My phone is listening to me
Discussion
Right, tin foil hat time but I’ve got to get this off my chest!!
3-4 weeks ago I was in the supermarket with the mrs and a woman in front of us at the till was buying 10+ of the big boxes of cat food. When we got back in the car I asked the mrs how many cats she reckoned the woman had, to require 480 pouches of cat food. Few giggles etc. When I got home I was browsing a football forum and I was targeted with some cat food ads? Even though I don’t own a cat. Weird, but just a coincidence I thought.
Last week, I was moaning at the mrs because she bought the cheapest, grossest apples when doing the weekly shop. They taste gross and I only like Pink Lady apples. PINK LADY APPLES! I’m browsing The Sun looking at the latest topless pictures of Danielle Westbrook, and what’s there? A sponsored link for, not just any apples, but Pink Lady apples. Weird, never seen it before.
On Thursday I had a bad day in work, the mrs joked I should sell my business and stay at home with the kids instead. Chortle chortle. That evening, I was being targeted with ads for business brokers.
A couple of hours ago the mrs reminded me I needed to buy some more bottled water when I go to Waitrose tomorrow (only kidding, I shop in Aldi). Browsing a newspaper website just now and bottled water ads have just come up???
Hand on heart, I’ve never done a search for any of these things on Google (or any other search engine) so I’m absolutely perplexed about how they all come up so soon after me mentioning them in conversation. They aren’t retargeting ads either because I’ve never browsed cat food/apples/business brokers/bottled water online.
I’ve done some searching and I can’t find confirmation that companies are listening in. But various people are allegeding it. From what I can see all of these ads are being served on the Google Display Network.
I use an iPhone but have minimal apps installed. No Google apps installed. I don’t use Facebook (or any social media for that matter), don’t use Siri and I don’t use an Amazon Echo or anything like that.
Is it just me?
Edit: forgot to add, my brother and brother in law were chewing the cud with me over doing an air con recharge yourself, or taking it to ATS or Kwik Fit. That night, I started to get air con recharge ads shown. Again, something I’ve never searched for online as my current car doesn’t have air con.
3-4 weeks ago I was in the supermarket with the mrs and a woman in front of us at the till was buying 10+ of the big boxes of cat food. When we got back in the car I asked the mrs how many cats she reckoned the woman had, to require 480 pouches of cat food. Few giggles etc. When I got home I was browsing a football forum and I was targeted with some cat food ads? Even though I don’t own a cat. Weird, but just a coincidence I thought.
Last week, I was moaning at the mrs because she bought the cheapest, grossest apples when doing the weekly shop. They taste gross and I only like Pink Lady apples. PINK LADY APPLES! I’m browsing The Sun looking at the latest topless pictures of Danielle Westbrook, and what’s there? A sponsored link for, not just any apples, but Pink Lady apples. Weird, never seen it before.
On Thursday I had a bad day in work, the mrs joked I should sell my business and stay at home with the kids instead. Chortle chortle. That evening, I was being targeted with ads for business brokers.
A couple of hours ago the mrs reminded me I needed to buy some more bottled water when I go to Waitrose tomorrow (only kidding, I shop in Aldi). Browsing a newspaper website just now and bottled water ads have just come up???
Hand on heart, I’ve never done a search for any of these things on Google (or any other search engine) so I’m absolutely perplexed about how they all come up so soon after me mentioning them in conversation. They aren’t retargeting ads either because I’ve never browsed cat food/apples/business brokers/bottled water online.
I’ve done some searching and I can’t find confirmation that companies are listening in. But various people are allegeding it. From what I can see all of these ads are being served on the Google Display Network.
I use an iPhone but have minimal apps installed. No Google apps installed. I don’t use Facebook (or any social media for that matter), don’t use Siri and I don’t use an Amazon Echo or anything like that.
Is it just me?
Edit: forgot to add, my brother and brother in law were chewing the cud with me over doing an air con recharge yourself, or taking it to ATS or Kwik Fit. That night, I started to get air con recharge ads shown. Again, something I’ve never searched for online as my current car doesn’t have air con.
Edited by foobies on Saturday 30th June 22:18
Edited by foobies on Saturday 30th June 22:20
Johnnytheboy said:
There was a long thread about this recently titled "does facebook listen to conversations" or similar.
I came across that thread when I googled it a few weeks back. I did remove permissions for various apps, but microphone permissions for Safari were already off and have remained off. So I don’t understand how Google can keep targeting me with ads for items that have cropped up in conversation.
Clearly none of them admit to listening to you, but I have no doubt in my mind that they do.
I work in marketing and understand how powerful PPC targeting can be. But for me to be targeted repeatedly, a matter of hours after discussing a certain product or service, can only mean I’m being listened to.
Does anyone want a list of conversations I've had in the presence of multiple phones and smart speaks, where i did not see any ads relating to any of the topics discussed afterwards?
It would be significantly longer than 5 times in the last 3-4 weeks, and i'm not particularly sociable.
How about the even longer list of ads i've seen which have nothing to do with any conversations i've had ?
It would be significantly longer than 5 times in the last 3-4 weeks, and i'm not particularly sociable.
How about the even longer list of ads i've seen which have nothing to do with any conversations i've had ?
I recall a radio programme a few years ago about coincidence and what people think is odd/weird etc. So people will often say "how weird, I was just thinking about you and then you phoned, what a coincidence" etc.
The conclusion was that, actually its not that much of a coincidence at all. You think of thousands of different things or people or whatever during a day, so these things are bound to happen all the time.
So you were talking about apples, cat food and bottled water and then you noticed ads for the same. But how many other things did you talk about that you never saw ads for ?
Plus, now you are looking for this type of thing, so you will notice them all the time.
As an example, a couple of years ago i bought a Fiat 500 - suddenly I noticed there were loads of Fiat 500s on the roads. And again, about 2 months ago, i had my car wrapped blue. Now I see blue cars everywhere.
It's called Confirmation Bias - you are looking for things to back up your theory (i.e. your phone is listening to you in your case).
The conclusion was that, actually its not that much of a coincidence at all. You think of thousands of different things or people or whatever during a day, so these things are bound to happen all the time.
So you were talking about apples, cat food and bottled water and then you noticed ads for the same. But how many other things did you talk about that you never saw ads for ?
Plus, now you are looking for this type of thing, so you will notice them all the time.
As an example, a couple of years ago i bought a Fiat 500 - suddenly I noticed there were loads of Fiat 500s on the roads. And again, about 2 months ago, i had my car wrapped blue. Now I see blue cars everywhere.
It's called Confirmation Bias - you are looking for things to back up your theory (i.e. your phone is listening to you in your case).
foobies said:
Johnnytheboy said:
There was a long thread about this recently titled "does facebook listen to conversations" or similar.
I came across that thread when I googled it a few weeks back. I did remove permissions for various apps, but microphone permissions for Safari were already off and have remained off. So I don’t understand how Google can keep targeting me with ads for items that have cropped up in conversation.
Clearly none of them admit to listening to you, but I have no doubt in my mind that they do.
I work in marketing and understand how powerful PPC targeting can be. But for me to be targeted repeatedly, a matter of hours after discussing a certain product or service, can only mean I’m being listened to.
Here it is for anyone that's interested in.
The most glaring one I remember is being bombarded for ads for extension leads when I'd been talking about these quite a lot but 100% had not looked for them online.
You need to approach this more scientifically - start talking about things totally unrelated and log/screen dump the results. Of course if the robots know you are watching your life could be at risk (so avoid answering the door to Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alikes) .
I welcome our robot overlords....
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