn't need to. All of the context that leads to some conversation is also something that an algorithm can pick up on its own.

In this case, if we assume it's not a coincidence or selection bias, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation here. You're planning to go on a holiday, and thus you've undoubtedly made searches and visited websites that indicate to the algorithm that you're planning to go on a holiday.

Many other people in the world have set things up so that they can access their money while on holiday. Thus, the algorithm knows to advertise banks that offer those features to people that it detects will be going on vacation.

Your friend obviously has researched Starling Bank before—otherwise he wouldn't know about it. Being in close proximity to your friend means both your phones will have had the same geolocation data for long periods of time, so the algorithm already knows that you two are part of the same social circle (assuming it doesn't already know this from many other potential sources, like being Friends on Facebook).

So. The algorithm knows that you're going on vacation. You meet up with your friend and the algorithm knows you two are friends. The algorithm is looking for a bank to advertise to you, and it knows that someone else in your social circle has previously researched this specific bank, likely also for vacation purposes. So it shows you that ad.

This is so much fucking creepier than "My phone is listening to me!"

 

[Mendrox]

Okay here is the biggest shocker:

You all know the share buttons on porn sites? Of course nobody uses them so why are they there? Hey! Another digital footprint of you and your fetishes :)
It takes about 3 website visits nowadays to connect an unknown digital person to the correct one again. Every single one in here is already fucked in that regard since a few years.

https://blog.mozilla.org/internetcitizen/2018/07/26/this-is-your-digital-fingerprint/

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Did you see the blip from the article I posted?

" the guest marketing analytics team at Target correctly inferred based on purchasing data that one of its customers—sorry, guests—a teenage girl in Minnesota, was pregnant, based on an arcane formula involving elevated rates of buying unscented lotion, mineral supplements, and cotton balls"

If TARGET can figure out if a girl is pregnant from that, Google can figure out you might like butter chicken.

Remember that Google has your location info to the minute (ever check Google Location history?), data from your emails (receipts, CC emails, personal emails, social media comments), call and text metadata most likely, web history, cookies, data on which ads work on you, etc. And nowadays perhaps even your step / workout data, sleep data, etc.

And who your friends are (again even FB knows this with shadow profiles), who you have talked to recently (location data on others), and data from your family and likely who they are. And what they in turn have been up to/searching/etc.

Google can probably predict when I'm going to get Indian food better than I can.

Click to shrink...

Did I mention how awesome I think google is and that I welcome our AI overlords?

I cant remember where but I heard someone talking about how an AI will keep track of people who speak badly about AI online and view them as a threat one day.

I feel like it was Ray Kurzweil but I may be mistaken.

 

[MikeHattsu]

If you have location data on your phone turned on they can use that

Click to shrink...

If they really really want to they can track your location without location data turned on as well :P

How to Track a Cellphone Without GPS—or Consent

As the Supreme Court mulls over the case of Carpenter v. United States, which may have far-reaching consequences for police who track suspects without a warrant via their cellphones, four engineers at Princeton University have revealed a brand-new method for identifying the location of a...

gizmodo.com

 

[GreenMonkey]

Did I mention how awesome I think google is and that I welcome our AI overlords?

I cant remember where but I heard someone talking about how an AI will keep track of people who speak badly about AI online and view them as a threat one day.

I feel like it was Ray Kurzweil but I may be mistaken.

Click to shrink...

Person Of Interest? Love that show.

 

[mAcOdIn]

Did I mention how awesome I think google is and that I welcome our AI overlords?

I cant remember where but I heard someone talking about how an AI will keep track of people who speak badly about AI online and view them as a threat one day.

I feel like it was Ray Kurzweil but I may be mistaken.

Click to shrink...

The goofy thought experiment?

 

[Annatar86]

Maybe these companies should stop tracking us to death, lol. I mean, its not our faults. The shit IS creepy as hell.

Click to shrink...

You are the product for these companies. Your profiling and preferences is what they're selling to others. Or do you think Google Maps, other Google products, Social Media etc. are free out of the goodness of their hearts?

If you want to enjoy their full personalization that is the price you pay. You can get around most of it with the right precautions but I personally don't think it's worth it, so I don't mind

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Person Of Interest? Love that show.

Click to shrink...

No. Havent seen that. Sounds like it's up my alley though.

The goofy thought experiment?

Click to shrink...

I dont know. I think I may have just heard it on some random futurist documentary. Something along the lines of an AI perceiving people who speak negatively about AI online as a threat and the AI going after them as some sort of act of self preservation.

 

[Cokie Bear]

I am pretty sure that I never watched a video on body hygine on YouTube but I recently (three days ago) bought a Soap of that company because it was the first time I discovered it... today yesterday evening I told my girlfriend about that soap... now I am watching YouTube again and getting that video recommended...

Click to shrink...

If your phone really was listening I don't think they'd waste money trying to advertise something they know you've already purchased.

 

[mAcOdIn]

I dont know. I think I may have just heard it on some random futurist documentary. Something along the lines of an AI perceiving people who speak negatively about AI online as a threat and the AI going after them as some sort of act of self preservation.

Click to shrink...

Right, I think it was some nonsense about it becoming a God and going Skynet on people.

Edit:. Probably this

https://slate.com/technology/2014/0...errifying-thought-experiment-of-all-time.html

 

[HotAndTender]

People are more concerned about their phone listening to them and forgetting most new smart phones use your face to unlock your phone. So not only does it know everything you're saying it even know's what you look like which hourly updates.

Enjoy the paranoia everyone!