this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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Article littered with affiliate links.
And it also doesn't make sense.
I think I get what it's saying? It's saying that while your phone isn't directly listening to your conversations in any meaningful way they collect crazy amounts of other data on basically everyone and can piece it together in such a way that they can make some scary accurate guesses as to the kind of ads to serve you based on what their systems have gathered your interests are and where/with whom you spend your time.
I'm not entirely sure. They didn't really seem to present much more than speculation on it.
This is what I’ve been saying for years. You don't need to listen to someone’s microphone to serve eerily relevant ads. I’ve heard people commonly discussing how they talked about something and saw an ad for it later. You’re already being tracked everywhere and a bit of confirmation bias is all you need to focus in on the times it works. It’s like that story of the prenatal vitamins being recommended to that woman who didn’t realize she’s pregnant.
This isn’t to say that I don’t believe someone can’t possibly turn on the mic in a targeted attack, but few of us are having conversations that are that important. It’s way easier to target you other ways using data that’s much more available.
If you're already taking about a product you've likely already been swayed by targeted marketing (not just online but physical/traditional too). And you only become more aware after you've seen an ad with it still on your mind. And this is the moment where some people say that their phone must've been listening to them earlier on, because they can't seem to comprehend cohorts and marketing in general.