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I suspect tech companies spy us in ways they don't disclose, but anecdotal evidence like this is not useful. The most likely culprit is cognitive bias: if you

I suspect tech companies spy us in ways they don't disclose, but anecdotal evidence like this is not useful. The most likely culprit is cognitive bias: if you hadn't heard that word, you wouldn't have noticed the recommendation. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion

weikju 2y ago
I do believe in this. I had this experience last year where I suddenly started thinking of a pillow product I had first seen 5 years before (and had never looked into since then). In the following days, I started noticing the ads for that product everywhere -- in the physical world! Not online, not in my browsing, but in shops and buses and street signs. Got me wondering which came first, the ads, or me thinking of the product? Probably the ads....
- _nalply 2y ago
  When I was twenty years old I bought a red Vespa. Suddenly I started to see them everywhere.
  - mewpmewp2 2y ago
    Can't believe these tech companies can time travel too.
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
"The most likely culprit is cognitive bias..." His family is surrounded with microphones, cameras and sensors. The company has a long track record of unwarranted surveillance. In the most recent case against Google for wiretapping, all claims survived the dismissal and summary judgment stages. Google settled instead of showing a jury that what the company does is not wiretapping. Why would anyone trust this company, except out of necessity. Anecdotes are not proof, but are anecdotes needed to form a reasonable suspicion of Google conducting unwarranted surveillance. For some reason, HN commenters will oppose the notion of Google/Meta using microphones for data collection but how much does that matter when we already know Google uses any available means it can get away with.
- thedrbrian 2y ago
  On the other hand they were using an iPhone and iOS comes with the option to complete lock out an applications ability to use the microphone
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
  re: defaults versus other options Why does Google pay hendreds of millions of dollars annually to be a "default search engine" when computer users have the option to change the default settings at any time.
- mewpmewp2 2y ago
  It just seems so unfeasible, impractical and error prone to be able to track like that.
  - southernplaces7 2y ago
    You mean much like the algorithms they already use, which so frequently get complained about on this site for their shitty tracking abilities despite very much being used by these companies? It's laughable that many comments on this site would try to shame people into thinking they're paranoid when discussing a potential further means of surveillance, when these same parasitical companies persistently, pervasively reveal themselves to use a very complex, expanding range of techniques through any hardware possible for tracking of their users (and non-users too). I mean, a car filled with tracking sensors and microphones, people inside it with their own little devices that contain similar and in both types of devices software run by some of the most prying, intrusive corporations on the planet (though these days just about any company in any tech parrots the others for "improved user experience") and somehow it's silly cognitive bias by the users of the tech to suggest that they might just have noticed being spied on in one more way? I know HN comments have many tech employees ready to raise the battle flag for their ethically deformed corporate tech lords, but it would be nice to see a few more such people with their heads pulled out of their asses instead of deriding those who don't follow the same defensive reasoning.
    - 2y ago

weikju 2y ago

I do believe in this. I had this experience last year where I suddenly started thinking of a pillow product I had first seen 5 years before (and had never looked into since then). In the following days, I started noticing the ads for that product everywhere -- in the physical world! Not online, not in my browsing, but in shops and buses and street signs. Got me wondering which came first, the ads, or me thinking of the product? Probably the ads....

_nalply 2y ago
When I was twenty years old I bought a red Vespa. Suddenly I started to see them everywhere.
- mewpmewp2 2y ago
  Can't believe these tech companies can time travel too.

1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago

"The most likely culprit is cognitive bias..." His family is surrounded with microphones, cameras and sensors. The company has a long track record of unwarranted surveillance. In the most recent case against Google for wiretapping, all claims survived the dismissal and summary judgment stages. Google settled instead of showing a jury that what the company does is not wiretapping. Why would anyone trust this company, except out of necessity. Anecdotes are not proof, but are anecdotes needed to form a reasonable suspicion of Google conducting unwarranted surveillance. For some reason, HN commenters will oppose the notion of Google/Meta using microphones for data collection but how much does that matter when we already know Google uses any available means it can get away with.

thedrbrian 2y ago
On the other hand they were using an iPhone and iOS comes with the option to complete lock out an applications ability to use the microphone
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
re: defaults versus other options Why does Google pay hendreds of millions of dollars annually to be a "default search engine" when computer users have the option to change the default settings at any time.
mewpmewp2 2y ago
It just seems so unfeasible, impractical and error prone to be able to track like that.
- southernplaces7 2y ago
  You mean much like the algorithms they already use, which so frequently get complained about on this site for their shitty tracking abilities despite very much being used by these companies? It's laughable that many comments on this site would try to shame people into thinking they're paranoid when discussing a potential further means of surveillance, when these same parasitical companies persistently, pervasively reveal themselves to use a very complex, expanding range of techniques through any hardware possible for tracking of their users (and non-users too). I mean, a car filled with tracking sensors and microphones, people inside it with their own little devices that contain similar and in both types of devices software run by some of the most prying, intrusive corporations on the planet (though these days just about any company in any tech parrots the others for "improved user experience") and somehow it's silly cognitive bias by the users of the tech to suggest that they might just have noticed being spied on in one more way? I know HN comments have many tech employees ready to raise the battle flag for their ethically deformed corporate tech lords, but it would be nice to see a few more such people with their heads pulled out of their asses instead of deriding those who don't follow the same defensive reasoning.
  - 2y ago