iPad is listening to me

[bcburrows]

Suspect know the answer but curious.

I have never been fishing in my life, no interest in it whatsoever…. Yesterday was talking to my dad about a friend of mine and said he worked in the fishing industry, talked about it for around 10 mins maybe. Today my iPad, but not my iPhone or mac keeps linking to fishing equipment and screen links appearing e.g. eBay suggesting great sales on fishing kit….

Anyone else had this before and know how to disable it?

 

[velocityg4]

Suspect know the answer but curious.

I have never been fishing in my life, no interest in it whatsoever…. Yesterday was talking to my dad about a friend of mine and said he worked in the fishing industry, talked about it for around 10 mins maybe. Today my iPad, but not my iPhone or mac keeps linking to fishing equipment and screen links appearing e.g. eBay suggesting great sales on fishing kit….

Anyone else had this before and know how to disable it?

Maybe it's Hey Siri. I've had it happen recently. Don't remember what it was. I just remember it was some off the wall topic I was talking about. Then suddenly had ads appear for it in my iPhone.

I just chalked it up to coincidence. Since it's not something which happens regularly. Now if it happened frequently. I might be concerned.

 

[chefwong]

I've experience it myself on iPhone. Was talking to a friend. I suggested a very unique brand of some mtb equipment. Lo and behold, the following day, targeted ads...

 

[Jtludwig]

Are you hearing voices in your head?

 

[bcburrows]

Are you hearing voices in your head?

No - it’s screen messages! Slightly more evidence that it is bit me

 

[ParagJain]

Suspect know the answer but curious.

I have never been fishing in my life, no interest in it whatsoever…. Yesterday was talking to my dad about a friend of mine and said he worked in the fishing industry, talked about it for around 10 mins maybe. Today my iPad, but not my iPhone or mac keeps linking to fishing equipment and screen links appearing e.g. eBay suggesting great sales on fishing kit….

Anyone else had this before and know how to disable it?

Has happened number of times with me .. many times i have shared with family members and friends who didn't believe me. And guess what, i speak in Hindi - yet, few apps like google, facebook, facebook messenger usually gives me advertisement related to what i was speaking.

Number of times it has happened that even if I give just 1 alphabet on Google, it usually recommends the topic i was talking sometime back.

Like couple of days back I was talking about hotels at a place called Chikkamangulur, and the moment I pressed "H", google suggested me Hotels in Chikka*** ..

At-least in my mind, i do feel that yes, phones do listen and is able to use it for targeted advertisement.

 

[Puonti]

It's interesting - I don't have Google or Facebook apps on my phone and I don't experience these kinds of situations. My partner has and occasionally does.

In my experience it's not the "phone" (or tablet) listening, it's the apps. But that's just me.

 

[ParagJain]

It's interesting - I don't have Google or Facebook apps on my phone and I don't experience these kinds of situations. My partner has and occasionally does.

In my experience it's not the "phone" (or tablet) listening, it's the apps. But that's just me.

You are correct, its the apps that is listening..but the challenge is that iphone indicates with those orange and green dots if any app is accessing mic/camera, don't know how it still happens.

 

[humpbacktwale]

You see thousands of ads unrelated to anything you have or will talk about. Eventually something is going to line up. It's just confirmation bias.

People have been saying this for years, and anytime anyone tried to reproduce it, or investigate it at the hardware or software level, they come up blank, and no one who works in the ad industry ever seems to be able to substantiate the claims.

 

[ecatomb]

Suspect know the answer but curious.

I have never been fishing in my life, no interest in it whatsoever…. Yesterday was talking to my dad about a friend of mine and said he worked in the fishing industry, talked about it for around 10 mins maybe. Today my iPad, but not my iPhone or mac keeps linking to fishing equipment and screen links appearing e.g. eBay suggesting great sales on fishing kit….

Anyone else had this before and know how to disable it?

It shouldn't be Siri ?

Can be a Google, FaceBook or Amazon app.
If you are using temporary same WiFi that you dad, ad company could know you are related. So if your dad look for something about fishing on google or amazon, they could sell ads about it to you.

Hard to know what really bring you these ads. Can be many things...

 

[smoking monkey]

I have lockdown app installed and have no Google, Amazon, Facebook etc on my iphone. I also turn off all Siri suggestions and personalized ads and the like and I never get this. But my buddy definitely gets this. He's always logged in to his Gmail account.

I do wonder what it is. I don't buy the coincidence factor. It's definitely listening somehow.

 

[Lihp8270]

They (Facebook, google, etc) don’t need to listen.

From their data models they’ll easily link you to your father.

Your dad starts searching Facebook/internet about stuff you were talking about.

They know you’re related and recently in the same location, so it’s not a stretch for them (the algorithms) to make the connection and serve you the ads.

 

[ParagJain]

Perspective | How to block Facebook from snooping on you

If you ever get that eerie feeling Facebook or Instagram is listening to you, you’re not entirely hallucinating.Facebook says it’s not literally activating the microphones on our smartphones, but it is tracking what we do in other apps, websites and even real-world stores. That much data can make …

flip.it

 

[w5jck]

Go to Settings —> Privacy —> Microphone and verify you didn’t accidentally give an app access to your microphone. Toggle it off if you did.

 

[orbital~debris]

They (Facebook, google, etc) don’t need to listen.

From their data models they’ll easily link you to your father.

Your dad starts searching Facebook/internet about stuff you were talking about.

They know you’re related and recently in the same location, so it’s not a stretch for them (the algorithms) to make the connection and serve you the ads.

For anyone reading this thread, this post above explains the cause and is the right answer.

 

[Ruggy]

It's happened to me too and it could just be coincidence.
But the machine is listening to you all the time that's a fact- unless you turn it off.
If you can say 'Hey Siri' and it responds then it is de facto listening to you. It can't work any other way.

 

[Spock]

From what I have been told is that if you are in a group of people and are on the same wifi network, you will start to get targeted ads for whatever that group of people searches for shortly after you left the wifi network. So if you are in a group of people talking about fishing, the router/isp can see if one of you google anything fishing related and then they start sending targeted ads for fishing to those who were also on that connection.

 

[Samdh90]

From what I have been told is that if you are in a group of people and are on the same wifi network, you will start to get targeted ads for whatever that group of people searches for shortly after you left the wifi network. So if you are in a group of people talking about fishing, the router/isp can see if one of you google anything fishing related and then they start sending targeted ads for fishing to those who were also on that connection.

Damn, that is dirty if true ...

 

[MagnusTheDog]

I have never setup or used Siri. Never will. Too much chance of Apple abusing the feature no matter what they say about privacy. Same for Amazon and Google.

 

[Nermal]

Something similar just happened to me last night. I have Hey Siri disabled, and under Settings/Privacy/Microphone I have every listed app disabled (notably Safari is not listed).

My phone was sitting on a table, with the screen off. My brother said that he was about to watch Harry Potter. I grabbed my phone and opened Safari, and the keyboard's autocomplete suggestion bar had Harry Potter listed.

This is the sort of thing I'd expect from Google, but it really surprised me to see Apple doing it, with them harping on about privacy and trustworthiness. Does anyone know what's going on here?

iOS 14, no Facebook apps.

 

[kevcube]

@Nermal lots of people are watching Harry Potter around the holidays. there's a chance that it's just coincidence. maybe based on trends of the area you live in, or the type of person your advertising profile thinks you are.

 

[Nermal]

Well, even if it's not listening, why is there advertising inside the keyboard, of all places?

 

[threesixty360]

Your Phone Is Listening and it's Not Paranoia

Here's how I got to bottom of the ads-coinciding-with-conversations mystery.

www.vice.com

It's happening!

The other day I was talking to my girlfriend and I said for some mad reason... "I've never seen green lingerie before". It's a phrase I've never said in my life and never googled before. 5 minutes later I open Pinterest in the mix of Red Wing boots and mens clothing there is a standout picture of a woman in green lingerie!

Unreal!!

I think its Siri listening and Apple selling ads. (It cant be google or fb this time as I rarely use them and their audio features wouldnt be on or I'd see the yellow dot etc..).
I think they have all changed their T&C's to cover for this somehow but they aren't telling people its happening even though it blatant is.

And to be honest, why wouldnt they try it out if they could without telling people? Companies tend to ask for forgiveness not permission right?

I even have the screen shot of the Pinterest page I was so shocked by it.
This really isn't a good look.. not happy about this at all.

 

[mkelly]

Something many people don’t consider when it comes to search results: if you are in a location where multiple people‘s computers appear behind a single IP address (such as in a family home with a router, or an office), you may see ads that are based on another person’s browsing or search history, from the same IP address.

Example: you’re in the office and having a discussion with a couple co-workers about, I don’t know … the best colour you can get a MINI Cooper in. You and your friends verbally decide that British Racing Green is the pinnacle of MINI Cooper colours (I wouldn’t disagree). You then go back to work at your desks … well, you do. One of your friends spends an hour doing Google, FaceBook and Bing (?) image searches for MINI Coopers in British Racing Green. All of these searches appear to come from a single IP address as far as each search engine is concerned.

3 hours later you get your work done, and start browsing the web (also from the same external corporate IP address). And weirdly, you start noticing that a lot of ads seem to feature MINI Coopers … in British Racing Green.

You therefore conclude (wrongly) that because you were carrying your phone with you during the lunchtime discussion, that Google/Facebook/Bing/Apple were listening to your discussion.

 

[Nermal]

Something similar just happened to me last night. I have Hey Siri disabled, and under Settings/Privacy/Microphone I have every listed app disabled (notably Safari is not listed).

My phone was sitting on a table, with the screen off. My brother said that he was about to watch Harry Potter. I grabbed my phone and opened Safari, and the keyboard's autocomplete suggestion bar had Harry Potter listed.

This is the sort of thing I'd expect from Google, but it really surprised me to see Apple doing it, with them harping on about privacy and trustworthiness. Does anyone know what's going on here?

iOS 14, no Facebook apps.

Just an update to this. It seems that it was a coincidence and/or bug. I found that if I open the keyboard when I'm on a particular website then it prefills "Harry Potter" as an autocomplete entry. The site has nothing to do with HP but Apple's 'suggester' seems to think that it does. I've now seen it multiple times when on that site, and haven't seen it elsewhere.