To think this is just too weird??

[NewDOOFUSfor18]

So me and OH were having a conversation earlier about his phone and he told me that he and his friend made a comment about being sponsored by a tool company, when he got home he went onto YouTube and there, in black and white, was a video headed "how is it to be sponsored by tool company". I said it was a coincidence although I know there have been questions surrounding Alexa listening in to conversations. He has literally just opened YouTube again and the suggested video was "does Google listen to my conversations?". I'm a little freaked by this but is it just coincidence? Or do I need to switch my phone to protect my privacy??

[whifflesqueak]

I was sat at the bar with my mate discussing the finance plan on his Nissan Nevara. Open my phone, bam, targeted advertising from companies offering finance on Nissan Nevaras.

Spooky.

[QuestionableMouse]

It's a thing. Phones and devices are spying on you.

[Icklepickle101]

I think iPhones (Siri) use the microphone to listen to your conversations unless you turn it off!

[NewDOOFUSfor18]

We don't have IPhones, we have Samsung

[NewDOOFUSfor18]

How do you switch off the microphone? I don't like it at all!!

[AviatorShades]

So what do you reckon? If I say shit shit shit SHIT!, do you think Siri will recommend a laxative or something to bung me up?

I'm almost tempted to buy a smart phone to find out

[Bluntness100]

It's totally true. I said I wanted sausages for dinner, then suddenly they appeared on the hob.

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

I reckon he must have googled tool companies and the sponsorship link is just a coincidences resulting from that.

Smartphones don’t listen in to your conversation. They do, however, follow your google searches and social interactions.

[Rattyzilla]

I got DS a present for his birthday, Insaw it in the shop and had never seen them before.

I was telling my partner about it verbally then about an hour later there on fb were adverts for it!

[NewDOOFUSfor18]

curly that's exactly what I thought but this has just blown me away! We watched the YouTube clip out of curiosity and it was an eye opener for sure.

[WeAreGerbil]

This happened to me, a friend mentioned a company I'd never heard of, and next thing I know there's an advert. I was trying to remember whether I had FB open at the time or whether that made no difference.

[ICantCopeAnymore]

It's not rocket science is it? Devices listen. It's common knowledge.

[HeckyPeck]

Weirdly, I was talking abou a product for a client today that I would never need or want and it's appeared in an advert on my personal phone as I'm on this thread 😁

[YourVagesty]

I was going to give my dog some mango yesterday. Bit random but thought he might like it. Discussed it with DP and he didn't know whether it would be safe or not so I thought i'd give it a quick google. I started typing 'is it okay...' and Google immediately suggested 'to give your dog mango'

[LooksBetterWithAFilter]

Devices do listen apps do it to target advertising. If you want to turn it off you need to go to each app in your settings and turn the microphone off on them individually. You will be amazed at the number of apps that use your microphone and there won’t seem to be a reason why they need to.

[Dobbythesockelf]

I honestly think devices do listen. I had a conversation about bebe rexa with my dh. I have never listened to her music on my phone or searched for her etc. The next morning she was a suggested video on you tube and she even came up on my Facebook. It's very strange.

[TheVanguardSix]

Go into your settings.
Go to microphone.
Disable.

Then go into all of your apps which require speech input- like WhatsApp, even games, especially if you have kiddie apps like Pou, Talking Tom, or anything which allows for kids to speak into an animated mic so the animal/character repeats your child's recorded input in a high-pitched, cutesy pie voice.
Disable mic.

Go through your entire phone.
Go into your Alexa App and check out your settings there.
Block contacts on Alexa. I can't remember what you need to do. I did it ages ago. But you can prevent drop-in. Basically, don't use Alexa for anything other than listening to music, setting alarms/reminders, making lists. I wouldn't sync contacts or anything like that.

Always check your settings on everything... from FB to Alexa to Gmail/Google+, everything.

[landoflostcontent]

Idle conversation about "beauty" procedures. DH enquires if you can get false eyebrows as well as false eyelashes. DD logs on to phone and immediately gets information on eyebrow "wigs" This isn't the first time although probably the most random. I'm thoroughly convinced!

[toolonglurking]

I thought this was pretty well known? It's been in the press for over a year, I'm surprised you are surprised!

[CoolGirlsNeverGetAngry]

There’s a good podcast on this
www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/109-facebook-spying#episode-player

[Trinity66]

Yup, was in a car with my husband and another lady and she was talking about a vintage car she owned and how she'd like to get it converted to electric in the future. Later on that day up pops an ad in my husband's phone about converting vintage cars to electric

[Justanotherlurker]

You can see what Alexa has recorded, if you're using an Apple product its more incladenstine.

But in short, if you think they have the capacity to trawl through everyone's conversations and data analyse it to promote you some random online ads is bordering on flat earth conspiracy.

I would hazard a guess that you have no qualms with checking in via facebook, instagram etc, at the minute the big data collection is being driven by location data, Apple/Facebook/Amazon and Google are all involved with this, recording you 24/7 on the off chance of being able to target you some random advert is not economically productive nor realistically achievable when there is so many existing big data analysis techniques under utilised.

It's coincidence,

[50gradesofhay]

This is weirder: I was driving along and noticed that someone I know was getting roof repairs. I get home and first ad on my computer is to do with roofing. I hadn't said a word. I am with my dc in a shop and neither of us have phones, and we are discussing an african mask, and when we get home the ad is african masks. We hadn't mentioned it in the car. wtf?

[2018SoFarSoGreat]

Yesterday DH mentioned he was thinking of ordering a Dyson heater/fan. Within 30 minutes I had ads for exactly that on FB. Never have I had an interest in such a thing, nor seen it prior to that discussion.

Am now turning off microphone.

[Justanotherlurker]

Am now turning off microphone.

The microphone is to make facebook calls.

These is a recent run on these threads where they always border on tin foil hat stuff by posters who pretend they are of a critical thinking background.

At this point I am just here for the chuckles as always.