Smartphone listening?

Logo

I'm sure that After Hours is probably not the right forum for posting this question but here goes. I've heard of people talking about a topic and a product advert pops up on their phone shortly afterwards. I'm not sure if this is a common occurrence but it's happened to me twice in the last week. It seems a bit more than coincidence so maybe I need to change some phone settings. I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone with similar experiences. Thanks

NiceFella

One of my mates was telling me about his friend who got a procedure for male pattern baldness in Turkey.

For a few days after I was getting ads for hair transplants etc. I have a full head of hair with 0% chance of going bald.

It is weird alright and I don't think you can turn it off.

NIMAN

Yip, it is happening, whether they say it is or not.

Couple of years ago, a group of 5 or 6 of us were standing around chatting at work about a guys new camper. Conversation lasted maybe 5mins or so. Next time one of us went to their PC and checked Gumtree, the adverts along the banner at top of screen were for camper vans for sale. No-one in the group had previously been searching for campers.

And lately my phone is starting to ask me to leave reviews, which it never did before.

In the last 2 days I have been at the barbers and McDonalds. Today i was asked if I wanted to leave a review for both of them.

Really is a big brother world we live in.

riclad

if you are worried about your phone privacy, turn off location, in settings, turn off data when you are not using the web browser, mapping apps, this also saves on battery power .you can press data icon, location icon, on off,

Sir Galahad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119254805#Comment_119254805

Daughter is a techy and explained it to me. If your mate was telling you about his friend that had the procedure thenit's very likely your mate had looked up hair transplants on his own phone. Then you are in his company and your phones communicate with each other and you get ads related to his searches etc.

NIMAN

Why would you get ads for searches someone else carried out.

Could be embarrassing!

Ubbquittious

Back when boards went down this fella called to the house and I went on a political rant, as with boards being down I had no outlet for my political rant

The rant was something to the effect of "The Chinese will come in and buy up all the good stuff here, houses, land, successful companies while they keep taking money off us by selling us disposable sh1t".

No sooner did I utter the words and I got a text from a +86 number "Hello . My aunt asked me to add you and said you found a house I like". I asked where was the house, she says back "Are you not the estate agent"

Could be coincidence. But freaked me out none the less

policarp

Voice command.

Alexa . Bixby, Ciri Etc.

Sir Galahad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119254867#Comment_119254867

I'm only saying what I was told. She's an ecommerce digital specialist for a multinational company.

Count Dracula

All phones have voice recognition technology. You can speak your search and up it comes in google.... go figure. Edward Snowden blew the whistle on this kind of stuff 10 years ago. It is real.

Every photo, video or other piece of multimedia you enter on your phone or other device is accessible. Satellites can pinpoint were you are, right now, at this very instant as you read this, within centimetres. They know what porn you watch, who you hang around with, what you eat, sleep, listen to, wear, buy, phuck, beg, borrow or steal.

Sponsored agencies are developing your profile all the time based on your online activity.

The age of privacy and autonomy on the web or otherwise is totally over. I just got moved to Defcon 2 for typing the last couple of paragraphs.

Get used to it.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119254892#Comment_119254892

I can see maybe why they would want it to happen.

I chat to my mate about a new TV I'm getting. I've been searching for them on my phone.

Now he starts getting adverts for new tvs, and maybe he gets a notion that his needs upgraded too?? Who knows.

Buddy Bubs

Next time you download an app look for the permissions it asks for. One of these may be microphone, that's where you are giving permission to listen

Logo

Thanks for the replies. I can understand why ads might pop up after searching for a product but it's a bit harder to swallow when private conversations are listened to. Although it's difficult not to just 'Accept All' when searching on-line.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119254941#Comment_119254941

Exactly this - so many apps ask for permissions for stuff they have no need to have access to

bazz26

It's just The Illuminati keeping an eye on you. Nothing to worry about.

StupidLikeAFox

I was having a WhatsApp conversation and the other guy posted a picture of a jacket into the chat - logged on to Facebook around an hour later and started getting ads for the same jacket. Privacy is dead alright

kippy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119255263#Comment_119255263

I'm sure all within the ts and C's of using the apps I'd suggest. There are possibly ways to turn the feature off or not use the app at all.

AllForIt

They're not called smartphones for nothing you know.

dontmindme

Phones are listening and any online activity what ever device it's on is leaving tracking cookies and gathering information about all your devices, locations, places you like to go, things you like to buy, other sites you view, etc etc. I absolutely have never clicked on 'Accept all' and if it's not easy enough to just select the essential cookies then I just don't bother with that website.

would have been a CT just a few years ago - a clown world we live in..

heard recently (y'day I think) about some sort of shenanigans the Chinese Co. Huawei were up to - spying and t'likes (some inbuilt spyware or somesuch) but likely they're [smartphone companies] all at it 😒

better off with just a Nokia (if they're still being made) 🤣 can't listen to any choons on it tho, or surf web

StupidLikeAFox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119255268#Comment_119255268

No doubt its probably buried in there somewhere alright. It does make you think about what is happening in the background if these are the bits of "spying" that are obvious. How you are subtly being influenced etc

NIMAN

I don't think there is some great conspiracy to know where we are, or what we are doing, but I do believe that it's all being done to get us to spend our money.

It's targeted marketing.

Signore Fancy Pants

Lads, everywhere you go, everything you search for, every picture you take, everything you text, everything you receive, is all recorded/accessible somewhere.

Proximity to other IMEI/WIFI/GPS/I.P/bluetooth can be exploited and targeted for ads...never mind anything else.

If you have a your email account logged on, on multiple devices at the same time (in work, on the laptop at home, hooked up to free public wifi, on your tablet, smart tv, smart watch and your mobile) its all gathering data from the different locations. Worse if you are logged into a social media account.

Everytime you land in a new country and turn on your phone, your IMEI is captured on the local networks.

DuckDuckGo isn't even as secure as it once was. Voice messages, facial ID, algorithms and metrics, Google maps etc. Doesn't matter if you don't accept permissions. Don't be fooled into believing it, same with data encryption. Jesus even household white goods with smart features.

The only way to avoid it, is to take unreasonable measures. But there's absolutely zero point in trying unless you are 5 and don't have digital footprint.

Its just easier to believe that when you say "no" when setting up your device, you are grand.

If you really want to go into the weeds, just remember, China knows you better than your family does.

Ubbquittious

You remember that big massive datacentre that Snowden spilled the beans on in 2013/4?

Well they still built it to completion, it's operational now, happily spying away on 100s of millions of people. And people still turn out in droves to vote for the c*nts who put it there.

Bobblehats

Smartphone glistening ✨ yea new phone envy or what

Glaceon

The creepiest one I experienced was when I went to visit my parents and my dad was talking to me about rewiring the house. Within a half hour I was getting ads for electrical contractors offering rewiring services. I never looked that up myself and my dad didn't own a smartphone at the time.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119256102#Comment_119256102

While there's a lot of truth in this, we also have considerable protection in Europe due to GDPR.

For example, this kind of tracking couldn't happen in Europe.

https://nypost.com/2021/07/21/top-catholic-priest-resigns-after-phone-data-tracked-to-grindr/

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119257906#Comment_119257906

Ive had similar experience. Had mentioned to someone that I was experiencing back pain, next thing ads started appearing on.my Facebook for back pain relief. That is definitely creepy. If you’re searching online then it’s no great surprise when that sort of things happen, but when it’s based on conversations you have, that’s something else again.

I Blame Sheeple

It's curious so many people don't know about the depths of how little privacy you actually have. Someone mentioned earlier that Snowden dropped the dime on all this years ago and if you haven't checked out the leaks, do so now or forever live ignorant and chained.

Here's something I learned from my first 5 mins of reading dumps in 2012; major manufacturers of electric goods will manufacture back doors into nearly every commercially sold product for the sake of 'counter-terrorism' but in reality it's just a cheap way of saying every single television on the market since 2011 has been listening to you remotely.

Yes, it literally sounds tinfoil hat insane but it's there for you to read too.

Heighway61

It's only starting. This technological revolution will dwarf the world-changing Industrial Revolution.

We have sold ourselves so cheaply.

Potential-Monke

Have none of ye watched The Social Dilemma? Basically explains it. Even if you're not into that kinda thing, the docufilm does a good job of explaining it anyway and I highly recommend it. I always have GPS off, and only certian apps can access it while in use, but I do get extra ads if I've left it on accidentally and walk through a town or something. Asking me to review things I walked past.

Best to just accept it and try and not do anything illegal, because it'll only get worse from here imo. We'll get loads of things about how people will protect us, this new law will stop x, y and z, when all that will be happening is that the back doors and dodgy stuff will become harder to detect. It won't ever go away.