[ddulaney]

I don’t think it’s that surprising. Here’s two true statements:

I don’t trust my phone on a fundamental level. I also have mentioned things out loud and gotten ads afterward about them.

On the one hand, those two statements absolutely don’t prove that my phone is listening. Just because I don’t trust my phone doesn’t mean that it’s being used maliciously, and the ads I’ve seen might just be a coincidence.

On the other hand, those two statements together are definitely suggestive. They feel suspicious. It would be so easy for Apple/Google/Samsung to secretly listen and make a boatload of money by telling me a lie. Lord knows they’ve lied about other things.

So yeah, balance of evidence is that phones probably don’t do that. But don’t be surprised when people suspect that they do.

[nuancebydefault]

Your phone doesn't need to listen to you to know your interests. The ad algos are smart enough to figure it out from your browsing behavior.

Also, it happened a few times I talked about some thing and an hour later it was talked about on broadcast TV. People over-fit on finding patterns.