Your phone is listening to you all the time

[Klayfish]

Look!! A black helicopter! Get your tin foil hat!

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Still doesn’t explain how they know to show you ads for something you have only spoken about, not done an online search on.

The fact they are listening doesn’t really bother me (if it did I would turn the mic off and not go online) but I do find it funny when they insist over and over again they are not doing it.

 

[wenrob]

Still doesn’t explain how they know to show you ads for something you have only spoken about, not done an online search on.

The fact they are listening doesn’t really bother me (if it did I would turn the mic off and not go online) but I do find it funny when they insist over and over again they are not doing it.

If you read the article someone posted above there is simply not enough space to store all that data. There just isn’t. It’s more likely an ad was clicked on at some point or other things relating to that item have been researched. It seems like it’s out of nowhere but it’s not. *Something* in your recent web history even if it doesn’t seem remotely connected most likely trigged it.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Sorry it is too much of a coincidence one hour after speaking with my realtor about needing a couch that both google and Facebook all of a sudden were showing couch ads (and only couch ads). I did not search for furniture at anytime during or before this, let alone a couch and it is too specific to have gotten the one item we needed, that quickly after the conversation, if not listening.

They can say they are not doing it and they do not have the capability to store the data but I call bull.

 

[Mike10206]

Yep, it sure is. If you have facebook, talk about some random odd subject with your phone near you and see how long it takes for ads pertaining to that subject to appear on Facebook.

I had this very thing happen to me. I was with a coworker in Germany. He told me to watch the facebook app because it was always listening. I told him I didn’t believe him. He wanted to do a test. He told me to get up from our table and we left our phones. He told me to talk about something I have never before. I said, let’s talk about a vacation to Egypt to see pyramids. I have NEVER talked about that before. Totally random. Sure enough, a few hours later I had adds in my FB feed for guided trips to Egypt to see the pyramids. Then when we were planning our last WDW trip, I said I wanted a Mickey shirt with my college on it. Sure enough, an add for a t-shirt with the very thing I wanted showed up. Not for this reason, but I have gotten off FB. But I think they all do that. We are under constant surveillance, known or unknown.

 

[Kellykins1218]

 

[disneyseniors]

Ick! That all creeps me out!
I'm glad I'm old fashioned and have a flip phone. I also have an Ipod touch that has the Siri feature, BUT I never turned it on or used it.
I was wondering about privacy and face book, and have been thinking about deleting fb anyway. Pretty scary stuff, IMO.

 

[FastPasser.]

My hat has Mickey ears though.

They can't listen in on me because I don't have a cell phone. Yup, that's correct, no cell phone. I've never owned a smart phone. I know, you're saying, how does he get by?

 

[hereyago]

Honestly, it is no different then having a grocery reward card that gets scanned at check out, then you get coupons for your "usual" items you purchase.

We now can tell Alexa to order something..

I found this little gem about tracking you by phone:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/lifeha...k-you-using-your-smartphone-and-827512308/amp

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

My hat has Mickey ears though.

They can't listen in on me because I don't have a cell phone. Yup, that's correct, no cell phone. I've never owned a smart phone. I know, you're saying, how does he get by?

I actually am wondering how that works. Do you have a pager or something? How do you drive places without Google maps? How do people reach you when you aren't at home?

 

[Kellykins1218]

My hat has Mickey ears though.

They can't listen in on me because I don't have a cell phone. Yup, that's correct, no cell phone. I've never owned a smart phone. I know, you're saying, how does he get by?

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

I actually am wondering how that works. Do you have a pager or something? How do you drive places without Google maps? How do people reach you when you aren't at home?

Not sure if you are seriously asking or not, but most of us survived for years before cell phones or pagers were a thing. It’s not difficult, people use maps with directions. You could also use a gps for getting around which has only become mainstream in the past 20 or so years. As for people getting in touch with you, they can leave a message at your landline or if they know where your headed to they can leave a message their, and you can call them back later.

 

[Klayfish]

Not sure if you are seriously asking or not, but most of us survived for years before cell phones or pagers were a thing. It’s not difficult, people use maps with directions. You could also use a gps for getting around which has only become mainstream in the past 20 or so years. As for people getting in touch with you, they can leave a message at your landline or if they know where your headed to they can leave a message their, and you can call them back later.

Exactly. The world did exist before 1995. Yes, most people use these modern technologies, but you don't have to.

 

[Imzadi]

I'm surprised not a single person has mentioned Cortana. If you have a Win 10 computer, then you have Cortana on your computer, listening in or tracking stuff on your computer, unless you disabled it. That was the FIRST setting I changed when upgraded to Win 10.

I also don't use any new Microsoft apps on my computer. I found what would have been a nifty note-taking app pre-installed. (Not the old Notepad or Wordpad programs.) I was about to use it, when I read in the app/program's description that if I type in an address, I could click on it to see how easily Bing (Microsoft's Search engine), will be able to bring up a map of the address for me. Meaning it's MONITORING what I'm typing!

The only reason I decided I wanted a note-taking / To Do list on my computer was because I had been writing one out to myself in my Gmail. I usually compose an email of my To Do list in Gmail, yet never send it to myself. It just stays a Draft that I constantly edit. When shopping, if I have forgotten to print it out, I can just go to my Gmail while in the store and read the Draft of my To-Do list.

Usually, I have a list for just the dollar store. I usually need some knick-knack from there so I have a list. The list had always said just "Dollar Store" at the top. One time, I needed stuff from a generic Dollar Store and stuff that I know I would find at a specific Dollar Tree store I was heading to. So I added to the list "Dollar Tree." The next day, I'm on YouTube. In the past, I had seen various videos on my YouTube Home page recommending some different "Dollar Store Hacks" videos. But, that day, it was suddenly "Dollar Tree Hacks." And I knew it was too coincidental. Now, I know Google owns YouTube. I also know Google culls our emails to tailor some Google Ads for me. However, I had set the Google Ads setting to NOT find me tailored ads. And I didn't know that Google would be culling UNSENT/Drafts of emails. This stuff was still only in the thought process. Not sent or received emails. And I didn't know it would be "sharing" the data to a completely different website, regardless that Google owns it. I felt that was a real invasion of privacy.

So, I decided to now write as many documents as possible on my computer that are not kept on some Cloud, where someone could read, cull, hack, while it's being "stored" there. And certainly not some program, that also culls info and sends it to Microsoft, Bing, some map app, etc., without my knowledge.

I own an Android smartphone. And I do use Gmail and Google Maps extensively. Yet, I don't want BOTH Google AND Microsoft to be keeping tabs on me in some way. Nor Alexa or Siri or Cortana or Julie or Jack, etc.

 

[Imzadi]

I can answer this!!! I used to work for Google (as a contractor for another company) as an Ads Quality Rater. I can't give details, but I can tell you that Google employs tens of thousands of people each year to help them assess how various parts of their search algorithm is working. Google is listening in on you, not your phone. Anything you do in a Google browser is tracked. Every website you visit, every page you read. Every time somebody searches for something it is logged, and when many people are found to search for the same things those things become an important part of how Google generates search results. That's how those Google autofills that are scarily specific happen. If you find this creepy you can opt out. Incognito searches are still logged, by the way, so don't think you are being stealthy. I had to assess some freaky search queries, back in the day

Yes, what most people don't understand is Google is on EVERY webpage one visits. I have an Ad blocker app called "No Script." It actually stops certain webpage scripts from being loaded on a page. Some of the scripts are ads, some are other junk one does not need to view a webpage. Some really slow down a page from loading. Some are malicious web coding. Some are tracking info. As in Google has a tracking code on EVERY webpage called, "Google Analytics" which tracks every page one visits.

This is THIS page of the DIS. I opened my NoScripts add-on in Firefox to show what I have permanently disallowed from being loaded on every webpage I visit by labeling it "untrusted." And there it is on THE DIS: Google-analytics. It's there on every other page I visit. Google has other ways of tracking me. But, this isn't one of them.

 

[cinnaminny]

Sometimes it just knows things without you even saying a word. I was home alone, I decided to go touch up my roots. After I put the color in, I have to wait so I open my phone. All of a sudden I am getting a bunch of ads for hair coloring. Weird.

 

[sam_gordon]

Here's one of the things I like about "all knowing" Google...

If we're getting ready to take a trip somewhere, I look up directions on my PC (whether at work or home). This gives me an idea where we're going as well as how long it will take. Then, when I get in the car and call up Google Maps on my phone, it assumes that location is one where I might want to go (and usually the first result). It beats typing everything in again.

 

[Imzadi]

Here's one of the things I like about "all knowing" Google...

If we're getting ready to take a trip somewhere, I look up directions on my PC (whether at work or home). This gives me an idea where we're going as well as how long it will take. Then, when I get in the car and call up Google Maps on my phone, it assumes that location is one where I might want to go (and usually the first result). It beats typing everything in again.

My Google Maps doesn't do that. I think it's "pretending" to routinely not know where I am, as I'm always inputting an address 3 streets away from me as my start location. Which is kind of ridiculous of me, as all my Gmail correspondence, auto-fill in forms and my Android phone all list me at my real address. Google Maps is probably waiting for me to one day list my real address, then it will go, "Hello! Can we NOW use this as your start location, instead of pretending dumb, that we don't know where you ARE?"


I think it was GMA, a few months ago, which did a blurb on how Android phones know EXACTLY where you are and where you are going and how you get there, even if you have the Google/Android location services & apps turned off on your phones. (People know Google owns Android, right? ) The GMA reporter did a test. The reporter had her locations OFF on her phone. Yet, her Android phone logged (to Google) that she was precisely at an address and that she was walking to her next location. (I don't quite remember HOW she knew Google knew this.) Then she got on a bike to her second location, and it knew she was on a bike (or something riding at that speed.) And when she got in a car, it told Google that she was traveling in an automobile of some sort. Google headquarters said it only tracks that stuff, even though it tells us our location function is off, for it's own data research advancements. Sure it is.

I saw on the local news about a month ago, where a missing woman's last known location was at some stranger's house. She had been abducted, taken in a car, and that house was the last known location before the phone went dead. The person living there is now "a person of interest" by the police. So, there are some times when having the location function is a good thing. Same thing with the iPhone's "Find A Friend" app did the same thing to find some missing people.

 

[FastPasser.]

I actually am wondering how that works. Do you have a pager or something? How do you drive places without Google maps? How do people reach you when you aren't at home?

No pager. I have a Garmin GPS, still works fine, and people don't reach me if I'm not at home. There's nothing that's so important that it can't wait.

Not sure if you are seriously asking or not, but most of us survived for years before cell phones or pagers were a thing. It’s not difficult, people use maps with directions. You could also use a gps for getting around which has only become mainstream in the past 20 or so years. As for people getting in touch with you, they can leave a message at your landline or if they know where your headed to they can leave a message their, and you can call them back later.

Exactly

Exactly. The world did exist before 1995. Yes, most people use these modern technologies, but you don't have to.

Yup

 

[Imzadi]

I figured incognito searches are still logged, but are they associated with the user/device?

I think the device doesn't log the web page visit. As in, if the FBI breaks down your door and confiscates your computer, they may not find any reference in your browser, any entry in your computer's Internet history, nor any web cookie being made. However, if they have reason to suspect you were visiting a web site on a certain day & time, they could go to the IT people at the web site and do a search to see if you actually visited it via your IP address and or location. The NSA would know more about that.

If you own a Gmail account, go to the very bottom of the page. In the bottom right corner it says: "Last account activity: 53 minutes ago Details."

Click on Details. It will give quite an amount of info about what devices visited the site, the IP address, if possible, the type of browser and version, and type of device. This was all collected by the site.

If you use a VPN, (Virtual Private Network,) they are supposedly able to mask your true while saying you are in another location. I found that isn't always quite accurate. I routinely do a search for "What is my IP address" while using an VPN, and while most of them will say I'm in Mexico or whatever country the VPN is supposed to be saying I'm coming from, ONE website always, ALWAYS lists my true zip code and IP address. I don't know what it uses, but it's obviously deeper detection than the other IP address locator websites use. So, the VPNs give a false sense of security.