We’ve all had it happen to us — you’re having a conversation about something and then while you’re scrolling through social media, you see an ad about the thing you were just talking about.
It begs the question: is my phone listening to me?
Ken Colburn with Data Doctors says your phone can listen to you. Meaning it knows words like “Hey Siri” or “Hey Alexa” so you can give it a command. But in terms of listening to your hours-long conversations and then giving you ads based on what you were talking about, he says that is a myth.
He says your phone doesn’t need to listen to you in order to target you with ads, because it already knows so much about you.
Since most apps are tracking your location, he says your phone knows if you’re sitting next to a friend in your "network."
“They have the ability to track you and your friends and your network at a granule level. That location data that all those apps are collecting from you allows an advertiser to know that you are sitting in a coffee shop with a friend that’s a huge advocate and loves Disneyland and you guys are talking about Disneyland. Suddenly you go home and you see a Disneyland ad,” Colburn said. “Because you just sat for a long time with someone that’s a huge Disney fan, they just go ahead and send that ad to all of the people in that person’s network.”
He says you’re also getting 6,000 to 10,000 ads a day, so it’s possible you were already receiving those ads, you just didn’t notice until it was brought up in conversation.
