Perhaps they track who you talk to and show you ads that are relevant to those people, or their best guess based on two profiles.
I don’t think there’s a data center out there with a live audio stream of literally billions of always-on devices 24/7/365.
Perhaps there’s some local processing first, but devices have permissions for apps, and lights that indicate the mic/camera is in use.
I figure someone would have figured it out by now (reverse engineering, decompiling code), or someone from Google would have leaked it if it were true. Think of the number of people required to keep this secret.
ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
It can always be explained by something else. Recency bias being a big one. It’s very possible you saw an ad yesterday as well, but didn’t notice you saw it because you haven’t talked about that item. Talk about it today, see the same ad, and now you think you’re being listened to.
It’s very possible your father googled something after hanging up the phone. There are endless ways they can connect you to knowing your father.
It’s possible someone on the same wifi network as you or your father overheard the conversation and looked it up.
All of these are far more likely than everything you say and do being recorded without anyone ever finding any definitive proof.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
There have been ad agencies who have claimed to be able to do this, so they would if they could. www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-l…
AtariDump@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Just because an ad agency makes a claim doesn’t mean it’s true or doable.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
Right
spujb@lemmy.cafe 4 weeks ago
yeah it does
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 4 weeks ago
Except I’ve had experiences that aren’t explainable by alm this:
Discussing a random, never-thought-of-before idea with a friend, in the car. Neither of us had ever thought of this thing before (honestly don’t recall now what it was). Discussed it for 2 minutes, then moved on.
Later we’re both seeing related ads, yet neither of us searched for anything.
And it was something way out of left field for both of us, that neither of us had ever thought of before. The related ads were so jarring that we both told each other about it.
Oh, and my phone was rooted, de-googled (lineage), with heavy restrictions for the apps, no social media (I still don’t have any accounts with any of them, except here), etc. The other phone was an iPhone.
ByteJunk@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
The scary thought here isn’t that they’re actively listening in.
It’s that they know enough about you to know that something will be of interest to you before you even realise it yourself…
ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
If it’s a never before thought of idea how can there possibly be ads for it? No one has ever thought of it and the product doesn’t exist right?
Like I said, there are always other ways. Maybe you searched something related the day before and don’t remember. Maybe your friend did.
sit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
Ever had a free free flowing conversation for hours?
You talk about things you wouldn’t possibly think of alone because of the other person.
Im located in Germany ne I guess many of you people are have not yet been victim of this, else you would agree with me.