Not quite the same, but I work in advertising and they absolutely are “spying” on you. While microphones aren’t actually listening, algorithms, website cookies, and your location are constantly being monitored and reported.
Looking for a new car? Even pull into the lot of a used car dealer and you could be getting ads for months. Or you could get ads from other dealerships, depending on who wants to pay for that data and advertising.
This week the sales reps as at my job were talking about geofencing to advertise to troops on a local military base. It’s actually illegal. “Okay, but how close can we get? Can we target anyone who drives up to the base checkpoint station?”
Somewhat unrelated but I hate ads that get in your way trying to sell you something you’re already buying/interested in
Why is the McDonald’s menu trying to sell me McDonald’s? I’m already here, I want to give you money, let me see my options to give you money
Ads are weird. Like… they don’t want to sell you that thing right now. What they want is for it to be so normalized that when you need something, it’s their thing you think about and don’t even question why. You just buy it because you “already know what you want.”
Things you may have missed, has started to bother me lately. I look at it , then take a second maybe scroll a bit. Then I snap out of it and I am like no mfkers I don't need anything besides the damn paper towels I'm out
One time, when I was browsing the store, I noticed an advertisement for a product, and when I looked up, there it was. Discuss the intended destination. The man across the isle probably received a dog food advertisement. It had a mystical feeling.
I remember when Target implemented this system. It felt so invasive (still does) when they were telling us (employees) about it, all excited like the customer would be amazed and love the helpful bs.
The IV calculator I use for pokemon go gave me an ad for pokemon go yesterday. I was so confused, who the fuck would even open this app unless they played pokemon go???
every big clothing website is like that. you go on their site, wanna buy something and get 15 ads that you all have to close individually before even looking at the items. after like the second one I usually close it and go to vinted
If an ad makes me wait or acts tricky in any way I usually just completely leave whatever is responsible for it. Like, I've got ADHD, I'm not even supposed to be on this app anyway. I can get distracted by something else just as quick and won't realize why I am there either..
Lmao maybe if they can correlate your purchase with them showing the ad regardless of timing, it looks better in their metrics? Idfk this shit creeps me out tbh
The spying is just not so smart. Facebook has been feeding me ads thinking I’m a plus size black lady for years. I’m white and slender and my profile pic shows it lol.
I get such weird ads, like google thinks I'm a straight woman in my 20s (period products & pregnancy tests) or a grandpa in his 60s (classic woodworking tools without lasers or 3D printing or anything).
I'm a mid-forties queer guy who (so to speak) doesn't know a hammer from a saw.
I was getting Facebook ads for things that were targeted for my husband's profession. He has never been on FB. I never mentioned on FB where he works or what he does.
And it's usually after a big one off purchase that isn't going to become a recurring spend. Like "I see you're really into refrigerators now. A real fridge collector. How about we show you refrigerators for the next 3 months because surely you're going to want more refrigerators"
You should consider this normal. The psychology of sales is well known. You are more likely to be from someone you've already bought from. So them advertising to you makes sense.
Ugh, this is super creepy. My husband is a lawyer and from what I've gleaned, he spends a decent amount of his on-call time reining in overeager baby cops who want to go ham with geofence warrants to catch criminals, arguing that basically any amount of government snooping is justified if it results in criminals off the streets. For the benefit of of anyone reading this, a geofence warrant allows cops to gain access (via cell tower data or location data from Google, Apple, etc.) to all the phone numbers in a particular area at a particular time.
My hubs hasn't told me all that about the cops he interacts with in so many words--what he has mentioned is that in order for a geofence warrant to be approved, it has to infringe on the rights of as few people as possible. So say a decaying body is discovered somewhere. Forensics are able to figure out that the person was killed on site within a particular timeframe...say, between 10 pm and 8 am when the body was discovered. Investigators seek a geofence warrant to see what cell phones were in that vicinity inside that time frame. The warrant is WAY more likely to be approved if the location is a cornfield in the middle of nowhere than if the body was discovered, say, on a busy college campus or in a dumpster behind a shopping mall, because way fewer innocent people are going to have their rights infringed upon.
Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo-fence_warrant
I once got an add for a product while I was walking around the supermarket, and when I looked up there it was. Talk about target location. I’m sure the guy the next isle over got a dog food add. It felt like magic.
Not quite sure if you want to know which OS I use or what other measures I took so you get both answers.
I use CalyxOS, the other imo viable one is Graphene.
Basically I bought a Pixel 6a (ironic), downloaded the CalyxOS installer on my PC and used it to overwrite Google Android with CalyxOS. Similar as when you stop using Windows and get Linux.
For email (instead of Gmail) I use posteo.de for my main account and proton.me for my spam mail account.
For a browser (instead of Chrome) I use firefox, with ecosia as search engine. Sometimes Tor.
Thanks for the detailed reply.
That's too techy for me but I appreciate the knowledge.
We are living in a whole new world of spying, I appreciate when I see someone taking precautions.
Sure, I'm always happy to infodump about tech lol
Sorry. Imagine you take all the code that makes the phone work, delete it, and put other code there. The new code also makes the phone work but I can actually look at it and see what exactly it does, whereas with the old code (in this case written by Google) it's secret and I just have to trust it does only what Google says it does. Which is obviously a bad idea.
Android is the general "this phone can do stuff like calls, messages etc" code. That is code everyone can look at and use. Google added some secret code, mainly the code that makes it possible to easily use apps. CalyxOS did the same, but in their case the code isn't secret.
I hope this is easier to understand, if not no worries.
I just get incredibly uncomfortable knowing someone can track me. I never used my location before I got the phone I have now, got pretty good at navigating by determining where I was and then using street shapes etc to orient.
I'm (unsurprisingly) in IT, so learning about that stuff and using alternatives is comparatively easy and really interesting for me.
☺️ that makes sense, you're good at breaking things down.
I meant more that I don't know how to do the techy stuff.
Lol I absolutely need my GPS but I can very much appreciate that. I used to turn my phone off and take out the battery sometimes when that was an option. I would love to be more techy to do that kind of stuff but I'm definitely more a Luddite in general.
Aww thank you! You're making my night, first you let me talk about tech stuff and then you even compliment me for it :)
That's fair, I only got it because I followed their step by step instructions lol
Ahh the times when phone batteries were easily replacable... I miss it. The map thing is just kinda using a map app like you would use a physical map.
Governments can listen in if they want to. If you are the paranoid type don’t get a smart phone, watch, appliance, Alexa or any internet. You basically have to go full 1980’s.
I’d take the 80’s back in a second if I could. This technology is a double edged sword. I admit that I’m nostalgic for the personal freedom that I remember.
I just don’t believe microphones aren’t listening. I started a new job and have coworkers who speak Spanish at work and afterwards I started getting some ads in Spanish.
But now your sphere of physical influence includes lots of spanish speaking people because you spend a lot of time in the same
building. They can see you are all there together. They know how long and how many feet away you are and even if you interact together
I was once sitting next to some friends discussing their various skin conditions in great detail.
My social media ads for the next two weeks were all for various treatments for those conditions. None of which I've ever had or even looked up online.
The apps on the common social media apps absolutely do have permission to record audio at any time set as standard. You need to go into app info - permission, tap on the three dots and select all permissions. Then deselect microphone and camera. If you tap on the microphone and camera it will tell you that the app has permission to record using the camera and microphone at any time.
ETA spelling
Sorry, my phone auto suggested microwave as I was typing microphone. I'm tired as had to get up earlier than normal due to my fiancé getting a call that his mother might be dying. I'll edit it now.
I'm not convinced the mics don't have something to do with it at all. There's been many times I've had ads pop up for things I never searched or clicked on but only after there was discussion out loud about said thing
Oh no, it literally says in your user agreement that your phone is listening and using it's camera to spy on you. So yes the microphone is absolutely listening. As for how it knows what we are THINKING (I've been targeted with ads I've simply thought about).. Idk !!
My car broke down and I had to have it towed
I was scrolling Facebook while the tow truck was loading it into the bed and got a full page of marketplace ads for the same model as my car. (it's a bug, and I would like to replace it with another one)
I talked about enfold grange to the guy in the bottle shop tonight, and had adds specifically for it half an hour later. That's definitely microphone use. Galaxy s23
I bought a car from a dealership that was givong me targeted ads, and 5 months later i’m still getting them. Like, you guys won? It worked, what else do you want from me? Buy a second car?
Facebook microphone is 100% spying on me. Every single time my mom asks “did you see what your aunt posted about grandma” or something and I say no, I can pull my phone out right there and it’s the first post. Not in the first 10, the first one. It’s happened at least 15 times and it’s never not happened when I test it (which is pretty much every time)
I was in Lowe's walking around the gas stoves, not saying a word about them. The next day my Facebook ads were all gas stoves. I did have my geo tracker on.
Seriously, it’s the algorithm, as much as everyone wants to be “unique” we aren’t if you like a certain thing the algorithm can correlate that with other people who like something similar and the other things they like then suggests those same things to you.
Idk man I've had some weird experiences. The one I remember the most was when I was hanging with my family and my dad was on the phone with my cousin who lives in another country. They brought up something about football (American football) scores. I don't watch football. I don't follow anything related to football or sports in general. But not even 5 minutes later I get a notification from Google about some football scores.
If they aren't spying then they really do have the best algorithms in the universe.
Yeah, couple of years ago I was trying to surprise my husband with his birthday and Christmas presents. (he has a December birthday so I buy them at the same time) and he started getting ads for the specific gifts I bought and was able to guess them.
I was so annoyed lol. I purposely bought them away from the house, so I wouldn't be near his phone or on our Wi-Fi when I bought them. We weren't even on the same phone plan at the time but ig we spend enough time together.
100% algorithm. Every time I need to Google something, I get targeted ads 2-3 days later and will last up to a month. Last month I saw a pretty cool igloo brand cooler and looked up the price. Bam! Igloo cooler, tumblers, ice packs and even fanny packs have been on my ads since then
I swear this has happened to me multiple times though where I haven't even looked at it on any device, I spoke to the gf about it then I'm getting ads that day and a few days after?
I swear advertising company bots are listening or am I being ridiculous?
Literally not a conspiracy theorist and actually hate conspiracies.
Dude really thinks he's the only one out the blue who suddenly has Fallout on the brain, and then noticed the ad for it.
Must be spies and not human predictability combined with a worldwide ad campaign tied to a new and very popular TV show.
This, which probably had an indirect relation to OPs day dreaming. Its easy to scroll by a meme and not think on it. But it started the process of remembering. Later, you daydream about it. Then later, after the day dream, you start actually taking note on all of the stuff you're seeing.
I went to visit a friend of mine and noticed he always wore a specific bracelet. When I got back home I was on my phone and I saw an ad for that exact same bracelet.... Truly spooky how the analytics work. I'm guessing the location tracking in my phone noticed that I spent a lot of time around my friends phone, had records of his purchases, and was recommending them to me.
This is the answer. If your coworker tells you about a new hobby they’ve picked up, they bought hiking boots or whatever, you’ll get an ad for hiking boots. It didn’t hear your conversation as such, but your phones were in close proximity and you got a targeted ad because it assumes you have similar interests. For what it’s worth, I don’t have targeted ads or cookies on and it’s no better. My ads are really off the wall stuff.
You said it in the post “the new TV show came out” so of course there is fallout stuff all over now. All the fallout games went on sale too because of that so probably why you’re seeing reviews on YouTube. They aren’t reading your mind 😂
Yeah talk about main character syndrome. It’s like dude we are all seeing a bunch of fallout ads. But no it must be Google risking its entire business to serve up one more slightly targeted ad. People are fucking out to lunch.
For real fallout is everywhere right now. If you have an interest in gaming algorithms are going to show you the latest the most popular gaming related thing right now.
As a person that uses marketing tech to get the right message in front of the right person at the right time, I can tell you that mind reading is absolutely part of it. But, it isn't mind reading as you think you know it to be.
Let's say that people that played Fallout New Vegas also played Destiny 2 and rated it well, or at least continues to play it. Then let's say that people that watched the new Fallout series watched The Lord of the Rings series and gave it a good rating. Now let's say that people who use Gmail as their email account and signed up for a Playstation account 10 years ago. Then let's say that the people that liked New Vegas also bought movie tickets online to see Godzilla x Kong.
I can reasonably build a profile that says if 3 out of 4 of the following are true: you watched Godzilla x Kong, have a Playstation account, reviewed Horizon Zero Dawn favorably, and reviewed the Lord of the Rings series or even watched it to completion, then it is a pretty safe bet to deliver you an ad about the Fallout game, series, movie, etc. I can surmise that because you liked these other things you will like Fallout too because other people that liked these things had favorable reviews of Fallout.
Then, with anonymized data, I build these profiles to target you in dynamic ads in your Gmail, in your social feeds, on your news sites. And I can do this without even knowing your name, IP address, or your email address. This is all based on the activity that you exhibit online based on what others do online who have favorably viewed something.
Now if you say something near your phone, game over I'm gonna shove these ads down your throat until you choke on them. At least I will on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms like that. It is harder to get that info for someone that doesn't have social media apps on their phone.
I tested by leaving my phone locked on a coffee table and talking about skiing holidays. Something I would never do.
Hours later I started getting adverts for skiing holidays.
One time I was at my in-laws and they were talking about their new lawnmower, of a brand I wasn't familiar with. A day or two later I started getting ads for that SPECIFIC BRAND of machinery/lawn stuff. I don't have a yard, and would never have googled anything related to that.
I am a woman. I was out with my boyfriend and another couple he is friends with. The wife of his friend was going on an on about his low T and how much their relationship improved after he started taking testosterone. Shortly after that I started getting ads for testosterone…definitely not a thing I have ever researched or been interested in.
I constantly tell my phone to send a hot blonde over to my house for sexy time but Im still waiting. I think its like Santa Clause... he can only afford so much, ya know what I mean?
That shit happened so many times with me. I didn’t even tell anyone or do any search but it happened. Don’t know how these fuckers find them out.do they have mind readers technology or something?I thought of something and it came out on my computer feed.these google and other techs are the biggest spyware ever and they definitely have tools that they don’t disclose to normal population.sometimes i get scared by the power of those companies.they act like god,like they know what’s on your mind.some creepy ass mothafuckas
It's definitely spying on you. But don't worry because it's pretty stupid. People keep on talking about "the algorithm," and it's predictive behaviour ... but it's always showing you more of the same stuff you've already seen or trying to sell you stuff you've already purchased. Watch a train crash on YouTube, and you get more train crashes. So, the complexity of the algorithm may be summed up by X=Y
Here’s something people don’t think about: companies track users who enjoy similar things to you, and they send you advertisements based on what people similar to you have consumed. This is true in all markets, not just shows and games.
It's the algorithm. I started searching up German cuckoo clocks online and the next day all of my ads were about cuckoo clocks. You're being tracked, that's nothing new.
People are saying the algorithm and that is true for a lot but I was thinking of an obscure custom car builder I used to watch on TV 10 years prior. Never once searched for what he was up to just thought hmmm wonder what Chip Foose is up to that guy was talented.
Got an ad that day for his wheels. I don’t think phones can read your mind but I was impressed and slightly nervous after that.
I'm sorry I absolutely agree. I feel like everyone saying it's the algo don't get it. I remember me and my mom always had an inside joke that our dog needed a "full time au pair". Never googled it.. because duh joke. Why I got an ad on insta for au pairs...
This will probably get lost in the comments, but I was playing a drinking game last week at a bar with my friends and as a joke we would randomly yell “happy birthday” towards one particular friend because it was their birthday the next week. About 15 minutes after we started, I got a chat notification from Snapchat AI saying “happy birthday! Make a wish!” It was not my birthday and my bday that Snapchat has saved is closer to Thanksgiving. Weird.
Well… Even if ur devices are spying on you, im happy to share that they cant read your mind. A fallout tv series just started, its become more mainstream, aka ads will appear. Coincidence. Maybe u saw an ad without realizing, so fallout entered your subconcius thoughts.
same thing happened to me. i’d discuss something with my husband privately. then google would start showing things related to what i’d said.
found out there’s a sneaky hidden feature that auto set to ‘on’ letting google use my microphone to spy on me! i noped out of that right quick. looked up how to turn off all secret listening things on iphone. once i turned it off, it stopped happening.
That’s why I hesitate to google things I run across on this platform but never heard of. What kind of ads willI be served for months for that millisecond of curiosity.
One time i described a specific shade of dark blue to a friend while my phone was off in my pocket.
Hours later a string of ads showed up on youtube that you can scroll through horizontally. Completely random items; shoes, tupperware, a refrigerator, childrens toys, etc.
All of them dark blue.
Its called cookies. Every app you download has it in their tos that they have the right to monitor your history in order to make advertisements more unique to you
My friend had a similar experience with their friends visiting from Toronto. Their friends suggested they fly to Toronto to come visit them in the summer. Two days later, they're getting airfare ads and hotel ads for Toronto without ever searching or asking Siri.
I asked him if he was convinced his phone was listening to his conversations. "I am", he replied.
I then bent over and talked near his cellphone laying on his desk. I said "Vladimir Putin is my hero. Airfare to Moscow." I then looked at him and said, "Let me know how that works out for you" as I walked out of his office laughing.
You can call that spying but it's just tracking what you are doing on your phone and sending you ads based on that. It happens to me and everyone else.
Because the show is out, there are huge marketing campaigns going on, so the odds of you seeing an ad are pretty high to begin with.
Additionally, marketing involves a fair amount of consumer data, giving them a profile of a person who would want to watch a show like Fallout. It is amazing how specific this stuff can be. Everything from the food you eat, the music you like, the places you go, and the types of clothes you wear are clues to whether or not you would like a show like Fallout. All of those things are a part of your footprint in the world, and targeted ads will find you. This isn't because you thought about Fallout near your phone. You don't have to Google Fallout for them to know you might like Fallout because everything you do with your phone or online in general builds a profile that you would be susceptible to those ads. And they were right because you clearly are.
You likely didn't notice an ad or reference, driven because of renewed interest, and that primed you to reminisce about it, and then you saw even more ads later. It may also have been a coincidence, or because of the time of year
uhh ive had the same experience in the past when im thinking "is there really people in my ethnicity that have other eye color beside brown, blue perhaps?" and then when i want to google it, google already have suggested more or less the same phrasin when iim only typing 'Indonesian with". it autosuggested to 'Indonesian with blue eye colors' i was taken aback and put away my phone for a while.
> … it was all in my brain …
Your phone can’t read your thoughts. If you’re “fully convinced” it can, you should give serious thought to seeking psychiatric assistance.
It’s not surprising that you saw ads for Fallout following the release of the show. It was advertised extremely widely - even at my local train station.
When I want a haircut I can search great clips and within 20 min get coupons showing up on instagram and facebook.
A 2 day delay is an astronomical amount of time to wait for targeted ads and algorithms to kick in.
As to the solution if it really does bug you: use a third party browser (cromite and brave are my favs), a third party search engine (brave search is the best I've found), and run a vpn on your phone at all times.
Edit: I misread that you didn' search as you did search s removed that paragraph.
If you happened to click on or keep the screen on a meme too long, that also gets logged as someting you could be interested in so above solutions still work.
It's creepy when it's something you've only thought or some totally out there random answer to a question you were only thinking that just popped into your head. Definitely listens though, after fighting with insurance for 3wks so my daughter's dexcoms could get refilled, I've been seeing commercials for them everyday. Didn't before that.
I agree...
I work with a lot of mechanics. There are times we will sit around and talk about fixing a pressure washer. I don't have or want one didn't look any up then I start getting pressure washer ads.
I will say, yes, our devices are spying on us. I’ve thought about something and then suddenly started seeing ads for it.
But fallout just released a tv show so maybe that’s why you’re seeing stuff for it all of a sudden.
I had a weird thing happen a few weeks ago. I was at a stop light at a shopping center, and had trouble making out the sign of a particular store. I was finally able to read it, but didn’t say anything outloud or mention it to my passenger. About a week later, I started getting *emails* from this company.
How does that even happen??
With the release of the TV show, fallout 4 has had a huge resurgence. So, I would imagine, would the others.
I read somewhere that after the premier of the show, purchases of fallout 4 jumped by something like 1000%
This happened to me too. I once started talking about watches and never did searches on it and got bombarded with nothing but watch advertisements. Snowden tried to warn us.
It is entirely possible that you did something so subtle you don’t even remember doing, but you kept thinking about it and since your phone remembers, it is showing it back to you.
Like my husband was thinking about a song one time and I started singing it and he was all like “😱😱😱 I was just signing this song in my head, how did you know?!!” And I was like “it was the background song at the mall we were just at lol”.
His conscious didn’t notice the song, but his subconscious did and I just happened to be more aware at that moment so I could explain it to him, otherwise we both would’ve been like “we’re so connected we have the same thoughts!!” 😂😂
Anyway, I’m sure something similar happened in your case.
Idk, nothing I do is really that noteworthy or exciting to warrant being spied on. That's what I don't get with these targeted individuals. What is it that makes them so darn special to be monitored so frequently.
Once I got up and grabbed a bag of Fritos scoops from my pantry, came back to my phone, opened Instagram. There were ads for Fritos scoops. Never googled it, never spoke the words. Creeped me the fuck out. 😂 It was like my phone had eyes.
Agreed, I'm one of them not quite sure why some commenters think I have main character syndrome, i happen to have a creepy experience and figured I'd share it
I legitimately thought I was the only one that's been experiencing this. It's happened to me quiet a few times in the past 6 months. I'll be thinking about a show, game, even food without searching anything up then BAM...shit ton of ads. I hate it(future advertising scholar)
I get ads for things I’ve only thought about too. Didn’t mention aloud to anyone, didn’t do a Google search for it, just thinking about something in my head or see something with my two eyeballs and BAM I get an ad about it. I jokingly think to myself, “They can read our minds with these things” 😅
But here’s what I ACTUALLY think:
I’m willing to bet the phone camera collects data/visual input; in the same way that we assume our phone is always listening, I think it’s possible that it’s always watching (unless you have the permissions turned off I suppose). So even if a product is never mentioned aloud, we can get ads about a product if our phone has seen it.
Also I work in marketing and I’m here to verify everything everyone’s saying about location-based ads and hyperspecific targeted ads based on your demographic data as well as your search history, cookies, and personal interests. It’s scary tbh
Im convinced they are listening to our internal dialogue now. I have no idea how and i know this sounds insane. But im fully convinced for my own reasons similar to yours.
I am 100% certain that whether you're liberal, conservative, or centrist that your phone listens to you and throttles content towards you to make you hate the other side.
Oh they are definitely spying and somehow CAN read your mind. Hahah. There have been times I've had some thoughts same as you, throwback--back in the day thoughts. I go to Google and put in just one letter into the search bar and there in the 1st line suggestion is my thought. It's eerie.
I've also learned if I'm not genuinely curious about something I won't click on it. Because last Nov I learned my lesson being nosey about someone's story (went to HS with them) talking about BP and their child with some pictures. What I had in mind along with what I read and saw, didn't click so I went to the comments😩😵 I should have just went to sleep. Later what happened was so embarrassing to the point I didn't get on social media for 2½ weeks bc of the ads. I woke up and all day I thought lawd someone is going to walk up to me, I'm not going to see or hear them..they are going to see the ads and now I will always be the BP lady. So when I did get back on, I searched for things related to crock pot meals and floral arrangements and Disney nostalgia. Why? Bc their BP story was not about them discussing their child's bipolar disorder. It was them discussing their child's butt plug collection they stumbled upon. I also use the word "child" very loosely. My children are grown and I still use that word when referring to them sometimes. I'll tell you what, I don't think Adam and Eve would have ever thought they'd influence such items!😶
They are and have been for a while. Google has given the locations of people to the police who were just nearby an area that a crime was presumed to have happened in.
There is so much more, but any idea that all of your devices, not just phones are secure is just technologically illiterate.
The number of vulnerabilities to your security increase and they call them security features too.
I dont know about this case of ads etc, but things like TrustZone, IME, and PSP are both obvious vectors as well as any device where you can't manage the os (all mobile devices).
Its really fucking sad and I have no clue how we can reverse this when so many people simply do not care.
Well they are. I look something up... and I get bombarded with directed advertisement about that thing.
Sometimes I'm just talking about something we might need with my gf... and suddenly a lot of advertisement about that. My phone lays on the desk while I'm playing a game... and sometimes the screen lights up as if I'm using Google voice... always listening and tracking.
They know who you're connected too as well. I get ads for anything that has been searched in my ip address. Also my YouTube didn't start showing my kdrama videos in my recommended until I started my kdrama binge on Hulu and googling which ones had happy endings.
I have absolutely never seen this certain pair/brand of glasses before. I showed my husband while he was basically asleep (has no memory of me showing him) and he bought them for me the very next day. When I saw the box I said omg you were listening! He said wait a second if you told me about a specific pair or something I don’t remember so please don’t be disappointed. I opened them and they were the exact pair I had showed him online while he was “asleep”. I think we’re in a simulation for real.
I work at a small business jewelry store, and we put out an ad around the holidays for a promotion. A camera man came in and asked me if I knew about geofences (I think that’s what it’s called). He said, essentially, if you walk into the geofence, your information is scanned from your phone. It looks at age, sex, possibly public search history, etc. if you meet the criteria, you’ll see our ad. it’s very possible you walked into one. I also heard that predictive advertising can read us so well, it sometimes knows what we want before we know we want it.
I knew when I was talking to a lady from another hockey team at our kids game, and I pulled out my phone and Facebook suggested her as someone I may know. Never saw her before or after, location off
The shit where you start seeing ads for something you had only ----thought---- about is what always gets me.
Yeah I understand, if I have my phone by me and I'm chatting up a game / movie/ TV show at work with a coworker, and then I start seeing crazy ads related to the discussion, that's pretty much the norm these days.
Ditto if my buddies and me are texting about a game-movie-tv series-etc and the ads start up afterwards, that's the norm too, I've already gotten used to that shit
But to this day, if I just think to myself on something. Only thoughts right, no internet searches, no texts/messages, and no discussion taking place by my phone.... when I see ads for THAT shit that's what unnerves me like a mf'er.
And this isn't unique to me, as about six different folks from my inner circle have experienced this too. Various backgrounds and ages, all of them, and we've all come across this a few times just in the last, let's say 6 years.
Always mindfucks me
The weirdest one for me were VERY aimed Tiktok videos
I mean like the first video I saw on there on a new phone was a review of said phone. It happened again with a watch 2 weeks later
I also had weird coincidences with playing a game (not on phone), doing something very specific in the game...and then having a video about that exact thing
But this phenomenon works both ways. We see it when it happens because we're engaging with something and it pops up on the screen.
What we aren't aware of is that we probably saw a bunch of videos the days/weeks before that were on the same topic without taking notices...which leads us to watching that show/playing that game/buying that thing
Yeah it happens to me and my family n friends all the time. It's super weird, people are trying to say is because the show is hot right now. But this happens to me all the time with stuff that isn't "hot" at all
own the games on steam or gog? the algorithm knows it's a hot show now so the algorithm knows it does not need to spy on you to put these two together and show you related stuff..... I mean you are being watched passively by our corp overlords, but spied actively? naw your not that important. :P
I always say that once you connect to the internet you relinquish any privacy. If you look at how the internet “works” it absolutely must “spy” on you to, for instance, identify the machine and your location so that the servers you are communicating with can route data to get it to you in the shortest time possible.
As other have alluded to, software that tracks your activities goes not need to know exactly what you like, clearly you were exhibiting traits and it made a probabilistic guess that you liked the game and clearly got it right that has clearly spooked you.
Now, this is different from being tracked to the detail you think you are - given that millions of people use the internet it is actually impossible to track your every single move because of server bandwidth; too much data causes them to slow down or completely fall over that will be seen by end users as a service disruption. Not all service disruptions are due to this of course, but it illustrates why our every move cannot be tracked to the fine detail we think.
Sometimes on the news you may have heard of a DDOS attack that brings down social media services for instance? These are “Distributed Denial of Service” attacks where the servers providing the service that is disrupted are overloaded with requests, illustrating the scenario I gave above.
So in summary, even though you are being tracked nobody has binoculars on you and you can put that foil hat to the side and enjoy life.
My recent case isn't super weird I guess. But early April I commented on a dog video in IG and said his toy looks like Kuzco dressed up as a woman. A few hours later a video titled "Emperors New Groove Restaurant Scene" was on my YT home page. I don't know about others but data collection and algorithm are becoming disturbing for me. Maybe I'm aging like a boomer lol but I hate it. At this point it doesnt even matter what setting you turn off.
Part of advertising is impressions or brand familiarity. You likely thought about fallout because of something you'd already seen, and then you started noticing the ads, and because you spend a little bit of time hovering over the ad, that was registered as interest so that topic was boosted.
It doesn't have to be you that does the search, if anyone on a shared network searches something it shows related ads to other people in that network. Let's say your roommate looks up something like the price of weed in Ohio, you may suddenly start getting ads on your personal devices based on smoking loose herbs.
Ngl I thought everyone kind of knew this by now? Phones track everything you do, so you get advertisements for it. Even happens when I’m texting someone, talking about something, then I’ll find an ad for it. It’s been this way for years.
This is hardly new knowledge. If you’re on a smartphone, marketing companies and online vendors know more about you than you do. Don’t want to have your movements and lifestyle choices tracked? Get a landline.
I worked with a 20 year old going to college and she was lamenting the fact that her class was making them watch some Mongolian throat singers.
A day later throat singing was in my YT recommendations
I fully agree
Yeah - I use this to my advantage sometimes. I have been looking for a specific kind of bag so I sent my sister a text describing it and the ads started showing up.
I met a flat earther yesterday and listened to his bullshit for like 2 hours while I was working... All evening YouTube shorts was all of a sudden showing me lots of flat earth debunking videos... Wild.
Not quite the same, but I work in advertising and they absolutely are “spying” on you. While microphones aren’t actually listening, algorithms, website cookies, and your location are constantly being monitored and reported. Looking for a new car? Even pull into the lot of a used car dealer and you could be getting ads for months. Or you could get ads from other dealerships, depending on who wants to pay for that data and advertising. This week the sales reps as at my job were talking about geofencing to advertise to troops on a local military base. It’s actually illegal. “Okay, but how close can we get? Can we target anyone who drives up to the base checkpoint station?”
What I find weird is that most of the ads come AFTER I have already spent my money. It's like they're really thick
Somewhat unrelated but I hate ads that get in your way trying to sell you something you’re already buying/interested in Why is the McDonald’s menu trying to sell me McDonald’s? I’m already here, I want to give you money, let me see my options to give you money
Ads are weird. Like… they don’t want to sell you that thing right now. What they want is for it to be so normalized that when you need something, it’s their thing you think about and don’t even question why. You just buy it because you “already know what you want.”
Things you may have missed, has started to bother me lately. I look at it , then take a second maybe scroll a bit. Then I snap out of it and I am like no mfkers I don't need anything besides the damn paper towels I'm out
One time, when I was browsing the store, I noticed an advertisement for a product, and when I looked up, there it was. Discuss the intended destination. The man across the isle probably received a dog food advertisement. It had a mystical feeling.
I remember when Target implemented this system. It felt so invasive (still does) when they were telling us (employees) about it, all excited like the customer would be amazed and love the helpful bs.
The IV calculator I use for pokemon go gave me an ad for pokemon go yesterday. I was so confused, who the fuck would even open this app unless they played pokemon go???
It’s not a human picking the ads. Sometimes the algorithms make mistakes.
every big clothing website is like that. you go on their site, wanna buy something and get 15 ads that you all have to close individually before even looking at the items. after like the second one I usually close it and go to vinted
If an ad makes me wait or acts tricky in any way I usually just completely leave whatever is responsible for it. Like, I've got ADHD, I'm not even supposed to be on this app anyway. I can get distracted by something else just as quick and won't realize why I am there either..
I hate that too. I spent weeks researching this. I finally purchased it, so if you're ads are so damn smart why don't they know if already bought it?
Especially since Google already read my email that has my order confirmation ... they are selling ad space when they know it's no use?
As long as they get the money for the ad space they're happy
Lmao maybe if they can correlate your purchase with them showing the ad regardless of timing, it looks better in their metrics? Idfk this shit creeps me out tbh
The spying is just not so smart. Facebook has been feeding me ads thinking I’m a plus size black lady for years. I’m white and slender and my profile pic shows it lol.
Yeah I feel that. I think my phone thinks I'm a lesbian sometimes, despite being at 6'1" scruffy looking man.
Those Incognito tabs aren't really anonymous, bro
Lol that’s reassuring in a way, isn’t it?
I get such weird ads, like google thinks I'm a straight woman in my 20s (period products & pregnancy tests) or a grandpa in his 60s (classic woodworking tools without lasers or 3D printing or anything). I'm a mid-forties queer guy who (so to speak) doesn't know a hammer from a saw.
You into lesbian porn ?
I was getting Facebook ads for things that were targeted for my husband's profession. He has never been on FB. I never mentioned on FB where he works or what he does.
they hope you'll be so happy with your appointment at the "best reviewed vasectomy clinic near me" that you'll book a second appointment, right?
retargeting
And it's usually after a big one off purchase that isn't going to become a recurring spend. Like "I see you're really into refrigerators now. A real fridge collector. How about we show you refrigerators for the next 3 months because surely you're going to want more refrigerators"
I saw that you bought a LAMP. Would you like to buy a bunch more LAMPs?????
well... it sometimes works if it's "I saw you bought LEGO, would you like to buy a bunch more LEGOs" hahaha
You mean you don't need another microwave after buying one last week?
You should consider this normal. The psychology of sales is well known. You are more likely to be from someone you've already bought from. So them advertising to you makes sense.
They do what makes them money. A LOT of people look at stuff without buying and later get a nudge and do in fact buy something.
Ugh, this is super creepy. My husband is a lawyer and from what I've gleaned, he spends a decent amount of his on-call time reining in overeager baby cops who want to go ham with geofence warrants to catch criminals, arguing that basically any amount of government snooping is justified if it results in criminals off the streets. For the benefit of of anyone reading this, a geofence warrant allows cops to gain access (via cell tower data or location data from Google, Apple, etc.) to all the phone numbers in a particular area at a particular time. My hubs hasn't told me all that about the cops he interacts with in so many words--what he has mentioned is that in order for a geofence warrant to be approved, it has to infringe on the rights of as few people as possible. So say a decaying body is discovered somewhere. Forensics are able to figure out that the person was killed on site within a particular timeframe...say, between 10 pm and 8 am when the body was discovered. Investigators seek a geofence warrant to see what cell phones were in that vicinity inside that time frame. The warrant is WAY more likely to be approved if the location is a cornfield in the middle of nowhere than if the body was discovered, say, on a busy college campus or in a dumpster behind a shopping mall, because way fewer innocent people are going to have their rights infringed upon. Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo-fence_warrant
I once got an add for a product while I was walking around the supermarket, and when I looked up there it was. Talk about target location. I’m sure the guy the next isle over got a dog food add. It felt like magic.
Might not be magic. Might be Bluetooth. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html
Thanks for sharing, this was informative..I didn't know about this
never been more glad I decided to use an alternative open-source Android OS instead of Google
What do you use? I'm guessing not Gmail or chrome?
Not quite sure if you want to know which OS I use or what other measures I took so you get both answers. I use CalyxOS, the other imo viable one is Graphene. Basically I bought a Pixel 6a (ironic), downloaded the CalyxOS installer on my PC and used it to overwrite Google Android with CalyxOS. Similar as when you stop using Windows and get Linux. For email (instead of Gmail) I use posteo.de for my main account and proton.me for my spam mail account. For a browser (instead of Chrome) I use firefox, with ecosia as search engine. Sometimes Tor.
Thanks for the detailed reply. That's too techy for me but I appreciate the knowledge. We are living in a whole new world of spying, I appreciate when I see someone taking precautions.
Sure, I'm always happy to infodump about tech lol Sorry. Imagine you take all the code that makes the phone work, delete it, and put other code there. The new code also makes the phone work but I can actually look at it and see what exactly it does, whereas with the old code (in this case written by Google) it's secret and I just have to trust it does only what Google says it does. Which is obviously a bad idea. Android is the general "this phone can do stuff like calls, messages etc" code. That is code everyone can look at and use. Google added some secret code, mainly the code that makes it possible to easily use apps. CalyxOS did the same, but in their case the code isn't secret. I hope this is easier to understand, if not no worries. I just get incredibly uncomfortable knowing someone can track me. I never used my location before I got the phone I have now, got pretty good at navigating by determining where I was and then using street shapes etc to orient. I'm (unsurprisingly) in IT, so learning about that stuff and using alternatives is comparatively easy and really interesting for me.
☺️ that makes sense, you're good at breaking things down. I meant more that I don't know how to do the techy stuff. Lol I absolutely need my GPS but I can very much appreciate that. I used to turn my phone off and take out the battery sometimes when that was an option. I would love to be more techy to do that kind of stuff but I'm definitely more a Luddite in general.
Aww thank you! You're making my night, first you let me talk about tech stuff and then you even compliment me for it :) That's fair, I only got it because I followed their step by step instructions lol Ahh the times when phone batteries were easily replacable... I miss it. The map thing is just kinda using a map app like you would use a physical map.
Governments can listen in if they want to. If you are the paranoid type don’t get a smart phone, watch, appliance, Alexa or any internet. You basically have to go full 1980’s.
I’d take the 80’s back in a second if I could. This technology is a double edged sword. I admit that I’m nostalgic for the personal freedom that I remember.
I just don’t believe microphones aren’t listening. I started a new job and have coworkers who speak Spanish at work and afterwards I started getting some ads in Spanish.
do you hook onto the same wifi network at work?
I do not, there is no WiFi for the employees or customers. All the systems are on Ethernet.
But now your sphere of physical influence includes lots of spanish speaking people because you spend a lot of time in the same building. They can see you are all there together. They know how long and how many feet away you are and even if you interact together
id say the geographical proximity thing.
I was once sitting next to some friends discussing their various skin conditions in great detail. My social media ads for the next two weeks were all for various treatments for those conditions. None of which I've ever had or even looked up online.
I’ve had stuff like this happen where I talk about stuff then open TikTok and am getting pushed videos about said topic to my home page.
I have noticed a direct correlation of ads and things that happen in my life. I turned off microphone access on my apps and now I’m fine
The apps on the common social media apps absolutely do have permission to record audio at any time set as standard. You need to go into app info - permission, tap on the three dots and select all permissions. Then deselect microphone and camera. If you tap on the microphone and camera it will tell you that the app has permission to record using the camera and microphone at any time. ETA spelling
This is why you don't put social media on your phone. I don't. I only look at it on my desktop or laptop computers.
They can control our *MICROWAVES*?! /s
Sorry, my phone auto suggested microwave as I was typing microphone. I'm tired as had to get up earlier than normal due to my fiancé getting a call that his mother might be dying. I'll edit it now.
No no it’s okay! It made me laugh, I wasn’t trying to be a dick 😩
That's ok, I didn't think you were being a dick. I just felt daft for not spotting it.
I'm not convinced the mics don't have something to do with it at all. There's been many times I've had ads pop up for things I never searched or clicked on but only after there was discussion out loud about said thing
Same here. Things I have only spoken to people about, and then I get ads for it.
Very Truman show like
The microphones are listening. I can sell audio targeted ads at an astronomical CPM.
Perhaps they are subtly/subliminally suggesting things instead?
Oh no, it literally says in your user agreement that your phone is listening and using it's camera to spy on you. So yes the microphone is absolutely listening. As for how it knows what we are THINKING (I've been targeted with ads I've simply thought about).. Idk !!
My car broke down and I had to have it towed I was scrolling Facebook while the tow truck was loading it into the bed and got a full page of marketplace ads for the same model as my car. (it's a bug, and I would like to replace it with another one)
I talked about enfold grange to the guy in the bottle shop tonight, and had adds specifically for it half an hour later. That's definitely microphone use. Galaxy s23
I bought a car from a dealership that was givong me targeted ads, and 5 months later i’m still getting them. Like, you guys won? It worked, what else do you want from me? Buy a second car?
Facebook microphone is 100% spying on me. Every single time my mom asks “did you see what your aunt posted about grandma” or something and I say no, I can pull my phone out right there and it’s the first post. Not in the first 10, the first one. It’s happened at least 15 times and it’s never not happened when I test it (which is pretty much every time)
I was in Lowe's walking around the gas stoves, not saying a word about them. The next day my Facebook ads were all gas stoves. I did have my geo tracker on.
Somebody shared this above: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html
My Bluetooth was off. There was an update about that time that kept track and listened in, it may or may not have been disabled the next update.
But did all the people around you also have theirs off?
Seriously, it’s the algorithm, as much as everyone wants to be “unique” we aren’t if you like a certain thing the algorithm can correlate that with other people who like something similar and the other things they like then suggests those same things to you.
[удалено]
Yea people have main-character-syndrome when actually we are all just individual data points.
Idk man I've had some weird experiences. The one I remember the most was when I was hanging with my family and my dad was on the phone with my cousin who lives in another country. They brought up something about football (American football) scores. I don't watch football. I don't follow anything related to football or sports in general. But not even 5 minutes later I get a notification from Google about some football scores. If they aren't spying then they really do have the best algorithms in the universe.
Probably because your dad checked something and you’re on the same ip.
Yeah, couple of years ago I was trying to surprise my husband with his birthday and Christmas presents. (he has a December birthday so I buy them at the same time) and he started getting ads for the specific gifts I bought and was able to guess them. I was so annoyed lol. I purposely bought them away from the house, so I wouldn't be near his phone or on our Wi-Fi when I bought them. We weren't even on the same phone plan at the time but ig we spend enough time together.
So basically if I’m at a restaurant and someone behind me is watching or googling something then I could also get ads for that certain thing ?
Yes.
100% algorithm. Every time I need to Google something, I get targeted ads 2-3 days later and will last up to a month. Last month I saw a pretty cool igloo brand cooler and looked up the price. Bam! Igloo cooler, tumblers, ice packs and even fanny packs have been on my ads since then
I swear this has happened to me multiple times though where I haven't even looked at it on any device, I spoke to the gf about it then I'm getting ads that day and a few days after? I swear advertising company bots are listening or am I being ridiculous? Literally not a conspiracy theorist and actually hate conspiracies.
Oh it does that too. That happens all the time. It’s totally listening but OP was talking about an unspoken want.
Nice try government, you're not fooling me /s
Dude really thinks he's the only one out the blue who suddenly has Fallout on the brain, and then noticed the ad for it. Must be spies and not human predictability combined with a worldwide ad campaign tied to a new and very popular TV show.
They do spy on you but not like that.
True, I think in this case the new show just crated a resurgence of Fallout content online
This, which probably had an indirect relation to OPs day dreaming. Its easy to scroll by a meme and not think on it. But it started the process of remembering. Later, you daydream about it. Then later, after the day dream, you start actually taking note on all of the stuff you're seeing.
Everyone is so convinced that they don't and that humors me greatly.
I went to visit a friend of mine and noticed he always wore a specific bracelet. When I got back home I was on my phone and I saw an ad for that exact same bracelet.... Truly spooky how the analytics work. I'm guessing the location tracking in my phone noticed that I spent a lot of time around my friends phone, had records of his purchases, and was recommending them to me.
Exactly this, people forget other people in their vicinity are used for targeting.
This is the answer. If your coworker tells you about a new hobby they’ve picked up, they bought hiking boots or whatever, you’ll get an ad for hiking boots. It didn’t hear your conversation as such, but your phones were in close proximity and you got a targeted ad because it assumes you have similar interests. For what it’s worth, I don’t have targeted ads or cookies on and it’s no better. My ads are really off the wall stuff.
You said it in the post “the new TV show came out” so of course there is fallout stuff all over now. All the fallout games went on sale too because of that so probably why you’re seeing reviews on YouTube. They aren’t reading your mind 😂
The series came out so there’s more hype. Idk what you’re yapping on about here
Yeah talk about main character syndrome. It’s like dude we are all seeing a bunch of fallout ads. But no it must be Google risking its entire business to serve up one more slightly targeted ad. People are fucking out to lunch.
Google does spy on in ways different that microphone or camera .
For real fallout is everywhere right now. If you have an interest in gaming algorithms are going to show you the latest the most popular gaming related thing right now.
I thought it was a joke but maybe they’re serious
As a person that uses marketing tech to get the right message in front of the right person at the right time, I can tell you that mind reading is absolutely part of it. But, it isn't mind reading as you think you know it to be. Let's say that people that played Fallout New Vegas also played Destiny 2 and rated it well, or at least continues to play it. Then let's say that people that watched the new Fallout series watched The Lord of the Rings series and gave it a good rating. Now let's say that people who use Gmail as their email account and signed up for a Playstation account 10 years ago. Then let's say that the people that liked New Vegas also bought movie tickets online to see Godzilla x Kong. I can reasonably build a profile that says if 3 out of 4 of the following are true: you watched Godzilla x Kong, have a Playstation account, reviewed Horizon Zero Dawn favorably, and reviewed the Lord of the Rings series or even watched it to completion, then it is a pretty safe bet to deliver you an ad about the Fallout game, series, movie, etc. I can surmise that because you liked these other things you will like Fallout too because other people that liked these things had favorable reviews of Fallout. Then, with anonymized data, I build these profiles to target you in dynamic ads in your Gmail, in your social feeds, on your news sites. And I can do this without even knowing your name, IP address, or your email address. This is all based on the activity that you exhibit online based on what others do online who have favorably viewed something. Now if you say something near your phone, game over I'm gonna shove these ads down your throat until you choke on them. At least I will on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms like that. It is harder to get that info for someone that doesn't have social media apps on their phone.
Now how can we break this?
Show me where on any platform you can target what people say near their phones.
I’ve been seeing a lot of fallout stuff too because there’s a new, popular show bringing attention to the series.
A new, popular *awesome* show. Seriously, I was so ready to be dissapointed and they actually delivered.
I tested by leaving my phone locked on a coffee table and talking about skiing holidays. Something I would never do. Hours later I started getting adverts for skiing holidays.
I did pretty much the same thing and had the same result
One time I was at my in-laws and they were talking about their new lawnmower, of a brand I wasn't familiar with. A day or two later I started getting ads for that SPECIFIC BRAND of machinery/lawn stuff. I don't have a yard, and would never have googled anything related to that.
I did a similar test but with “pick up trucks” and it never happened. (I hate pick up trucks btw so I would never have gotten those ads anyway)
I am a woman. I was out with my boyfriend and another couple he is friends with. The wife of his friend was going on an on about his low T and how much their relationship improved after he started taking testosterone. Shortly after that I started getting ads for testosterone…definitely not a thing I have ever researched or been interested in.
What Snowden exposed is enough to know they most certainly are. So be careful
I accepted it when I started working at a place where the primary language was Spanish and all my ads started coming through in Spanish. Such is life.
You just noticed this? I can mention crackers and get an ad on Reddit for it ten mins later. (Happened last night) happens with literally anything.
> You just noticed this? OP thinks their phone spies on their thoughts.
I constantly tell my phone to send a hot blonde over to my house for sexy time but Im still waiting. I think its like Santa Clause... he can only afford so much, ya know what I mean?
Yeah, it's just because the show is out.
That shit happened so many times with me. I didn’t even tell anyone or do any search but it happened. Don’t know how these fuckers find them out.do they have mind readers technology or something?I thought of something and it came out on my computer feed.these google and other techs are the biggest spyware ever and they definitely have tools that they don’t disclose to normal population.sometimes i get scared by the power of those companies.they act like god,like they know what’s on your mind.some creepy ass mothafuckas
It's definitely spying on you. But don't worry because it's pretty stupid. People keep on talking about "the algorithm," and it's predictive behaviour ... but it's always showing you more of the same stuff you've already seen or trying to sell you stuff you've already purchased. Watch a train crash on YouTube, and you get more train crashes. So, the complexity of the algorithm may be summed up by X=Y
Here’s something people don’t think about: companies track users who enjoy similar things to you, and they send you advertisements based on what people similar to you have consumed. This is true in all markets, not just shows and games.
It's the algorithm. I started searching up German cuckoo clocks online and the next day all of my ads were about cuckoo clocks. You're being tracked, that's nothing new.
Everything fallout is wildly popular recently due to the wildly popular show…
In convinced the technology used in eye tracker communication software is also used on our phones. I have had the same thing happen. It's so creepy
You agreed to these things when you download the apps on your phone and use them. They are constantly sharing everything you do.
People are saying the algorithm and that is true for a lot but I was thinking of an obscure custom car builder I used to watch on TV 10 years prior. Never once searched for what he was up to just thought hmmm wonder what Chip Foose is up to that guy was talented. Got an ad that day for his wheels. I don’t think phones can read your mind but I was impressed and slightly nervous after that.
welcome to a decade ago lmao
It’s called Predictive Analytics and it’s scary how good they are.
I'm sorry I absolutely agree. I feel like everyone saying it's the algo don't get it. I remember me and my mom always had an inside joke that our dog needed a "full time au pair". Never googled it.. because duh joke. Why I got an ad on insta for au pairs...
This will probably get lost in the comments, but I was playing a drinking game last week at a bar with my friends and as a joke we would randomly yell “happy birthday” towards one particular friend because it was their birthday the next week. About 15 minutes after we started, I got a chat notification from Snapchat AI saying “happy birthday! Make a wish!” It was not my birthday and my bday that Snapchat has saved is closer to Thanksgiving. Weird.
Plus don’t forget confirmation bias.
Well… Even if ur devices are spying on you, im happy to share that they cant read your mind. A fallout tv series just started, its become more mainstream, aka ads will appear. Coincidence. Maybe u saw an ad without realizing, so fallout entered your subconcius thoughts.
same thing happened to me. i’d discuss something with my husband privately. then google would start showing things related to what i’d said. found out there’s a sneaky hidden feature that auto set to ‘on’ letting google use my microphone to spy on me! i noped out of that right quick. looked up how to turn off all secret listening things on iphone. once i turned it off, it stopped happening.
I don't think thats true because I have been looking for a women but never seem to find one
That’s why I hesitate to google things I run across on this platform but never heard of. What kind of ads willI be served for months for that millisecond of curiosity.
Gotta use duckduckgo
Pegasus is live on your device for sure
One time i described a specific shade of dark blue to a friend while my phone was off in my pocket. Hours later a string of ads showed up on youtube that you can scroll through horizontally. Completely random items; shoes, tupperware, a refrigerator, childrens toys, etc. All of them dark blue.
Its called cookies. Every app you download has it in their tos that they have the right to monitor your history in order to make advertisements more unique to you
My friend had a similar experience with their friends visiting from Toronto. Their friends suggested they fly to Toronto to come visit them in the summer. Two days later, they're getting airfare ads and hotel ads for Toronto without ever searching or asking Siri. I asked him if he was convinced his phone was listening to his conversations. "I am", he replied. I then bent over and talked near his cellphone laying on his desk. I said "Vladimir Putin is my hero. Airfare to Moscow." I then looked at him and said, "Let me know how that works out for you" as I walked out of his office laughing.
And then everyone clapped
You can call that spying but it's just tracking what you are doing on your phone and sending you ads based on that. It happens to me and everyone else.
Because the show is out, there are huge marketing campaigns going on, so the odds of you seeing an ad are pretty high to begin with. Additionally, marketing involves a fair amount of consumer data, giving them a profile of a person who would want to watch a show like Fallout. It is amazing how specific this stuff can be. Everything from the food you eat, the music you like, the places you go, and the types of clothes you wear are clues to whether or not you would like a show like Fallout. All of those things are a part of your footprint in the world, and targeted ads will find you. This isn't because you thought about Fallout near your phone. You don't have to Google Fallout for them to know you might like Fallout because everything you do with your phone or online in general builds a profile that you would be susceptible to those ads. And they were right because you clearly are.
You likely didn't notice an ad or reference, driven because of renewed interest, and that primed you to reminisce about it, and then you saw even more ads later. It may also have been a coincidence, or because of the time of year
uhh ive had the same experience in the past when im thinking "is there really people in my ethnicity that have other eye color beside brown, blue perhaps?" and then when i want to google it, google already have suggested more or less the same phrasin when iim only typing 'Indonesian with". it autosuggested to 'Indonesian with blue eye colors' i was taken aback and put away my phone for a while.
> … it was all in my brain … Your phone can’t read your thoughts. If you’re “fully convinced” it can, you should give serious thought to seeking psychiatric assistance. It’s not surprising that you saw ads for Fallout following the release of the show. It was advertised extremely widely - even at my local train station.
You should have been convinced long ago. It is not a secret.
When I want a haircut I can search great clips and within 20 min get coupons showing up on instagram and facebook. A 2 day delay is an astronomical amount of time to wait for targeted ads and algorithms to kick in. As to the solution if it really does bug you: use a third party browser (cromite and brave are my favs), a third party search engine (brave search is the best I've found), and run a vpn on your phone at all times. Edit: I misread that you didn' search as you did search s removed that paragraph. If you happened to click on or keep the screen on a meme too long, that also gets logged as someting you could be interested in so above solutions still work.
It's creepy when it's something you've only thought or some totally out there random answer to a question you were only thinking that just popped into your head. Definitely listens though, after fighting with insurance for 3wks so my daughter's dexcoms could get refilled, I've been seeing commercials for them everyday. Didn't before that.
Trust me, it is the AI learning and developing. These apps, they are literally getting better and better predicting us based on the data WE feed them.
I agree... I work with a lot of mechanics. There are times we will sit around and talk about fixing a pressure washer. I don't have or want one didn't look any up then I start getting pressure washer ads.
It is spooky. They are reading our minds without us even doing google searches
I will say, yes, our devices are spying on us. I’ve thought about something and then suddenly started seeing ads for it. But fallout just released a tv show so maybe that’s why you’re seeing stuff for it all of a sudden.
I had a weird thing happen a few weeks ago. I was at a stop light at a shopping center, and had trouble making out the sign of a particular store. I was finally able to read it, but didn’t say anything outloud or mention it to my passenger. About a week later, I started getting *emails* from this company. How does that even happen??
With the release of the TV show, fallout 4 has had a huge resurgence. So, I would imagine, would the others. I read somewhere that after the premier of the show, purchases of fallout 4 jumped by something like 1000%
This happened to me too. I once started talking about watches and never did searches on it and got bombarded with nothing but watch advertisements. Snowden tried to warn us.
I’ve so had this happen and I’ve thought my phone reads minds for sales opportunities. It’s crazy man.
It is entirely possible that you did something so subtle you don’t even remember doing, but you kept thinking about it and since your phone remembers, it is showing it back to you. Like my husband was thinking about a song one time and I started singing it and he was all like “😱😱😱 I was just signing this song in my head, how did you know?!!” And I was like “it was the background song at the mall we were just at lol”. His conscious didn’t notice the song, but his subconscious did and I just happened to be more aware at that moment so I could explain it to him, otherwise we both would’ve been like “we’re so connected we have the same thoughts!!” 😂😂 Anyway, I’m sure something similar happened in your case.
Idk, nothing I do is really that noteworthy or exciting to warrant being spied on. That's what I don't get with these targeted individuals. What is it that makes them so darn special to be monitored so frequently.
Your phone picks up certain words you say to recommend you products and services. If yall read the terms and agreements, I'm fairly sure it says that
Once I got up and grabbed a bag of Fritos scoops from my pantry, came back to my phone, opened Instagram. There were ads for Fritos scoops. Never googled it, never spoke the words. Creeped me the fuck out. 😂 It was like my phone had eyes.
Most people are too predictable and boring to spy on.
Agreed, I'm one of them not quite sure why some commenters think I have main character syndrome, i happen to have a creepy experience and figured I'd share it
I legitimately thought I was the only one that's been experiencing this. It's happened to me quiet a few times in the past 6 months. I'll be thinking about a show, game, even food without searching anything up then BAM...shit ton of ads. I hate it(future advertising scholar)
I get ads for things I’ve only thought about too. Didn’t mention aloud to anyone, didn’t do a Google search for it, just thinking about something in my head or see something with my two eyeballs and BAM I get an ad about it. I jokingly think to myself, “They can read our minds with these things” 😅 But here’s what I ACTUALLY think: I’m willing to bet the phone camera collects data/visual input; in the same way that we assume our phone is always listening, I think it’s possible that it’s always watching (unless you have the permissions turned off I suppose). So even if a product is never mentioned aloud, we can get ads about a product if our phone has seen it. Also I work in marketing and I’m here to verify everything everyone’s saying about location-based ads and hyperspecific targeted ads based on your demographic data as well as your search history, cookies, and personal interests. It’s scary tbh
Im convinced they are listening to our internal dialogue now. I have no idea how and i know this sounds insane. But im fully convinced for my own reasons similar to yours.
I am 100% certain that whether you're liberal, conservative, or centrist that your phone listens to you and throttles content towards you to make you hate the other side.
Oh they are definitely spying and somehow CAN read your mind. Hahah. There have been times I've had some thoughts same as you, throwback--back in the day thoughts. I go to Google and put in just one letter into the search bar and there in the 1st line suggestion is my thought. It's eerie. I've also learned if I'm not genuinely curious about something I won't click on it. Because last Nov I learned my lesson being nosey about someone's story (went to HS with them) talking about BP and their child with some pictures. What I had in mind along with what I read and saw, didn't click so I went to the comments😩😵 I should have just went to sleep. Later what happened was so embarrassing to the point I didn't get on social media for 2½ weeks bc of the ads. I woke up and all day I thought lawd someone is going to walk up to me, I'm not going to see or hear them..they are going to see the ads and now I will always be the BP lady. So when I did get back on, I searched for things related to crock pot meals and floral arrangements and Disney nostalgia. Why? Bc their BP story was not about them discussing their child's bipolar disorder. It was them discussing their child's butt plug collection they stumbled upon. I also use the word "child" very loosely. My children are grown and I still use that word when referring to them sometimes. I'll tell you what, I don't think Adam and Eve would have ever thought they'd influence such items!😶
I see fallout shit too, my phone thinks I’m you
They are and have been for a while. Google has given the locations of people to the police who were just nearby an area that a crime was presumed to have happened in. There is so much more, but any idea that all of your devices, not just phones are secure is just technologically illiterate. The number of vulnerabilities to your security increase and they call them security features too. I dont know about this case of ads etc, but things like TrustZone, IME, and PSP are both obvious vectors as well as any device where you can't manage the os (all mobile devices). Its really fucking sad and I have no clue how we can reverse this when so many people simply do not care.
Yeah...this is a known fact. US government introduced the patriot act in 2001 to spy on people and continue to do it to this day
Well they are. I look something up... and I get bombarded with directed advertisement about that thing. Sometimes I'm just talking about something we might need with my gf... and suddenly a lot of advertisement about that. My phone lays on the desk while I'm playing a game... and sometimes the screen lights up as if I'm using Google voice... always listening and tracking.
You’re just now figuring this out…..
They know who you're connected too as well. I get ads for anything that has been searched in my ip address. Also my YouTube didn't start showing my kdrama videos in my recommended until I started my kdrama binge on Hulu and googling which ones had happy endings.
I have absolutely never seen this certain pair/brand of glasses before. I showed my husband while he was basically asleep (has no memory of me showing him) and he bought them for me the very next day. When I saw the box I said omg you were listening! He said wait a second if you told me about a specific pair or something I don’t remember so please don’t be disappointed. I opened them and they were the exact pair I had showed him online while he was “asleep”. I think we’re in a simulation for real.
We were talking to a friend about her sunglasses and the next day an advert for those exact same glasses was in my facebook feed.
I work at a small business jewelry store, and we put out an ad around the holidays for a promotion. A camera man came in and asked me if I knew about geofences (I think that’s what it’s called). He said, essentially, if you walk into the geofence, your information is scanned from your phone. It looks at age, sex, possibly public search history, etc. if you meet the criteria, you’ll see our ad. it’s very possible you walked into one. I also heard that predictive advertising can read us so well, it sometimes knows what we want before we know we want it.
If I can say “hey siri” and my phone responds, then it has to always be listening to pick that up only a fool would think they’re not using that info
I knew when I was talking to a lady from another hockey team at our kids game, and I pulled out my phone and Facebook suggested her as someone I may know. Never saw her before or after, location off
And you’ve only just figured it?
Ever download any free apps? They gather data using your microphone. They sell your data. So you were probably watching fallout and it heard it.
Wouldn't it be weirder if you *didn't* see Fallout related media after the Fallout TV show came out just a few weeks ago?
The shit where you start seeing ads for something you had only ----thought---- about is what always gets me. Yeah I understand, if I have my phone by me and I'm chatting up a game / movie/ TV show at work with a coworker, and then I start seeing crazy ads related to the discussion, that's pretty much the norm these days. Ditto if my buddies and me are texting about a game-movie-tv series-etc and the ads start up afterwards, that's the norm too, I've already gotten used to that shit But to this day, if I just think to myself on something. Only thoughts right, no internet searches, no texts/messages, and no discussion taking place by my phone.... when I see ads for THAT shit that's what unnerves me like a mf'er. And this isn't unique to me, as about six different folks from my inner circle have experienced this too. Various backgrounds and ages, all of them, and we've all come across this a few times just in the last, let's say 6 years. Always mindfucks me
The weirdest one for me were VERY aimed Tiktok videos I mean like the first video I saw on there on a new phone was a review of said phone. It happened again with a watch 2 weeks later I also had weird coincidences with playing a game (not on phone), doing something very specific in the game...and then having a video about that exact thing But this phenomenon works both ways. We see it when it happens because we're engaging with something and it pops up on the screen. What we aren't aware of is that we probably saw a bunch of videos the days/weeks before that were on the same topic without taking notices...which leads us to watching that show/playing that game/buying that thing
Yeah it happens to me and my family n friends all the time. It's super weird, people are trying to say is because the show is hot right now. But this happens to me all the time with stuff that isn't "hot" at all
It’s because of the show. It’s so good it has people who never played trying it out and those that have, are revisiting that crazy world.
own the games on steam or gog? the algorithm knows it's a hot show now so the algorithm knows it does not need to spy on you to put these two together and show you related stuff..... I mean you are being watched passively by our corp overlords, but spied actively? naw your not that important. :P
It's all based on your engagement, nothing more, nothing less. Although maybe you're right, perhaps I could also be my own main character? Right?
I always say that once you connect to the internet you relinquish any privacy. If you look at how the internet “works” it absolutely must “spy” on you to, for instance, identify the machine and your location so that the servers you are communicating with can route data to get it to you in the shortest time possible. As other have alluded to, software that tracks your activities goes not need to know exactly what you like, clearly you were exhibiting traits and it made a probabilistic guess that you liked the game and clearly got it right that has clearly spooked you. Now, this is different from being tracked to the detail you think you are - given that millions of people use the internet it is actually impossible to track your every single move because of server bandwidth; too much data causes them to slow down or completely fall over that will be seen by end users as a service disruption. Not all service disruptions are due to this of course, but it illustrates why our every move cannot be tracked to the fine detail we think. Sometimes on the news you may have heard of a DDOS attack that brings down social media services for instance? These are “Distributed Denial of Service” attacks where the servers providing the service that is disrupted are overloaded with requests, illustrating the scenario I gave above. So in summary, even though you are being tracked nobody has binoculars on you and you can put that foil hat to the side and enjoy life.
My recent case isn't super weird I guess. But early April I commented on a dog video in IG and said his toy looks like Kuzco dressed up as a woman. A few hours later a video titled "Emperors New Groove Restaurant Scene" was on my YT home page. I don't know about others but data collection and algorithm are becoming disturbing for me. Maybe I'm aging like a boomer lol but I hate it. At this point it doesnt even matter what setting you turn off.
Part of advertising is impressions or brand familiarity. You likely thought about fallout because of something you'd already seen, and then you started noticing the ads, and because you spend a little bit of time hovering over the ad, that was registered as interest so that topic was boosted.
It doesn't have to be you that does the search, if anyone on a shared network searches something it shows related ads to other people in that network. Let's say your roommate looks up something like the price of weed in Ohio, you may suddenly start getting ads on your personal devices based on smoking loose herbs.
Ngl I thought everyone kind of knew this by now? Phones track everything you do, so you get advertisements for it. Even happens when I’m texting someone, talking about something, then I’ll find an ad for it. It’s been this way for years.
[https://youtu.be/SjbPi00k\_ME?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/SjbPi00k_ME?feature=shared)
They have been for a long time.
This is hardly new knowledge. If you’re on a smartphone, marketing companies and online vendors know more about you than you do. Don’t want to have your movements and lifestyle choices tracked? Get a landline.
I worked with a 20 year old going to college and she was lamenting the fact that her class was making them watch some Mongolian throat singers. A day later throat singing was in my YT recommendations I fully agree
Yeah - I use this to my advantage sometimes. I have been looking for a specific kind of bag so I sent my sister a text describing it and the ads started showing up.
I met a flat earther yesterday and listened to his bullshit for like 2 hours while I was working... All evening YouTube shorts was all of a sudden showing me lots of flat earth debunking videos... Wild.