Call me crazy, but I think my phone is eavesdropping on me.
Earlier this week, I was talking to my mom in the car about getting some more workout clothes. This was an entirely verbal interaction, so I didn't write anything about it down on my phone or search for workout clothes on Safari.
The next day, I was using my phone to look something up online, and an ad for Nike running appeared. I thought that this was strange because I had not typed in any athletic brands into my browser. I know that many websites use cookies, or files that keep track of everything you have searched to try to show you ads that were created for your target market profile.
I've experienced cookies before. If I am on my computer and looking at the websites of clothing brands I like, I often will see advertisements for similar clothing brands the next day. I even find myself clicking on the ad and being delivered to its page, where I spend 10-20 minutes scrolling and wasting time.
However, in the case that I most recently experienced, it was different from the use of cookies. I did not type in anything about athletic clothes or brands into my browser, and my phone still showed me several ads for the, as if it heard me talking to my mom in the car. I've experienced a similar situation with other topics. After talking about makeup, I saw Sephora ads. After talking about wanting to go traveling, I saw ads for airlines.
I talked to my friends about this, and they too have had moments where they were spoke about something and then saw an ad for it the next day. If so many people are experiencing this phenomenon, where it feels like our phones and computers and listening to us, could there be any shred of truth to it? Perhaps my target market profile is so exact and accurate that companies just know what ads will appeal to me the most. Have you ever had a similar experience and gotten a little freaked out by your device's ability to show you ads for topics you were just talking about?
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I have noticed while scrolling through Instagram and Twitter, that a common post is a comparison of girls when they were 12-14 vs. 12-14-yea...
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Call me crazy, but I think my phone is eavesdropping on me. Earlier this week, I was talking to my mom in the car about getting some more ...
I have heard about this happening with Alexa, the household helper. I honestly wouldn't doubt it for Alexa, because she is always supposed to be listening for commands. If she is always listening, then she hears information that could be useful for advertising. It would not surprise me if this were true for iphones as well
ReplyDeleteI have also had similar experiences. It is very odd how we have come to accept that a robot in the corner of a room is always listening for their name to fulfill your command. It leads one to wonder if they really just listening for their name 110% of the time. Likely, they are listening to anything you say at anytime within its distance of earshot.
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