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This is a common belief that phones must be listening to us because ads are so targeted, but the scary truth is they aren’t[0] because they don’t need to. They

This is a common belief that phones must be listening to us because ads are so targeted, but the scary truth is they aren’t[0] because they don’t need to. They have far more effective ways of targeting ads. For example, the reason you probably saw the lawnmower ad is because your friend searched for lawnmowers, and google knows they are friends with you, so they showed you targeted ads too because you might recommend that brand if you talk or you might subconsciously register that brand and reaffirm their decision to buy with something like “oh yeah I’ve heard of X, they’re supposed to be the best” without remembering where you saw that. It’s even possible you got the ad before your chat but didn’t notice because you had no reason to pay attention to a lawnmower ad. This is why data privacy is so important even if you feel like you have nothing to hide. 0: as you note, they technically have the ability to do so and random apps could be but the amount of effort it would take to record, transcribe, and evaluate that much data just isn’t worth it when most users voluntarily give their info anyway. This is why I don’t use a phone, browser, or email service created by an ad tech company though and it boggles my mind how many people are ok with that.

jessaustin 5y ago
In this case, the conservative explanation seemed unlikely for several reasons. This friend would be more precisely described as the elderly friend of my elderly parents. Neither of us are on social media, she doesn't know what podcasts are, and neither of us had even used a web browser in the preceding several hours. Neither of us was in the market for a new riding mower nor had been in the preceding decade. I was on her (remote, inconsistent-cell-reception) farm to help with some cattle. I had never heard of this brand before, and now over a year later I can't think of it. Is it so unlikely that an ad network sketchy enough to pay its way onto random Android apps would also be sketchy enough to monitor conversations for keywords that can get it paid? I don't think that's unlikely at all.

jessaustin 5y ago

In this case, the conservative explanation seemed unlikely for several reasons. This friend would be more precisely described as the elderly friend of my elderly parents. Neither of us are on social media, she doesn't know what podcasts are, and neither of us had even used a web browser in the preceding several hours. Neither of us was in the market for a new riding mower nor had been in the preceding decade. I was on her (remote, inconsistent-cell-reception) farm to help with some cattle. I had never heard of this brand before, and now over a year later I can't think of it. Is it so unlikely that an ad network sketchy enough to pay its way onto random Android apps would also be sketchy enough to monitor conversations for keywords that can get it paid? I don't think that's unlikely at all.