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Whatever I speak or msg about within Signal App appears on my youtube Recommended (self.privacy)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by ParticleAccelerator to c/privacy

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Using cheap samsung android phone, ive noticed for the last few years and so have my friends, that whatever we discuss during out signall phonecall, appears very blatantly obvious on my youtube recommended feeds.

I thought Signal was supposed to be private and automatically sandboxed?

If it is, then google clearly bend their own rules and peer into the app.

Does this happen to you? what is the explanation?

PS The Official Signal Reddit sub removed my post thread when I asked this question there.

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[–] numberfour002 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'll be upfront: I don't know. But I do have an anecdote.

I have a family member who swears that their phone is listening to every word they say. Their evidence is that they say they get ads or news regarding things they had recently had conversations about.

Fast forward a bit, they come and stay with me for a bit for a visit. This phenomenon starts happening while they are here. Absolute proof, right?

Well, no not really. Every single instance of "evidence" they pointed out could be explained as simple IP association.

"We were just talking about having okra for dinner and now my feed is filled up with okra recipes" -- well yeah, we talked about that, so me being the good host I am, I looked up how to cook okra so I could maybe fix some for our dinner.

"We also had that conversation about Tom Hanks and I just got an ad for one of his movies" -- yeah, we did, because you watched a couple Tom Hanks movies on Hulu yesterday so now they know someone at this IP is watching Tom Hanks movies and now might be a good time to advertise something else he's been in.

And this went on and on.

So anyway, I do wonder if there's a chance someone else on your same wifi / cell / whatever is looking this stuff up and it's just coincidentally seeming like the all knowing omniscient internet gods are leaking your private conversations.

[–] ParticleAccelerator 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Whilst I agree that IP search history is used, this isnt relevant here. We are merely talking via speech within the Signal phone app, then when ending the call and loading a youtube video, the recommended carousel will recommend multiple videos pertaining to things ONLY discussed in the call (never searched)

More often than not its trivial things... IE mentioning to a friend the other day that I found a special security screw on the floor outside my house... After ending the call and loading a youtube song, My recommended feed shows numerous videos on special types of security screws... Something I havnt searched in over 3 years. Despite never logging into a google service in years, and good internet hygiene

Another point : The recommended feed on matters discussed during the call dont persist for too long - IE the videos on security screws will be gone within a day, its blatantly obvious tbh.

The instances I refer are too niche to be "coincidences", more likely Google Violating their own sandboxing rules

Also, I dont have a Wifi Router in my house.