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I still don’t think companies serve you ads based on spying through your microphone
(simonwillison.net)
this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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I talk to my father on the phone.
We finish.
I receive ads for a very specific thing that we talked about that I’ve never ever looked up.
Same thing with my therapist.
We talk. I receive highly specific ads.
It can always be explained by something else. Recency bias being a big one. It’s very possible you saw an ad yesterday as well, but didn’t notice you saw it because you haven’t talked about that item. Talk about it today, see the same ad, and now you think you’re being listened to.
It’s very possible your father googled something after hanging up the phone. There are endless ways they can connect you to knowing your father.
It’s possible someone on the same wifi network as you or your father overheard the conversation and looked it up.
All of these are far more likely than everything you say and do being recorded without anyone ever finding any definitive proof.
There have been ad agencies who have claimed to be able to do this, so they would if they could. https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/
Just because an ad agency makes a claim doesn’t mean it’s true or doable.
Right
yeah it does
Except I've had experiences that aren't explainable by alm this:
Discussing a random, never-thought-of-before idea with a friend, in the car. Neither of us had ever thought of this thing before (honestly don't recall now what it was). Discussed it for 2 minutes, then moved on.
Later we're both seeing related ads, yet neither of us searched for anything.
And it was something way out of left field for both of us, that neither of us had ever thought of before. The related ads were so jarring that we both told each other about it.
Oh, and my phone was rooted, de-googled (lineage), with heavy restrictions for the apps, no social media (I still don't have any accounts with any of them, except here), etc. The other phone was an iPhone.
The scary thought here isn't that they're actively listening in.
It's that they know enough about you to know that something will be of interest to you before you even realise it yourself...
If it’s a never before thought of idea how can there possibly be ads for it? No one has ever thought of it and the product doesn’t exist right?
Like I said, there are always other ways. Maybe you searched something related the day before and don’t remember. Maybe your friend did.
Ever had a free free flowing conversation for hours?
You talk about things you wouldn’t possibly think of alone because of the other person.
Im located in Germany ne I guess many of you people are have not yet been victim of this, else you would agree with me.
Perhaps they track who you talk to and show you ads that are relevant to those people, or their best guess based on two profiles.
I don't think there's a data center out there with a live audio stream of literally billions of always-on devices 24/7/365.
Perhaps there's some local processing first, but devices have permissions for apps, and lights that indicate the mic/camera is in use.
I figure someone would have figured it out by now (reverse engineering, decompiling code), or someone from Google/Apple/Samsung would have leaked it if it were true. Think of the number of people required to keep this secret.
And yet my android phone is able to detect what song is playing 24x7 without being a noticeable drain on the battery or using extra data. Doesn't seem far fetched to be able to do keyword spotting under the same constraints.
Here's one example of a company getting caught: https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/us/next-time-you-talk-on-your-phone-be-careful-facebook-and-google-are-listening-to-your-conversations/articleshow/113071827.cms
What is this referring to? Spotify?
On my android it's called "now playing" and it's a feature of the os. It even recognizes live cover versions as the song they're covering sometimes. Claims to do it all local-only without sending data, just always listening and seeing what it recognizes.
Granted, things are getting to the point that it may very well be possible. But these kinds of claims have been around for over a decade, and today my voice control devices still fail to understand me rather regularly.
Not to mention, a song is usually extremely easy to pick out. In a loud bar with background music, your brain tends to pick up the beat and start grooving along with it, even if you don’t realize it most of the time. Compared to the person sitting across the table trying to yell things to you, and you having to resort to lip reading and guesswork.
It listens to music being played on other devices? I haven't seen it on my phone.
Or live music played by musicians, in this case.
Maybe it is only for Pixel phones. It's hard for me to differentiate between pixel features and stock android recently.
https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/7535326
Oh like Shazam
No. With my therapist I talk randomly about so many things. It’s impossible to predict or calculate.
Also I talk to my therapist in person while the phones in my pocket or table.
Edit: also have you ever had a natural flowing conversation? It’s not predictable because you can possibly talk about everything and anything.
So I'm hearing that you don't use an adblocker.
Only on Spotify, which is another scandal