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I still don’t think companies serve you ads based on spying through your microphone (simonwillison.net)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

199 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Not my title! I do think we are being listened to. And location tracked. And it's being passed on to advertisers. Is it apple though? Probably not is my take away from this article, but I don't trust plenty of others, and apple still does

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I've literally seen advertisements for products that I was talking about but explicitly did not search for or type or anything on any device. All I did was talk about it in real life.

It's literally a thing that happens, I have seen it happen first-hand.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

"I've seen it first-hand" isn't significant evidence because the frequency illusion effect is a thing. If you see dozens of ads a day and ignore them unless you notice them matching something you talked about, you'll end up thinking ads can track what you talk about whether or not it's true.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

While i understand and agree with the premise, i think it's lacking context. It is quite disturbing to have an obscure conversation (you know, we've never been to tahiti), and suddenly you're getting banner ads or sponsored results about trips to tahiti.

This is absolutely a thing that happens. It happens to my wife frequently (the amount of times i hear giggling, i was just talking about that! Now I've got an ad! What a coincidence!), but i disabled all my google permissions (outside of location for maps), so it doesn't seem to happen to me at all.

I don't think every company does this, but some do. I also had to uninstall WhatsApp because my microphone usage was up while i was sleeping. That was quite concerning to discover. Whatsapp claims it's a bug, but I'm not sure about that.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40348711

https://www.ghacks.net/2024/09/04/report-alleges-that-microphones-on-devices-are-used-for-active-listening-to-deliver-targeted-ads/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I would agree with you about the frequency illusion effect IF it weren't something very specific and niche.

It is literally a thing that happens.

I have worked for an advertising company before (they hid that they were an advertising company) and you would be surprised how sophisticated and scummy ads can be.