Google IS listening

readyletsgo

I've noticed this over the past year or so. Main one was a few weeks back. Was talking to someone getting married in the office, where it was, hotel etc. Few hours later I noticed all ads were for the same hotel and weddings etc.

Never searched for wedding stuff in my life. Or this pertuclator hotel.

So, I'm very away of it. But what can you do? Put some blue tac over the microphone when not using your phone? Like a cam on a laptop I guess.

Glad more people are noticing this.

Edit: I recently invest in a VPN for phone and pc and this has all stopped by the way.

Permabear

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Rubberlegs

I have noticed this more and more often lately.
At first I thought it was just coincidence that I would say I was going to search for something to someone and then as I typed in the first two letters it came right up. I was having a chat with my sister on the phone awhile ago. A couple of the subjects that came up were exams and my car needs a job done on it. Now I have an ad for passing some type of exams successfully and an ad for a garage.

brainfreeze

Snowseer wrote: »

There have been some of these threads about Google hanging on your every word. Many are dismissed as “White Van Syndrome”, in that the ads that you notice as relating to a conversation, are actually for popular products.

Was wandering around an apartment that I’ve just moved into (outside of Ireland), and said out loud that I had to get dishwasher tablets.

Next ad on boards is for Irish dishwasher tablets.

Checked the “My Activity” and “History” for my Google account, and there’s nothing recorded. Nothing should be recorded - even if there’s some time delay in showing what’s been logged to a Google account.

Now, I don’t think a tinfoil hat would work with my look, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen something like this. Anybody else seeing this?

Alun wrote: »

Often I'll be talking to my wife about something, and a question pops up about it, and I'll Google it on my phone. After only literally typing in two characters it pops up with what I was searching for in the first suggestion even when the word I was searching for is very uncommon. It happens far too often for it to be coincidence.

sgthighway wrote: »

This happened to one of the lads at work last week. He was talking to somebody about a product while having a coffee. His phone was left on the table. Sure enough the next day there were adds about the product in his internet feed. He never researched the product online before that.

ozmo wrote: »

This has happened often to me - I really do think Android phones are listening for key words....

This is now the modern "I was thinking of person x, and then they called me!". What about all the times they didn't call.

People can listen to your phone, the Vault 7 CIA leaks proved this. However google are not also doing it illegally to serve you advertisements. That would be stupid, they'd have too much to lose. People would actually go to prison.

The only thing that is listened for by Google is "Ok Google", and that's locally. Nothing is sent to the cloud until after that keyword (or whatever keyword you have set) is spoken. People have literally ripped apart the software and analysed the traffic data to try and prove this conspiracy. They've found nothing, because it isn't (yet) happening.

That does not mean it doesn't trigger by accident, it does, a lot. But it really is an accident. If you are super paranoid you can access all audio google have recorded from you here: https://history.google.com/history/audio . The ones labeled "Transcript not available" are usually accidental triggers.

If it was happening, you would be receiving ads related to your conversations all day, all the time. You are recognising random flukes and antidotes of rareish occurrences that seem mind blowing at the time they occur. We talk about sellable things in almost every conversation we have. Even simple statements like "I'm going to grab a coffee".

"Oh Gosh, I was thinking about this person I have not seen in years, and then I bumped into them!".

You do not have psychic powers. Google is not secretly recording you to serve ads.

pilly

I've noticed things that I mention in Whatsapp popping up in advertisements. Definitely.

OldMrBrennan83

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TheChizler

Snowseer wrote: »

No. That would take quite some time.

The random correlation between the ad, and I what I said out loud, would be against the odds.

How did you calculate those odds? :P

It's not really plausible that Google would be listening to us constantly without being detected easily enough, what it would essentially be is a perpetual phone call to Google, this would be noticed in battery and data usage pretty quickly. Phones can use low power hardware to listen for a few key words (Ok Google etc.) but this wouldn't work for more than a relatively small list.

https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-listening-smartphone-microphone/

Humans are very good at spotting patterns, even where they don't exist! We tend to focus on and remember novel or interesting things, and forget about most other things we see. So in our modern lives where we're exposed to thousands of adverts a week, it's enivitable that every so often we'll have just been thinking about something related to the next one we see. This stands out and you remember it. The next time it happens that association is made even stronger in our heads. You start wondering is it more than a coincidence, and eventually subconsciosly this leads to confirmation bias where we actively look out for things that look like evidence of this (ignoring anything that doesn't).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

What is more plausible is related to something a few people have mentioned: you go to search for something you just saw on tv or hear on the radio and after only a couple of letters it autocompletes what you're looking for. It's likely that other people are doing the exact same thing as you, Google could (they do it to avoid radios and TVs activating 'Ok Google') notice a quick rise in the number of searches on that topic and briefly prioritise that search in autocomplete.

Permabear

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Noel82

This is a very good read report on the information google is collecting

Rubberchikken

How could this surprise anyone?
It makes perfect sense to have these tech companies follow what people write. Advertising is revenue after all.

OldMrBrennan83

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Franz Von Peppercorn

Permabear wrote: »

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But the phone is still android and will still have some apps and you will be using google services when you search.

Not convincing.

I don’t think there’s much here anyway - I don’t think the microphone is always on.

-=al=-

You'll be advertised to for your demographic too. So there is a large portion that is coincidence and common trends that are occurring in real time. They're not listening to conversations but more so keywords, background music or tv/films. Google is an advertising information company. I don't have a tin foil hat but I'm sure there's a large amount of info being used and sold that we are not aware of.

I notice I get ads if my location is used in shop/supermarket for their sales/offers. Happens all the time. Your phone pings the local cell mast to get your location even if the setting is turned off. It's used for traffic and real-time information or can tell you how busy a shop is. I also noticed ads for words in conversation/Whatsapp/browsers too. I moved to Telegram some time ago but people have a hard time venturing from Whatsapp/Messenger. I'd disclose the least amount of info on messenger as I wouldn't trust that whatsoever.

I find myself using private browsing more and spending 20 minutes disabling trackers/location features/privacy and advertising when I get a new phone! Lots of ad-ons for browsers to prevent tracking but on my phone it's more open and less secure for sure.

Your IP address from your home network will be used too. So if your partner or spouse was googling something, you may get ads for it too.

You can move away from google and their services but it's just to convenient to use them since they make it so easy.

I'll never use a facebook or gmail to log into a website. I always make separate accounts and use a VPN a lot more!

I remember one time last year I was having a conversation about a woman in a bar spilling a drink on her bag and asking thebarman for some Blueroll or something and then on ebay afterwards I got ads for this



That properly freaked me out. I never searched anything like that never mind all three at once. It was only from the conversation I mentioned those things together. I got pretty skeptical after that incident!

Cee-Jay-Cee

Alun wrote: »

Often I'll be talking to my wife about something, and a question pops up about it, and I'll Google it on my phone. After only literally typing in two characters it pops up with what I was searching for in the first suggestion even when the word I was searching for is very uncommon. It happens far too often for it to be coincidence.

That has happened to me so often that I cannot believe it’s a co-incidence. In one example we were taking about our daughter coeliac condition and that she was due to make jelly at school the following day. I was saying that I wondered was all jelly gluten free so I said I’d google it and I entered ‘is jelly’ and the first suggestion was ‘gluten free’ Now I don’t believe for one minute that ‘is jelly gluten free’ the most asked or even a popular question. It’s happens too often to be co-incidence.

donspeekinglesh

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

That has happened to me so often that I cannot believe it’s a co-incidence. In one example we were taking about our daughter coeliac condition and that she was due to make jelly at school the following day. I was saying that I wondered was all jelly gluten free so I said I’d google it and I entered ‘is jelly’ and the first suggestion was ‘gluten free’ Now I don’t believe for one minute that ‘is jelly gluten free’ the most asked or even a popular question. It’s happens too often to be co-incidence.

I just googled it and the suggestions were: "good for you", "gluten free", and"vegetarian".

So yes, I'd say coincidence.

iguana

srsly78 wrote: »

OP how was this possible? Everyone uses adblock surely?

I have several adblocks but some websites 'recommend' products. So on amazon you'll have ads on the side of what you are looking at or on Facebook 'suggested posts' will appear on your newsfeed. It happened to me this week. My laptop was open on the kitchen table when my 5 year old came in and told me about some new toy that had just been advertised on tv. A few minutes later I looked at Facebook and the second thing on my newsfeed was a 'suggested post' from Smyths showing this particular toy. I know it could be a coincidence, new toys being advertised to a mother would be par for the course, but considering that this toy range would be one largely marketed to young girls and I don't have a daughter, I'm inclined to feel there's a chance it was targeted based on our conversation.

BBDBB

Aha! That explains all the hot singles in my area adverts!

Ninthlife

If youre really up there listening Google and Id just like to add I always believed in you..

Id really really like Kate Beckinsale to appear at my door.

**sits back and awaits doorbell**

Del2005

You lot are all like the man who went into Target complaining about getting adds for baby stuff and no one in his house was pregnant. He was a bit ashamed to return a while later to say that his teenage daughter was pregnant.

Google, Target and all use algorithms for marketing and unfortunately you or I aren't that unique so they'll pop up ads for your demograph. It's just that you notice the odd ad more occasionally, I'm on the phone and have no idea what was being advertised on this page. But yesterday I saw a sign and a similar ad appeared on a phone that was turned off at the time. Was Google reading my mind on one account to place an ad on a different account or was it just a coincidence that I noticed the ad?

BBDBB

I can't believe Im pregnant

Are you sure its mine?

Alun

donspeekinglesh wrote: »

I just googled it and the suggestions were: "good for you", "gluten free", and"vegetarian".

So yes, I'd say coincidence.

I did the same and got tots, beans and belly.

-=al=-

Ninthlife wrote: »

If youre really up there listening Google and Id just like to add I always believed in you..

Id really really like Kate Beckinsale to appear at my door.

**sits back and awaits doorbell**

You will have to whisper 'Kate Beckinsale' into your phone microphone 3 times while looking in the mirror for this to work

Snowseer

Alun wrote: »

I did the same and got tots, beans and belly.

I get beans, roll, belly.

Would say that’s a bit more generic returns - with not much background info to give a user-specific hit.

Should we do a test for the craic? Mention random words and see what happens? Not at this hour, but could take 30 mins as a boards.ie test maybe on Sunday.

BBDBB

If we could co-ordinate the effort into groups we could test it
, segregating into 3 groups
1) random words
2) some specific item or product that we agree on
3) no comment just check the ads you get

-=al=-

iguana wrote: »

I have several adblocks but some websites 'recommend' products. So on amazon you'll have ads on the side of what you are looking at or on Facebook 'suggested posts' will appear on your newsfeed. It happened to me this week. My laptop was open on the kitchen table when my 5 year old came in and told me about some new toy that had just been advertised on tv. A few minutes later I looked at Facebook and the second thing on my newsfeed was a 'suggested post' from Smyths showing this particular toy. I know it could be a coincidence, new toys being advertised to a mother would be par for the course, but considering that this toy range would be one largely marketed to young girls and I don't have a daughter, I'm inclined to feel there's a chance it was targeted based on our conversation.

It's all well and good blocking the ads, but if you don't block the trackers and stop sites from storing information about you on your computer, your going to get related ads and suggestions across multiple websites, especially if your logged into accounts on different sites. If you log into many popular services with facebook, you're making the advertising job easier.

The majority of it is probably all normal internet advertising but it's the truly unique words or subjects that would have no relation to your normal life or demographic that pop up in ads moments later you never saw before that are very strange! They're the ones that kinda make you get the tin foil hat.

I'm sure there's people better at this than me but this page alone has at least 8 trackers.



Pagefair is just one ad revenue company there that works around adblock.

Clickbait sites or news sites will easily have over 20. Page times are slower as all the extra code and junk in the background loads and does its thing

spurious

My anti-virus (Avast) goes mad when I click on this thread.

Capt'n Midnight

sgthighway wrote: »

This happened to one of the lads at work last week. He was talking to somebody about a product while having a coffee. His phone was left on the table. Sure enough the next day there were adds about the product in his internet feed. He never researched the product online before that.

Yes there are third party apps out there listen to the microphone.

It's even got to the stage that TV ads now have high pitched sound patterns in them so the apps can detect what ads you watch.


I hate the way apps want to know what you had for breakfast before they'll update.

givyjoe

The amount of people here passing off targeted ads is truly frightening. Serious case of head on the sand about the reality of how much data is being gathered by many of your apps.

OldMrBrennan83

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givyjoe

Patww79 wrote: »

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No it doesn't, that's what I was saying earlier. It only becomes a problem if some of your 'dodgy' search history falls into the wrong hands :eek:

TheChizler

givyjoe wrote: »

The amount of people here passing off targeted ads is truly frightening. Serious case of head on the sand about the reality of how much data is being gathered by many of your apps.

Nobody's arguing that ads aren't targeted based on the copious amount of information Google has on you, just saying it's not likely they're constantly listening to our conversations.

givyjoe

TheChizler wrote: »

Nobody's arguing that ads aren't targeted based on the copious amount of information Google has on you, just saying it's not likely they're constantly listening to our conversations.

I didn't say constantly either, but it's likely that keywords are being picked up. Those passing off the unbelievably specific ads that follow as coincidence, are kidding themselves.

Wanderer78

an interesting discussion on this matter:

https://www.rt.com/shows/renegade-inc/417906-digital-democracy-social-media/

Permabear

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brainfreeze

givyjoe wrote: »

I didn't say constantly either, but it's likely that keywords are being picked up. Those passing off the unbelievably specific ads that follow as coincidence, are kidding themselves.

Nobody is debating targeted ads. That's not the topic.

They are debating if Google secretly listens to your conversations all day long while your phone sits in your pocket/desk, to serve said ads. That is nonsense, that has been debunked, that is simply tinfoil hat stuff.

The anecdotes that "prove" they do this, despite the evidence they do not, are coincidence.

givyjoe

brainfreeze wrote: »

Nobody is debating targeted ads. That's not the topic.

They are debating if Google secretly listens to your conversations all day long while your phone sits in your pocket/desk, to serve said ads. That is nonsense, that has been debunked, that is simply tinfoil hat stuff.

The anecdotes that "prove" they do this, despite the evidence they do not, are coincidence.

Did you not read my post that you specifically quoted?? Let me be clear again as you seem to have a problem with reading comprehension. I did not say anyone's phone is listening to them 24/7 and nor is everyone who has experienced the unbelievably coincidentally focused ads.

Who's they? They are posts, just read a few up, from posters who've specifically said they don't believe the phone is 24/7 listening but is picking up on keywords. When you say 'Ok Google' for example and type in whatever, do you actually believe that whatever information you give isn't being used for targeted ads?!

Out of interest, who has debunked that keywords (however they're triggered) is not picked by phone mic's?

brainfreeze

Well I never.. how rude!

givyjoe

:

brainfreeze wrote: »

Well I never.. how rude!

professore

marcbrophy wrote: »

It's the same way as when you're in work and at lunch time you or someone quotes a line from the Simpsons and everyone has a good chuckle.
Then, you get home from work and the same damn episode is on TV :eek:

It's a coincidence is all!
Unless Sky One is listening to me on my lunch breaks?

*shifty-eyes.gif*

Nah - it's more like you turn on the radio in the car - Simpsons. You go in a shop - Simpsons. Every second person you meet on the street is dressed like Homer. You go home and your wife presents you with a box of Simpson related products ... etc etc. This is what it's like on your phone and computer when you say a particular phrase. It's only a matter of time before there will be holographic people and billboards doing the same thing.

professore

brainfreeze wrote: »

Nobody is debating targeted ads. That's not the topic.

They are debating if Google secretly listens to your conversations all day long while your phone sits in your pocket/desk, to serve said ads. That is nonsense, that has been debunked, that is simply tinfoil hat stuff.

The anecdotes that "prove" they do this, despite the evidence they do not, are coincidence.

How naive are you? You've got a microphone on you at all times with your location tracked and you think they are not going to use that info because their motto is "Don't be evil?"
LOL

Wibbs

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

That last line is a common one when individuals and societal freedoms are being eroded and one I find worrying. Do you want your entire life known by corporations? As I said earlier:

Wibbs wrote: »

The level of power these unelected faceless corporations run by weirdo Sheldon Cooper nerds have is scary and that's today. The stuff in labs coming down the line, stuff the mass of humanity won't be privy to, that sh1t's scary. When you have eejits in the western world and beyond whispering conspiratorially about "big government" on Facebook, Google and the rest, you have to laugh. Or cry.

That's the ironic and a bit hilarious thing... When Orwell wrote 1984 he had Big Brother imposed upon an unhappy population from the top down, I doubt he imagined the population would have lined up eagerly falling over themselves to sign up for it.

Today you "agree", but once that tacit agreement is in place they will be pretty much free to increase the monitoring of individuals. The leaps in computing power with this stuff largely behind the scenes even over the last five years has been staggering. Now imagine what will be in play in ten, or twenty years. The levels of surveillance will be so high that today will feel like the Wild West. Put it another way; would you be OK with your government, your elected government having this level of surveillance and power over you? I doubt it. So why are you so easy going with business entities having it?

Though a scary number of people wouldn't be bothered. Ah sure what harm like, I'm not a criminal type thing. An attitude that beggars belief for me. Take any dodgy state in history, doesn't matter which one. Now imagine they had the level of data on you, your buying choices, your movements, your friends and family connections, your political affiliations, your credit rating, your medical history(hell if one is moronic enough to send your DNA off to be tested, even your potential medical history) that these interwebs companies have today.

The idea that one can just vote with one's feet and not sign up to them and that it's a choice has some validity. At least today. However I'll lay a bet now that not so long into the future someone who has no Arsebook, Twatter, Google etc will be seen as suspicious. There's already an element of that afoot today. Where some companies when hiring people look up their interwebs history to get a background check on them. Not being signed up like every other person will most certainly be seen as odd and likely in the negative. What have you got to hide type thinking.

brainfreeze

professore wrote: »

How naive are you? You've got a microphone on you at all times with your location tracked and you think they are not going to use that info because their motto is "Don't be evil?"
LOL

Common sense rather than naivety.

The fact that it hasn't been noticed by security analysts around the world even though they are looking for this sort of activity. Using a bit of common sense and understanding the legal ramifications alone would unprecedented, that a corporation as large and far reaching as Google is illegally listening into your microphone when you have not given it permission to do so. They are not that stupid. They know they would get caught.

The true gullibility is believing this stuff. But conspiracies, backed up with anecdotal evidence is very seductive to most people.

If you want my full explanation of what users are experiencing, I've already posted it a few pages back. TL;DR? It's confirmation bias.

Wibbs

brainfreeze wrote: »

Using a bit of common sense and understanding the legal ramifications alone would unprecedented, that a corporation as large and far reaching as Google is illegally listening into your microphone when you have not given it permission to do so. They are not that stupid. They know they would get caught.

+1 and they don't even have to risk any illegalities as a large proportion of people, if not the majority give them permission to track them anyway, as a "feature".

This book is worth a read
https://www.schneier.com/books/data_and_goliath/

Gravelly

brainfreeze wrote: »

Using a bit of common sense and understanding the legal ramifications alone would unprecedented, that a corporation as large and far reaching as Google is illegally listening into your microphone when you have not given it permission to do so. They are not that stupid. They know they would get caught.

Yes, a large corporation would never do anything that stupid and illegal.....

Not like VW cheating emissions
or BP with Deepwater Horizon
or General Motors covering up defects
or Shell Oil hiring an army to kill people
or Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS manipulating stock markets

and so on and so forth.

brainfreeze

Gravelly wrote: »

Yes, a large corporation would never do anything that stupid and illegal.....

Not like VW cheating emissions
or BP with Deepwater Horizon
or General Motors covering up defects
or Shell Oil hiring an army to kill people
or Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS manipulating stock markets

and so on and so forth.

And yet what people are accusing google of doing in this thread, is far easier to catch than anything you've listed above. Like, ridiculously easy.

Anyone with a usb cable, some free software and a little know how can detect what is transmitted from your device. Yet nobody has been able to detect this on the one billion devices that run android? Not a single person, from amateurs to professionals? OK.

You've also uncovered the true conspiracy. That Google is cahoots with battery manufacturers supplying super batteries that allow a phone to constantly have the microphone listening and transmitting the data to it's servers. Imagine how long phones would last if Google didn't do this, months! Months I tell ya, months.

You can all believe what you want, but it's very silly.

Permabear

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Gravelly

brainfreeze wrote: »

And yet what people are accusing google of doing in this thread, is far easier to catch than anything you've listed above. Like, ridiculously easy.

Anyone with a usb cable, some free software and a little know how can detect what is transmitted from your device. Yet nobody has been able to detect this on the one billion devices that run android? Not a single person, from amateurs to professionals? OK.

VW's emission cheat was also fairly blatant, yet they got away with it for quite a while.

brainfreeze wrote: »

You've also uncovered the true conspiracy. That Google is cahoots with battery manufacturers supplying super batteries that allow a phone to constantly have the microphone listening and transmitting the data to it's servers. Imagine how long phones would last if Google didn't do this, months! Months I tell ya, months.

You can all believe what you want, but it's very silly.

The above is just an oul strawman load of ****e, cos you don't want to address what is actually being claimed. But shure you knew that already.

brainfreeze

VW's emission cheat was also fairly blatant, yet they got away with it for quite a while.

Apples and Oranges. This is getting really silly.

Hiding data on one billion devices, and making it iinvisible from every computer network in the world? That is basically what you people are saying even if you don't know it. That's what has to be happening for this to work. They would have had to built a data cloaking device that no network can detect, and behaves like nothing is even transmitting, yet still somehow transmit and reach its destination, which again, is not how computers and the internet work.

It's ridiculous, it would be the biggest technological achievement that has ever been done, and google are using it to... secretly listen to you to serve ads. :pac:

Gravelly wrote: »

The above is just an oul strawman load of ****e, cos you don't want to address what is actually being claimed. But shure you knew that already.

I did address what has been claimed. In multiple posts. I also even gave you the tools to uncover it yourself. Go on, be the first. You'll be famous.

I'm basing this on evidence. There is zero evidence that they are doing this.

What are you basing it on? A desire for it to be true. The world is just a little bit more cooler when you have these conspiracies, isn't it.

OldMrBrennan83

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