Robert G. Reeve tweeted this informative thread about the urban legend that your phone and social media apps are listening to your conversations. Many people believe they are being listed to by their phones since it’s common to have a conversation about something and them almost immediately start seeing ads for it online. There is a reason this is happening, but it’s not because your phone is listening to you. As a privacy tech worker, he explains what is happening, and how you can stop it, in this thread:
Source: Robert G. Reeve
so here’s the the thing. I don’t care. I have an ad blocker on y computer and on my phone. collect that data. company’s wana know what brand of pickles i buy. be my guest. company’s wana know how long i was at the local gas station, what ever don’t care. track me all you want. I’m boring, I’m not doing anything illegal and my info really isn’t helping any of them in the fist place.
Right, I’d rather watch/see targeted ads even about my friends’ grocery-preferences, than BS I’m fully not interested in that has *zero* relevance to my life.
I’ve actually trained the Google ad algorithm pretty well. At this point I only see ads for 3D printing stuff and comics on Comixology. Which doesn’t bother me too much.
We live in a technological society. Trying to fight it seems silly, instead why not take control of it and make it our own? If I’m going to ever had ads, they might as well be something I’d want.
I used to feel the same – I have nothing to hide and they can’t force me to buy anything no matter how hard they advertise to me, so why worry about my data. But it’s not actually about advertising, it’s about companies (and governments) knowing enough about you to influence your thinking without your even being aware of it. That has much broader and scarier implications than showing you targeted ads.
This explanation is bogus, at least for his experience.
He didn’t use the brand of toothpaste before visiting his Mom. When ads were shown for the brand, he filtered them out as irrelevant. He wasn’t even aware of his mind doing this.
After his visit home and exposure to the brand, he is more inclined to notice the brand when it showed up in ads.
I used to think i had nothing to hide. But now if i want to travel to a Developing country or a Deteriorating country like the US, they will know i’m gay. That i spend time with someone transgender. Not remotely illegal here, but a source of border hassle in the US and potentially a death sentence in more other countries than the zero it ought to be. And there’s no moment in such countries when you’re safe.