iPad is listening to me

[tonmischa]

Frequency illusion is a cognitive bias in which, after noticing something for the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more often, leading someone to believe that it has a high frequency of occurrence.
Put plainly, the frequency illusion is when "a concept or thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere."

Frequency illusion - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[iDron]

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.

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.

These two suggestions are both right I think. So confirmation bias, plus you or people that are linked to you (by IP address, known relationships on facebook etc.) looking for something related in the past.


Think about it, it would be computationally impossible to listen to every smartphone owner in the world simultaneous, analyze who is talking, what the discussion is about and what ads are right for whom.

 

[calstanford]

There is a weird connection btw Google and Apple too that I've noticed and can't put my finger on. Whenever I search for a place on Google (different email/account than my Apple one) this place hence shows up on Apple Maps the next time I use Find My.

So for example just today I read about some obscure bar and what happened there. I wanted to see where the bar is and naturally I do that on Google (Maps).

Half an hour later when I use Find My, this small obscure bar I've never before heard of is one of the highlighted spots on the map. Out of 100s of bars/restaurants in the area.

 

[MajorFubar]

Some people are just convinced their tech is spying on them and you can't change their mind. My friend put a self-adhesive shutter over his iMac's camera to stop apps from spying on him, which he was convinced they were. I said to him, every time the camera is turned on, the little LED lights up: they are electrically wired together and it's not possible for an app to use the camera without the LED coming on as a tell-tale. He still didn't believe me.

 

[MajorFubar]

Frequency illusion is a cognitive bias in which, after noticing something for the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more often, leading someone to believe that it has a high frequency of occurrence.

I used to notice this as a child / younger person when dad decided to change the family car. Whatever car he bought, suddenly they seemed everywhere, even though previously I hadn't noticed them much and may have even considered them quite a rare sight on the roads.

 

[orbital~debris]

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.
View attachment 1935603

This would make more sense if the lingerie you talked about was actually teal instead of green.

As the product in the screenshot was a promoted post (a John Lewis department store ad), I looked it up on their website and it’s listed as ‘teal’.

(And even if the product colourway wasn’t called teal, I don’t think I’d describe what’s pictured in the screenshot as green.)

 

[threesixty360]

This would make more sense if the lingerie you talked about was actually teal instead of green.

As the product in the screenshot was a promoted post (a John Lewis department store ad), I looked it up on their website and it’s listed as ‘teal’.

(And even if the product colourway wasn’t called teal, I don’t think I’d describe what’s pictured in the screenshot as green.)

Teal is a variant of green.
How do you even know what search terms John Lewis paid for anyway? You cant tell from a website listing.

Ad buyers, buy words and phrases that are associated with their product not just the description you see on the listing!
Basically someone looking for green could well buy teal, so why wouldn't you target both colours?

Teal is a cyan-green color. Its name comes from that of a bird — the Eurasian teal (Anas crecca) — which presents a similarly colored stripe on its head. The word is often used colloquially to refer to shades of cyan in general.

 

[orbital~debris]

Teal is a variant of green.
How do you even know what search terms John Lewis paid for anyway? You cant tell from a website listing.

Ad buyers, buy words and phrases that are associated with their product not just the description you see on the listing!
Basically someone looking for green could well buy teal, so why wouldn't you target both colours?

Teal is a cyan-green color. Its name comes from that of a bird — the Eurasian teal (Anas crecca) — which presents a similarly colored stripe on its head. The word is often used colloquially to refer to shades of cyan in general.

Fair point about the words/phrases bought 🙂

Also teal is one of the more subjective colours I suppose; iOS' integrated dictionary mentions "teal blue".

 

[lostless]

I'm sure our devices are listening to us. I usually get YouTube video recommendations that are loosely based of things I've talked about with others. Makes you go, huh?
Probably the creepiest was I was talking with a co worker about about something, and he suggested a you tube video right before we got off work, and I told him I'll look it up later. It was a video and topic I would not just get recommend based off my history. Neither of us were on Wifi, and neither of us (as far as I know) looked it up at work. So I go home, boot up my xbox to youtube, and what do you know? The second recommended video on you tube was that video. No more that 30 mins after we were talking about it.

 

[Mega ST]

At work I deliberately talk to a colleague about wanting to buy some Rolls Royce car to trigger this effect since about a year. However none of us have received any RR advertisements.
Maybe they are so smart by now, that they know we cannot afford any RR and we just do this for fun?

 

[Unami]

I'm sure our devices are listening to us. I usually get YouTube video recommendations that are loosely based of things I've talked about with others. Makes you go, huh?
Probably the creepiest was I was talking with a co worker about about something, and he suggested a you tube video right before we got off work, and I told him I'll look it up later. It was a video and topic I would not just get recommend based off my history. Neither of us were on Wifi, and neither of us (as far as I know) looked it up at work. So I go home, boot up my xbox to youtube, and what do you know? The second recommended video on you tube was that video. No more that 30 mins after we were talking about it.

but do you have wifi or location services enabled (e.g. for safari or allowed it for some third party app to use it in the background)? or did you give bluetooth/microphone access to a third party app? they might occasionally emit a sound that’s recieved by other devices or check for other bluetooth devices in the background and sell that location data to facebook/google/…

pretty sure that those companiescan deduct that you are co-workers from the same location you‘re in several days a week and the wifis you‘re passing on your way (when your device has wifi switched on it communicates with every wifi it passes to get it’s ssid and see if it‘s a known network and thus can be tracked)