Can my phone read my mind

[crochetmonkey74]

I know this sounds mad. But over the last few months, on approx 6 occasions I have been thinking about something. Sometimes quite an obscure thing or place. I notice that within an hour , an advert comes up on the phone for the very thing. I haven't typed it on anywhere or searched anything . What is happening? Has it been just a coincidence every time?

I’ve had this - few years back on a bus I randomly thought about pet hamsters of all things, alone, not known to talk out loud without realising….. two scrolls later I had hamsters that needed re-homing and hamster “stuff” all over my feed on FB.

More recently, in my ongoing quest for the perfect smoky Goth eye (aka middle aged Panda) I mused, in my head, that someone should invent little adhesive patches to put on your cheeks to catch stray eye shadow that otherwise leaves you looking like a prize fighter in daylight….my phone was on the other side of the room….. when I picked it up there was an advert for that very thing from Wish.

Yesterday, a phone I use to play ambient music in my shop (when the internet co-operates, grumble) suddenly activated Siri, which said “Hello “late DPs name” it’s good to hear your voice. How can I assist you” which is apparently impossible but I promise it happened. It was my late DPs phone, he died in January last year, and as far as I’m aware never used Siri….. so the damn phones aren’t just reading our minds, they’re reaching out to the afterlife as well. Exceptionally peculiar and a bit unnerving TBH……

Yep it's totally different from algorithm searches and suggestions. It's connected to things that I know I have definitely only thought about

Yes, me too. From eg holiday destinations to things I've looked at briefly in shops. I'm alone most of the day so definitely not talking about these things. Microphone is always off on phone and laptop, even if I was talking to myself. Camera is off on laptop so it can't look at what I'm reading in the newspaper etc and my phone is always in my bag or pocket. I remember well over 10 years ago realising my devices were listening in to conversations due to targeted ads.
It's very creepy and I've noticed it happening for at least a couple of years.

With the lunchbox story, I have wondered if the cameras are on or if supermarkets are digitally mapped to location so the phone knows what aisle you're in.
I was recently at a restaurant and opened the qr reader app on my phone to scan the menu to order online. As soon as I opened it, it had a link to the restaurant website . The menu was still on the chair , I hadn't even got to scanning the code yet. It must have done it by location

If my phone starts doing stuff like this, it will be going for a swim.

I had this. I was on the way back from the school run and I walked past a house with a roller garage door in place of a garden gate.
I thought - ooh that's an interesting idea and I got home, opened my phone and I had adverts for roller garage doors.
Nobody else was about - and I didn't mention it to anyone.
Also another time in my sleep deprived haze, my baby rolled out of the patio doors ( I know, he was fine). I said to myself. I wonder if we could buy some sort of flexible screen that goes across a door. I didn't even know that sort of thing existed and it appeared on my phone the next day.
I will never understand this.
It freaks me out.

This has happened to be loads too even by not speaking out loud about it, so creepy

What the hell is going on?

OK, I've got my tinfoil hat out especially to share this...but I've also had it in reverse. Always Facebook.

I cannot even count the amount of tines I would dream something or wake up thinking something, and it would be on Facebook.

For example, I would dream about winning a big Competition, wake up, and the top of my fb page would be someone I know on fb has won money on the lottery. Id dream about someone I went to school with having a baby. Lo and behold, I wake up and there's the birth announcement from thay person, even thought I didn't even know they were pregnant. I'll dream of a car crash and someone I know on fb will have posted that they were in a crash the day before. This has happened so many times I can't even count. It's almost like somehow my brain knew what was inside the Facebook app but I hadn't opened it yet. How???

In settings in permissions. No reason why somw of the apps should have it

Re just thinking it. Yeah as pp said, algorithm based on your past searches

Nope . Definitely not this. I understand this and have known about it a long time. This is very different, less common but absolutely striking when it happens

I just tried it out. I thought of holidays over and over and then went on Facebook. No word of a lie, the first ad was a holiday company....
Wt actual f 😵

It's got to be coincidence surely? I haven't searched for holidays as I'm totally skint. Not been on holiday since 2018!

Yeah this has happened to me a couple of times. Once I randomly had a fleeting thought about fly fishing (how it works, what you need, where to go) and then an hour later loads of stuff came up about fly fishing equipment. I hadn't spoken about it to anyone, and I have never ever searched for fishing equipment or been to a fishing lake since I was a child. It was so freaky!!!

I think it happens because, without being really aware of it, our thoughts are influenced by what we've already seen online (including fb ads). So we've seen stuff, not consciously noticed it, it's got into our brains and pops up in our thoughts, then next time we look at fb (or whatever) we consciously notice what was already there (that we hadn't noticed before). IYSWIM?

For each app, it is listed in your Settings. If you click through on that they have a list of things they ask permission to access on your phone. Some are reasonable, eg social media wouldn’t get far without having access to your photo stream - but no reason for them to have the mic on, unless you need to speak to it (WhatsApp calls, language learning, making reels to post etc). So you can turn it off. Even if the app needs the mic some of the time, it doesn’t need it all the time.
Many of them will also come bundled with the voice assistant, eg apple will automatically have Siri taking data from every app, unless you switch that off in the settings too. Over time it could build a very accurate picture of your life. Although all it can do for now is serve you adverts and diary reminders… Big picture all the big tech companies learn more and more about behaviours. The worrying part is when they use that data to target ads during elections, etc.
Sorry that doesn’t account for the telepathic examples though!

I did think this but honestly, a couple of them were so obscure it was weird. Very similar to the fly fishing example above

Yes. I’ve tested this extensively after a weird experience where I’d fallen asleep holding my phone had the weirdest obscure dream and woke to specific targeted ads my mic is off so it wasn’t that I even spoke in my sleep.

I’ve made a point of thinking about very obscure items and it happens frequently. Dh didn’t believe me till I turned my phone off for 3 days, told him I’d think of some obscure things (which I wrote down ) turned it back on and did it and it happened again . I now limit using my phone and often just leave it at home as it really unnerved me

I picked up a friend from an ivf clinic after she had a procedure and couldn’t drive (she’s a single mother by choice).
From that day on, having obviously been location tracked, all my advertising changed completely. Firstly it was for fertility products and then baby things. The products track the age of my friend’s child.

I've had this lots, as well as random pages pop up from my history with info I needed but couldn't find at the time. I have a ND / autistic brain so wouldn't put it past myself to subconsciously set these things up... but also believe in spirit and ancestor guides and don't see why they wouldn't have access to tech!
TLDR: I know it to be true and am open minded as to why!

Yep, this has happened to me as well. Thinking about hols in Morocco and suddenly getting ads for holidays in Morocco. I think Alexa reads my mind

Yes it can.
Also computers can smell fear in those who aren’t very computer literate and they stop working properly.
Printers just love having a laugh at your frustration when they won’t connect.
Photocopiers at work deliberately print things the wrong way round and then report directly to your boss about how many times you print in colour not black and white.
Bastards all.

I'll be talking about something at work that I've never searched previously e.g we were organising a gardening competition and said it would be cool if the royal horticultural society could be involved in judging

Go on my lunch and one of my FB ads is for the Royal horticultural society. Creepy and I wish I could turn it off

This may be coincidence, I dont have location turned on but on at least two occasions I've been in a JD store and have had a marketing email from them

I am on their mailing list but how likely is it that they would email me when I'm in store more than once

Could it be something to do with location and 4g?

Yes this happens to me. I could be driving thinking I need something eg new workout leggings or winter coat and when I'm home I open phone and multiple adverts come up. I never mention it as it freaks me out so much tbh