I've been experiencing some strange coincidences with my phone lately. For instance, I was having a conversation with a friend about polytechnic universities, and shortly afterward, I saw ads about it and got recommendations based on that. My teacher even thought I was using AI because my vocabulary matched. This led me to wonder if my phone is actually listening to me. I notice these instances frequently, and sometimes it feels like it's reading my mind. Is there a way to stop my phone from allegedly listening in on my conversations?
2 Answers
Most of this stuff isn't your phone actually listening, just smart algorithms working behind the scenes. If you're around people and they search for something, the ads can pop up around you since you're likely using the same WiFi or are in close proximity. Maybe it’s just that your school's network serves targeted ads without you noticing.
A lot of what you're experiencing can be linked to tracking cookies, location data, and how ads target you. When your friend searches for something about polytechnic universities, and you’re in the same space, you get profiled together, and that can lead to targeted ads showing up on your phone. So it’s less about listening and more about clever advertising algorithms at work.
Yeah, that makes sense, but we are still being listened to (search dog toy google experiment).
That's an interesting way to think about it.