Google IS listening

Del2005

I passed a sign for Plant hire or something on the way to work and now there is an ad for Plant hire on my work phone. So not only is Google listening it can also see from a pocket in a car and can also send the ad to a different account!

Solomon Pleasant

I’m not sure why people try to deny the fact that these extremely powerful tech companies are listening, analysing and calculating trends in the consumer market.

Information is so accessible for them, they are practically the biggest part of the lives of many people and what we spend the bulk of our free (and sometimes professional aswell) time doing.

Rory28

Good way to test it is to put on some Spanish tv or radio and leave your phone beside it for a few hours. If you start getting ads in Spanish then they are listening.

Gravelly

Two of my younger work colleagues claimed they tested this theory out by opening a dictionary at random pages with their eyes closed, then pointing at a random word. If the word was something they didn't normally use in conversation or Google searches, they then said the word to each other several times in conversation. They repeated this with 20 words. According to them, more than three quarters of the words appeared in ads on their social media over the next 24 hours. Would love to see this experiment repeated under scientific conditions.

silverharp

Rory28 wrote: »

Good way to test it is to put on some Spanish tv or radio and leave your phone beside it for a few hours. If you start getting ads in Spanish then they are listening.

they would know the phone is in Ireland though?

srsly78

OP how was this possible? Everyone uses adblock surely?

Rory28

silverharp wrote: »

they would know the phone is in Ireland though?

If the ads are targeted then that shouldn't be an issue.

kneemos

What was that film where the advertising hoardings knew your name and bombarded you with personalised adverts as you walked along.
It's from a while back now,but was prescient.

Wibbs

Have observed this stuff with a couple of mates. Where we would be discussing something oddball or arcane(as we do) and then ads or youtube suggestions on the subjects would come up on their phones.

Not mine though. I just keep my location services off. I almost never go online with my phone. Couple of times a year tops. Don't use it for email either. I don't do Twitter. I use it for mad stuff like making calls texting and as a camera. On occasion I have used it as a GPS device, but even then only the GPS app is allowed to access my location, well it kinda has to. Every other app is set to not access it. That's an iPhone, I expect you can do all that with Android.

Online on the 'puter I set browsers to private non tracking mode and regularly clear out cookies etc. I have Arsebook, which I almost never use and is set to as private as poss. Only got it for a singular reason a few years ago. I have a google account(for Youtube), but again have it set to as private as possible and also clear the decks there on the regular. I have a program that runs in the background checking if the microphone/camera is being accessed and blocks it until I OK it. A fair few times processes have tried to access both. Not often but still. Even then I have some tape over the camera lens. Well when that creepy git Zuckerberg among others high up in the industry do the same... Firewall set to Feck Off!

TBH other than the occasionally clear out I don't think about it, but I'd not use a phone or PC outa the box in basic setup with all the ears and eyes open. The level of power these unelected faceless corporations run by weirdo Sheldon Cooper nerds have is scary and that's today. The stuff in labs coming down the line, stuff the mass of humanity won't be privy to, that sh1t's scary. When you have eejits in the western world and beyond whispering conspiratorially about "big government" on Facebook, Google and the rest, you have to laugh. Or cry.

That's the ironic and a bit hilarious thing... When Orwell wrote 1984 he had Big Brother imposed upon an unhappy population from the top down, I doubt he imagined the population would have lined up eagerly falling over themselves to sign up for it.

Wibbs

srsly78 wrote: »

OP how was this possible? Everyone uses adblock surely?

Adblock just well, blocks ads, it does nada or close to nada as far as tracking you goes.

Gravelly

kneemos wrote: »

What was that film where the advertising hoardings knew your name and bombarded you with personalised adverts as you walked along.
It's from a while back now,but was prescient.

Minority report.

Ubbquittious

Snowseer wrote: »

Yeah - same. As I said, not to be a tinfoil hat person. But it is happening a lot - moreso than would be a coincidence. I think it’s worth a discussion/being aware of.

Try it with a few more things on purpose, just for divilment

Mena Mitty

I'm not a techie person either. I think when you download apps. and give permission for access to your camera, you are really inviting those apps. to come and join you in your Living room 24/7

It gives me the creeps some nights when I can't sleep and I'm resting in the dark and the phone justs turns on and lights up the bedroom for no reason. I'm wondering is there somebody remotely viewing my photo albums or e-mails. I have nothing to hide and have no state secrets but still....leaves you feeling a bit paranoid.

ozmo

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Try it with a few more things on purpose, just for divilment

Ahh - but now you've typed this - your mobile knows you are onto it and doing testing - and it wont do it anymore....:pac:

givyjoe

Touchee wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance (I'm not a tech person), but how could your phone just record a conversation?

I agree to some extent, I was checking out some apartments on airbnb a few days ago and ever since there's ads for airbnb everywhere.

You'll see on installed apps that some will ask for permissions to various aspects of your device, e.g. microphone. Once you agree/install the app, it then has access to do things such as this (in theory anyway).

ozmo

And also there is this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31296188
https://www.thedailybeast.com/samsung-dont-talk-in-front-of-smart-tv

Samsung: Don’t Talk in Front of Smart TV

Samsung is warning customers about discussing personal information in front of their smart television set.

The warning applies to TV viewers who control their Samsung Smart TV using its voice activation feature.

When the feature is active, such TV sets "listen" to what is said and may share what they hear with Samsung or third parties, it said.

ozmo

Oh - and you can play back some of the audio Google has captured at this link...

https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity?restrict=vaa


If you browse around that site (https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity) - you will see many of the physical places you have been to with your phone, everything you searched for - and vids you watched etc...

MaccaTacca

Was just having this conversation the other day.

Myself and my girlfriend rarely buy Ben and Jerry’s ice cream an odd weekend if we’re staying in.

Tesco often sell it for a reduced price of 3.50, and I would never buy it at it’s full price of 6.60.

The other day we were in tesco, and about to buy a tub, but we left it and didn’t bother. (As it was 6.60)

Three days later I get a featured add on Facebook messenger.

“Ben and Jerry’s ice cream 3.50 special offer at Tesco”

Seems too random and too personal to be a coincidence.

Not only was I offered a product I seldom purchase, but I was offered it at the only price I will buy it at.

No one pays 6.60 for a tub of icecream.

givyjoe

MaccaTacca wrote: »

Was just having this conversation the other day.

Myself and my girlfriend rarely buy Ben and Jerry’s ice cream an odd weekend if we’re staying in.

Tesco often sell it for a reduced price of 3.50, and I would never buy it at it’s full price of 6.60.

The other day we were in tesco, and about to buy a tub, but we left it and didn’t bother. (As it was 6.60)

Three days later I get a featured add on Facebook messenger.

“Ben and Jerry’s ice cream 3.50 special offer at Tesco”

Seems too random and too personal to be a coincidence.

Not only was I offered a product I seldom purchase, but I was offered it at the only price I will buy it at.

No one pays 6.60 for a tub of icecream.

I don't really see a problem with the above, so long as people are actually aware of what is really happening. Apps/devices really need to be made to a better job of informing people how and why info is being collected.

That being said, using the info to try and sell you ice cream and other such tasty stuff isn't bad. The problem is the potential to completely misuse the info for dodgy stuff, e.g. getting blackmailed for your dodgy search history (porrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn :eek:)

jiltloop

kneemos wrote: »

What was that film where the advertising hoardings knew your name and bombarded you with personalised adverts as you walked along.
It's from a while back now,but was prescient.

Minority Report!

readyletsgo

I've noticed this over the past year or so. Main one was a few weeks back. Was talking to someone getting married in the office, where it was, hotel etc. Few hours later I noticed all ads were for the same hotel and weddings etc.

Never searched for wedding stuff in my life. Or this pertuclator hotel.

So, I'm very away of it. But what can you do? Put some blue tac over the microphone when not using your phone? Like a cam on a laptop I guess.

Glad more people are noticing this.

Edit: I recently invest in a VPN for phone and pc and this has all stopped by the way.

Permabear

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Rubberlegs

I have noticed this more and more often lately.
At first I thought it was just coincidence that I would say I was going to search for something to someone and then as I typed in the first two letters it came right up. I was having a chat with my sister on the phone awhile ago. A couple of the subjects that came up were exams and my car needs a job done on it. Now I have an ad for passing some type of exams successfully and an ad for a garage.

brainfreeze

Snowseer wrote: »

There have been some of these threads about Google hanging on your every word. Many are dismissed as “White Van Syndrome”, in that the ads that you notice as relating to a conversation, are actually for popular products.

Was wandering around an apartment that I’ve just moved into (outside of Ireland), and said out loud that I had to get dishwasher tablets.

Next ad on boards is for Irish dishwasher tablets.

Checked the “My Activity” and “History” for my Google account, and there’s nothing recorded. Nothing should be recorded - even if there’s some time delay in showing what’s been logged to a Google account.

Now, I don’t think a tinfoil hat would work with my look, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen something like this. Anybody else seeing this?

Alun wrote: »

Often I'll be talking to my wife about something, and a question pops up about it, and I'll Google it on my phone. After only literally typing in two characters it pops up with what I was searching for in the first suggestion even when the word I was searching for is very uncommon. It happens far too often for it to be coincidence.

sgthighway wrote: »

This happened to one of the lads at work last week. He was talking to somebody about a product while having a coffee. His phone was left on the table. Sure enough the next day there were adds about the product in his internet feed. He never researched the product online before that.

ozmo wrote: »

This has happened often to me - I really do think Android phones are listening for key words....

This is now the modern "I was thinking of person x, and then they called me!". What about all the times they didn't call.

People can listen to your phone, the Vault 7 CIA leaks proved this. However google are not also doing it illegally to serve you advertisements. That would be stupid, they'd have too much to lose. People would actually go to prison.

The only thing that is listened for by Google is "Ok Google", and that's locally. Nothing is sent to the cloud until after that keyword (or whatever keyword you have set) is spoken. People have literally ripped apart the software and analysed the traffic data to try and prove this conspiracy. They've found nothing, because it isn't (yet) happening.

That does not mean it doesn't trigger by accident, it does, a lot. But it really is an accident. If you are super paranoid you can access all audio google have recorded from you here: https://history.google.com/history/audio . The ones labeled "Transcript not available" are usually accidental triggers.

If it was happening, you would be receiving ads related to your conversations all day, all the time. You are recognising random flukes and antidotes of rareish occurrences that seem mind blowing at the time they occur. We talk about sellable things in almost every conversation we have. Even simple statements like "I'm going to grab a coffee".

"Oh Gosh, I was thinking about this person I have not seen in years, and then I bumped into them!".

You do not have psychic powers. Google is not secretly recording you to serve ads.

pilly

I've noticed things that I mention in Whatsapp popping up in advertisements. Definitely.

OldMrBrennan83

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TheChizler

Snowseer wrote: »

No. That would take quite some time.

The random correlation between the ad, and I what I said out loud, would be against the odds.

How did you calculate those odds? :P

It's not really plausible that Google would be listening to us constantly without being detected easily enough, what it would essentially be is a perpetual phone call to Google, this would be noticed in battery and data usage pretty quickly. Phones can use low power hardware to listen for a few key words (Ok Google etc.) but this wouldn't work for more than a relatively small list.

https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-listening-smartphone-microphone/

Humans are very good at spotting patterns, even where they don't exist! We tend to focus on and remember novel or interesting things, and forget about most other things we see. So in our modern lives where we're exposed to thousands of adverts a week, it's enivitable that every so often we'll have just been thinking about something related to the next one we see. This stands out and you remember it. The next time it happens that association is made even stronger in our heads. You start wondering is it more than a coincidence, and eventually subconsciosly this leads to confirmation bias where we actively look out for things that look like evidence of this (ignoring anything that doesn't).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

What is more plausible is related to something a few people have mentioned: you go to search for something you just saw on tv or hear on the radio and after only a couple of letters it autocompletes what you're looking for. It's likely that other people are doing the exact same thing as you, Google could (they do it to avoid radios and TVs activating 'Ok Google') notice a quick rise in the number of searches on that topic and briefly prioritise that search in autocomplete.

Permabear

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Noel82

This is a very good read report on the information google is collecting

Rubberchikken

How could this surprise anyone?
It makes perfect sense to have these tech companies follow what people write. Advertising is revenue after all.