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    Is your phone really listening to you? Here's what we know
    Futurology

    Is your phone really listening to you? Here’s what we know

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    1. Splenda on

      Submission statement: If you think your phone may be quietly listening to your conversations, you may be right. A Cox Media Group pitch deck obtained by 404 Media details Cox’s “active listening” AI software, which listens for cues to things you may buy, then serves your phone ads for these. Similar systems appear to be offered by other companies.

    5. kazarbreak on

      When talking to someone about some random thing that I haven’t otherwise shown interest inn and then getting ads for it for the first time 15 minutes later is a regular occurance you’re never going to convince me my phone isn’t listening to me.

    6. SleeplessDaddy on

      About 10 years ago, my dad asked me about taking a flight to Guadalajara, Mexico. We’ve never discussed this before, and I’ve never gone on line to look for a flight to Mexico.

      I told my dad I didn’t have time to look it up since I had to be somewhere soon.

      Later when I was free, I opened up the Facebook app and the first ad I see is flights to Guadalajara for $300.

      I deleted that app immediately and never used it since.

    7. The-Joon on

      It’s more than just advertisement. One day I was explaining a TV show to my 19 year old daughter. It was the Adam’s Family. We talked about the show for a few minutes. Moments later I open My laptop, go to Youtube. The first video offered up by Youtube was one on the Adams Family. This kind of scenario has happened multiple times. Talk about a product in your home. Wham!!! Ads for that Item pop up. I hate it. It’s akin to being haunted.

    8. THIS_GUY_LIFTS on

      Posted this previously in a different thread. But there has definitely been some weird shit happening for years now. About 6 years ago I was having a conversation with my gf’s kids about LEGOS. Never have I typed or searched for anything LEGO on my phone. Not even in a text (I searched later on). Within an hour I was being assaulted with LEGO ads.

      More recently, I was browsing Reddit and r/actionfigures trying to help identify some obscure figure. There was a picture containing manufacturing info on the figures butt that I decided to search. Tell me why, that with only the first two numbers, it auto filled the entirety of the manufacturers info into my browsers search bar? Two numbers. I typed two numbers, 1 & 9, and it autofilled “1996 Hasbro Pawtucket GI Joe”…

      Something fucky is going on.

    9. marksteele6 on

      I mean ya, if you download an app and agree to let it listen to your mic, it’s going to listen to your mic… I assume that would be somewhat obvious?

    10. JaggedMetalOs on

      What makes me skeptical of this is those popular social media apps aren’t magic, plenty of security researchers will have ripped them apart, run them in all sorts of simulated environments etc. If there was any unusual mic usage I can’t imagine we’d only find out about it from an accidental reveal in a press release.

    11. AlbertaAcreageBoy on

      I think Google knows what is being Googled in an area or shop or at home. I have 2 phones, 1 work, 1 personal and no connected accounts between them. Yet I’ll get an ad for something I googled on the other. Maybe because I’m on the same wifi?

    13. DoGooderMcDoogles on

      Smart TVs and other devices are much worse. They have way worse ToS and PP. my LG TV was crazy (high-end model mind you). Would mention something in the room and 5 minutes later get an ad online for it.

      Turned that shit off and i don’t see it happening anymore.

    14. wezovic on

      Yes and no… Some dodgy apps (like those referenced by the Cox report) may be physically listening and they would then use that data to target you on Facebook, Google and the like. These are mostly limited to Android though.
      However, Facebook and Google themselves are not listening, as they don’t need to! They have already built up a persona of who you are and what you are likely to do. The ads that “magically” appear out of the blue (as if they are listening) are because they have successfully predicted your behaviour (Facebook algorithms can sometimes predict a woman is pregnant before she even knows). There is also a physiological explanation for such things – but I’ll leave that to the psychologists on here.

    15. MartyVendetta27 on

      I don’t care what the studies say, I have personally seen the evidence of this 100%.

      5 years ago, I returned to Pennsylvania when my father died. While there, I caught up with old friends amd one of them was telling me about her husband’s DUI. A bit later I got on my facebook and had a Ad for DUI lawyers in PA, A state i hadn’t lived in for over a decade, and a crime I had never committed.

      Without listening, there is no way that ad would have popped for me.

    16. 1EBS83 on

      I learned this a few years ago. A coworker of mine was telling me that phones DO listen to you. He said that he and some friend were talking about patio furniture one day. Then an hour later he was scrolling thru his phone and a bunch of patio ads came up. Pretty crazy if you ask me