I genuinely think our devices listen to us

I thought this was all guff until I was in the pub with my friend talking about hangovers. I said I had achy legs. He jokingly said I needed circulation improving socks.

I go home. Guess what the first advert is for on my phone. I was under 30 years old. Why target me for that.

Really spooked me and I deleted the app.
 
I've often wondered how some of this advertising works as some of it seems pretty advanced. I'm sure a user here posted about breakdown advertising targeted at himself within hours of his mate who's car he was in at the time needing the aa/rac. I've had similar experiences with this type of advertising.

The strangest one for me was planning a solo cycling trip and an advert for Evans featuring cyclists touring being shown. It was oddly very similar to what I was doing. One of the guys shown even had the same cycling shoes I use in the exact same colour scheme purchased from the same company months previously. That's pretty slim chances given the range of cycling shoes and the fact that even the same model has 5 different colour schemes.
 
I suspect it's because there is a new expansion for it, and possibly she's looked at content related to it in the past.

She's only noticed it today because she was talking about it.
 
More than listen I think.

Take google maps. It has live traffic information when youre recieving directions.

Understandable if it knows where the traffic jams are on a motorway youd think, interfacing with all the monitoring systems.

But how does it know if there is a big queue on some B road leading from Walsall to Shire Oak? Or a B road at the back of the Asda in Bloxwich leading up to the lights.

But somehow it does. No monitoring systems on those roads.

Only explanation I can think of is peoples phones who are sitting in those jams are relaying information back unknowingly.
 
danlightbulb said:
More than listen I think.

Take google maps. It has live traffic information when youre recieving directions.

Understandable if it knows where the traffic jams are on a motorway youd think, interfacing with all the monitoring systems.

But how does it know if there is a big queue on some B road leading from Walsall to Shire Oak? Or a B road at the back of the Asda in Bloxwich leading up to the lights.

But somehow it does. No monitoring systems on those roads.

Only explanation I can think of is peoples phones who are sitting in those jams are relaying information back unknowingly.
Click to expand...

It's not unknowingly. Read the info when you turn on gps on your phone.
 
Me and the gf tried to test this by saying random brands into our phones a lot (e.g Toyota when we've never owned a Toyota or even talked about it/searched it ever), but the ads never came. Obviously anecdotal but I've got a feeling it's a mix between confirmation bias and coincidence that people believe their phones are listening.
 
I shut my phone out the internet a few months ago. Still have problems with adverts appearing trying to trace it but cannot find the problem I cannot be doing with a factory reset as my power button is broken.

I think it has something to do with Android OS and Google it some how circumnavigates your phone net switched off or not. Its a pain in the backside.

Awake of a morning and get a advert even though am not connected to the net. It really ***** me off when all I want to know is the time.
 
I'm 99% sure they use your mic. Think I've even created a thread here before as well.

I don't have a Facebook account but use Instagram and regularly get served up ads that I'm not the target audience for. As I work in marketing I also pay attention to ads for inspo etc and it's quite useful that Instagram shows you the number of views a video ad has had for example. Sometimes I get served ads with under 1000 views so it's not like it's a mass target.
 
Problem is I cannot shut my phone down as I said the power button is broken, only option is to run the battery into the deck but I cannot do that due to friends and family.

I have a land line but not a phone to use it. I think its time for me to invest in a normal phone.
 
Yeah I also think it happens .
Most of the time you may have searched and forgotten but sometimes you know you didn't.

Yes I suppose you could have been talking to a friend who later searched it .. Fb makes the link.. Etc etc.

But I expect it does happen
 
Of course your devices are listening to you. What do you think they're for? You're carrying around an extremely advanced bug with full audio and video capabilities that's attached to a global network and which constantly reports its position and you have apps loaded which exist primarily for the purpose of gathering as much information as possible on as many people as possible in order to use it for profit. It would be silly to think that the apps and the bug are not being used for their intended purpose. The only reason that wouldn't be happening was if the relevant businesses were being forced to not do it...and they're not. There are some local attempts to restrict how much they do it, but that's all.

It's not a phone. It's a data-gathering device that has a phone function. That's a very different thing.
 
danlightbulb said:
More than listen I think.

Take google maps. It has live traffic information when youre recieving directions.

Understandable if it knows where the traffic jams are on a motorway youd think, interfacing with all the monitoring systems.

But how does it know if there is a big queue on some B road leading from Walsall to Shire Oak? Or a B road at the back of the Asda in Bloxwich leading up to the lights.

But somehow it does. No monitoring systems on those roads.

Only explanation I can think of is peoples phones who are sitting in those jams are relaying information back unknowingly.
Click to expand...

Lol, this is the worst conspiracy theory ever, given that's exactly what they do.
 
String said:
Surely this is easily tested?
Click to expand...

Assuming there isn't any obfuscation but also there won't be ads for every keyword either.

After I had the Sudafed ad after mentioning it to my colleague at work I left my phone for a bit using various keywords and saw some correlation - atleast there was some variation from the ads I most commonly saw with some that were new matching keywords but it would need a much more exhaustive study - I can say after I removed the only app with mic permissions ads settled back down to more what I was used to seeing.
 
They're not doing it because it would either cause very high cpu usage on the device (obvious by heat and battery life) or would cause a constant stream of network traffic - which would effect battery life and is easily monitored through the gateway - it's not happening.

As there is no network traffic, and no cpu usage - how exactly are they doing it? Phones run on physics, not pixie dust.
 
Dave M said:
They're not doing it because it would either cause very high cpu usage on the device (obvious by heat and battery life) or would cause a constant stream of network traffic - which would effect battery life and is easily monitored through the gateway - it's not happening.

As there is no network traffic, and no cpu usage - how exactly are they doing it? Phones run on physics, not pixie dust.
Click to expand...

The traffic is tiny - and the CPUs are in the data-centres.

Nate
 
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