I have experienced things weeks ago I was thinking about a movie and asked Alexa about it and who was the lead actor and just two days later he sadly passed away which just really surprised me!
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Is your iPhone listening to you?
- Thread starter ForkHandles
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Remember when apple added the green and orange dots for microphone and camera and so many companies got caught. I feel Instagram is the most invasive. Who knows what these apps are cooking in the background. Maybe they have gotten smarter with time and found other ways.
And don't forget about Pegasus. Don't think it has just went away...
And don't forget about Pegasus. Don't think it has just went away...
Whilst there will be plenty of pushback from people who think the idea is absurd, Its happened to me and enough other people enough times in the past that it cannot be pure coincidence. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire internet ad industry collapsed within the next decade after it came out they were listening for certain keywords or phrases. I had no idea about those invisible pixels in emails until Apple mentioned it some years ago!
A few years ago my brother and I were discussing his upcoming work trip to Thailand. Just me and him sat in the kitchen talking about it. Our phones in our pockets. It was when martial law had just been declared and I said 'be careful they've just declared martial law'. Within a few hours I was receiving spam emails about holidays in Thailand and random clickbait scam emails with the subjects mentioning the words 'martial law' in various ways. This certainly got my attention and so I tried a little experiment. I tuned into a Spanish tv channel and left my phone in the room for a few hours. Sure enough a few days later I start getting spam emails in Spanish.
I don't have any of the usual suspect apps on my phone like Facebook, Instagram etc. I simply don't do social media and most of my apps are simply Apple's own so makes you wonder who or what apps are listening. I know Google builds up profiles in many different ways on each person by recording tiny bits of data from many different data points and adding it to your 'account' if you will. Then each time they sell it on you get a whole new swathe of crap coming your way. I've got every thing locked down so well now its very clear to see when my details have been sold on again.
I now block spam on the server side myself and get next to no spam emails coming though at all. Initially it was quite a mammoth task adding all the spam email addresses I had received from in the past to a block list but once the main lot was done it was only a case of adding the new instances when they came through. Now I have the ability to block the top level domain so it's much easier to block huge swathes of potential email addresses before they even arrive.
For adverts while browsing and Youtube etc I set my VPN location to Albania and see no adverts at all now because Albania being a relatively poor country is not enticing to advertisers. Im sure my phone is still listening somehow and spam is getting sent but I can now very effectively block them all. So much so in fact that Google every so often keep sending me an email saying they cannot verify if I'm 18 or over and so keep turning off certain services or whatever it is they keep harping on about. I only have a Google account so I can subscribe to certain Youtube channels.
I also use HideMyEmail a lot for new web signups but I try not to needlessly sign up to sites I don't need to and I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine. With all that in place I probably get no spam (emails or ads) for around a month then get a clutch of them all from similar domains but different emails. That's when I know my details have been sold again and someone new is targeting me. I then just block the Top Level Domain part and no more spam. Any emails that do come through I've set Apple Mail to not download remote content. As soon as you do download remote content (images etc) then the sender knows your account is active and will send more (or sell you on again).
For the most part what is happening is people you come into contact with have been looking at 'Thai holidays' on their phone, then they discuss it with you and because they looked at it on their phone, Google et al know your two phones came into close contact and then presume you talked about Thai holidays and so then start pushing those ads to you. It's clever but in my opinion unethical. If anyone actually read Googles T&Cs they would avoid them like the plague but no one can be bothered or just don't care that companies make millions from their data. I do.
As for the Spanish TV part of my story there must be some kind of actual listening going on so who knows?!
I don't have any of the usual suspect apps on my phone like Facebook, Instagram etc. I simply don't do social media and most of my apps are simply Apple's own so makes you wonder who or what apps are listening. I know Google builds up profiles in many different ways on each person by recording tiny bits of data from many different data points and adding it to your 'account' if you will. Then each time they sell it on you get a whole new swathe of crap coming your way. I've got every thing locked down so well now its very clear to see when my details have been sold on again.
I now block spam on the server side myself and get next to no spam emails coming though at all. Initially it was quite a mammoth task adding all the spam email addresses I had received from in the past to a block list but once the main lot was done it was only a case of adding the new instances when they came through. Now I have the ability to block the top level domain so it's much easier to block huge swathes of potential email addresses before they even arrive.
For adverts while browsing and Youtube etc I set my VPN location to Albania and see no adverts at all now because Albania being a relatively poor country is not enticing to advertisers. Im sure my phone is still listening somehow and spam is getting sent but I can now very effectively block them all. So much so in fact that Google every so often keep sending me an email saying they cannot verify if I'm 18 or over and so keep turning off certain services or whatever it is they keep harping on about. I only have a Google account so I can subscribe to certain Youtube channels.
I also use HideMyEmail a lot for new web signups but I try not to needlessly sign up to sites I don't need to and I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine. With all that in place I probably get no spam (emails or ads) for around a month then get a clutch of them all from similar domains but different emails. That's when I know my details have been sold again and someone new is targeting me. I then just block the Top Level Domain part and no more spam. Any emails that do come through I've set Apple Mail to not download remote content. As soon as you do download remote content (images etc) then the sender knows your account is active and will send more (or sell you on again).
For the most part what is happening is people you come into contact with have been looking at 'Thai holidays' on their phone, then they discuss it with you and because they looked at it on their phone, Google et al know your two phones came into close contact and then presume you talked about Thai holidays and so then start pushing those ads to you. It's clever but in my opinion unethical. If anyone actually read Googles T&Cs they would avoid them like the plague but no one can be bothered or just don't care that companies make millions from their data. I do.
As for the Spanish TV part of my story there must be some kind of actual listening going on so who knows?!
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I have experience the same sort of issues. For example. If I'm talking to someone about a friend I haven't seen in awhile, next thing you know, I get picture memories about that specific person. I always chalked it up to pure coincidence, but this happens more often than not.
Is it a smart TV connected to the internet? TVs can track what you're watching, even if it's something OTA or from some other input device. BTW, I often get ads and junk mail in Spanish even though I have nothing to do with it. (Spanish is becoming more common here in the US.) Could just be another example of frequency illusion.
I think, many have covered the main details already. Still, I’ll add my own tidbits.
It’s a long list, most URLs of which I’ve had no awareness.
It’s a long list, most URLs of which I’ve had no awareness.
Since several months back, I had a coworker appear as a suggested friend on Facebook. Someone I’ve never looked up on social media or anywhere (before). And looking at their profile details right now, they haven’t even added/updated the current employer. But sure enough. these corporations have put together strong enough profiles to link us nonetheless.
Hilarious and depressing.
I’m not a Rossmann fan, however, he does have sensible rants sometimes.
Nope quite an old TV and definitely not smart. Even if it was I don't ever connect smart TVs to the net for two reasons. One they track you as we know but the built in OS' are usually utter garbage.
I don't think it is . When I ask it to find some data on the internet, it calls my mom . If it listen to me it's probably senile or near deaf
And then repeat that experiment while your phone is completely turned off.
The ads will still come up.
Which PROVES that the phone is listening EVEN WHEN COMPLETELY TURNED OFF!
I often wonder if anyone today remembers Snowden’s words over 12 years ago, which remain just as true today, “The greatest fear I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change…”
…it seems safe to say his fear was valid and became reality.
Besides a bit more awareness in very small circles of people, and besides the cosmetic addition of “s” to “http,” nothing has changed for the better since 2013. Most consumers today do not care…. so yes it’s safe to assume your iphone may be listening at all times.
Note the “dates when PRISM collection began,” for Apple, 2012…
…it seems safe to say his fear was valid and became reality.
Besides a bit more awareness in very small circles of people, and besides the cosmetic addition of “s” to “http,” nothing has changed for the better since 2013. Most consumers today do not care…. so yes it’s safe to assume your iphone may be listening at all times.
Note the “dates when PRISM collection began,” for Apple, 2012…
Attachments
Funniest ad targeting I had…. Was I usually get car ads or tech ads when watching you tube…
A couple years ago I got obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo song good 4 u so was playing that on you tube a bit…. Then I started getting ads for women’s sanitary products 😂😂😂
A couple years ago I got obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo song good 4 u so was playing that on you tube a bit…. Then I started getting ads for women’s sanitary products 😂😂😂
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I made a new workbench for my shop, it is gorgeous and is made of real wood rather than ply.
It didn’t take very long for my video searches on HardWood workbenches to start showing me adverts for Viagra!
I think if Apple did this, they would want money, lots of it, from Meta and Google and anyone else. Then there would have to be a transfer of money, so that transfer would have to be on the books somewhere, otherwise they would have to materialize money out of thin air, which they can’t do. Companies that don’t track their money well end up sued by shareholders or bankrupt, so we can assume that this would be on the books, and being on the books, someone would notice.
in addition, someone would receive material from Apple that offers this clandestine operation to their company and they would send it to the press. We would have whistleblowers blowing the whistle left and right. Usually that’s what hurts most conspiracies is people do tell the press a lot of things.
And if the whistle was blown, that would invite a massive class action lawsuit. And funny enough, there was one already against Apple, for Siri recording people. Nowhere was it ever said it was used for ads, heck there wasn’t even any proven damages, Apple just agreed to settle it and that was it. Class actions are maybe one of the biggest checks against this, things get discovered about large companies all the time and they get sued all the time.
“But why do I see such topical ads then?” That’s correlation, not causation. Combination of data mining, frequency bias, post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, etc. People need to know that data mining is insanely good these days.
But I did try telling my phone about ballerina shoes. Got nothin’. No difference. Things like dog food, I think it’s a result of so many people having dogs. It’s like 50+%, there’s a huge market for dog food, they’re gonna send a lot of dog food ads out regardless.
in addition, someone would receive material from Apple that offers this clandestine operation to their company and they would send it to the press. We would have whistleblowers blowing the whistle left and right. Usually that’s what hurts most conspiracies is people do tell the press a lot of things.
And if the whistle was blown, that would invite a massive class action lawsuit. And funny enough, there was one already against Apple, for Siri recording people. Nowhere was it ever said it was used for ads, heck there wasn’t even any proven damages, Apple just agreed to settle it and that was it. Class actions are maybe one of the biggest checks against this, things get discovered about large companies all the time and they get sued all the time.
“But why do I see such topical ads then?” That’s correlation, not causation. Combination of data mining, frequency bias, post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, etc. People need to know that data mining is insanely good these days.
But I did try telling my phone about ballerina shoes. Got nothin’. No difference. Things like dog food, I think it’s a result of so many people having dogs. It’s like 50+%, there’s a huge market for dog food, they’re gonna send a lot of dog food ads out regardless.
I had an experience like this a year or two ago and it fully convinced me that the phone is listening.
I went to the breakroom at work with a colleague to get some coffee from the machine. Everytime the coffee machine makes a cup, you can see the water line cable flow and it makes a hissing sound. My colleague joked about what if the water line just blew off and flooded the place. I casually mentioned that over a decade ago, I lived in an apartment that had a bad water leak over a weekend and the entire apartment floor got flooded and it was a nightmare. Got coffee, went back to work.
The next day, on multiple sites, I was getting ads for professional water damage cleanup. I had not searched or browsed any sites related to this. It was just a throwaway conversation where I mentioned out loud at work about an event over a decade before. There was literally no reason for me to be targeted with those ads other than verbalization of water damage.
They are listening, people. 🤪
I went to the breakroom at work with a colleague to get some coffee from the machine. Everytime the coffee machine makes a cup, you can see the water line cable flow and it makes a hissing sound. My colleague joked about what if the water line just blew off and flooded the place. I casually mentioned that over a decade ago, I lived in an apartment that had a bad water leak over a weekend and the entire apartment floor got flooded and it was a nightmare. Got coffee, went back to work.
The next day, on multiple sites, I was getting ads for professional water damage cleanup. I had not searched or browsed any sites related to this. It was just a throwaway conversation where I mentioned out loud at work about an event over a decade before. There was literally no reason for me to be targeted with those ads other than verbalization of water damage.
They are listening, people. 🤪
After reading this thread multiple times and also talking to a friend about it, I got multiple amazon ads for tinfoil.
This can't no longer be a coincidence!
This can't no longer be a coincidence!
A bit off-topic but somewhat related:
Instagram boss says it's not secretly using your phone's microphone to record you – here's why you still believe it (Techspot.com)
I am in agreement with the commenters on that article that our activities are recorded and the apps then push the relevant ads back to us.
Instagram boss says it's not secretly using your phone's microphone to record you – here's why you still believe it (Techspot.com)
I am in agreement with the commenters on that article that our activities are recorded and the apps then push the relevant ads back to us.