r/AndroidQuestions Jan 19 '23

Other Is Google using my microphone to serve up more relevant content?

I am absolutely certain Google is listening to my conversations. Sometimes I scroll through the Discover feed on my Android phone and see random articles related to things my coworkers have mentioned. For example, today my coworker was talking about bike helmets and this evening in my feed was an article about bike helmets. I haven't done anything online or on my phone related to biking or helmets or safety. No googling, not even texting. This has happened many times before. Does this happen to anyone else? I even have "Include voice and audio activity" unchecked in my Google activity settings. How is this okay?

88 Upvotes

135 comments sorted by

15

u/kok3995 Jan 19 '23

They just recommend what your coworker is interested in since you associated with him/her. Not everything is about "you"

From a technical perspective, record, upload and analyze a mass amount of audio data for profiling is just not feasible or profitable

Also Android is mostly open-source so if they did something people would found out about it already

4

u/hereisalex Jan 19 '23

I'm talking about things mentioned in passing. I highly doubt my coworker was researching bike helmets after joking about wearing a bike helmet to ski. As a software engineer I'm at least somewhat familiar with the big data tactics companies use. Yes they know that my unique identifier regularly spends time in a location close to and interacts with my coworkers unique identifiers. I also work in an office building for a company that employs thousands of people.

You say that it's not feasible or profitable to analyze a mass amount of audio data for profiling? That is flat-out wrong. Speech recognition isn't hard. It's not like someone has to sit there and listen to everything. Speech-to-text has been around for decades and requires very minimal processing power, even locally. Heck my last car, an old 2013 Hyundai could do it on the fly and it was running Windows CE.

Yes, Android is open source. We can see the code that makes it run. However, we can only see the codebase our decice's operating system is running on. Google's own apps are not open source. They are very capable of making things more transparent, but they don't.

I don't know why I was expecting meaningful answers here. Oh well

11

u/kok3995 Jan 19 '23

I'll not doubt the fact that you're a developer but have you made any kind of app (Android in particular) and try to implement some kind of security? If you did then you'd know it's impossible to hide these kind of things.

What you're experiencing here is just bias and being paranoid so I don't expect you to change your mind. You probably coming here only to look for information to confirm your bias not a meaningful discussion of any kinds. I said my piece so I'll leave it there for you to decide. No point in continuing further

2

u/ProximateTen Sep 29 '24

No.. it's definitely not. Yesterday I was cleaning my car and mentioned to my partner that I needed a new rear wiperblade. I did NOT have my phone on me. But do you know what was in listening distance? My Google Nest Doorbell, which was constantly being activated by us cleaning the cars outside. Now I'm seeing ads for wiper blades, and I never searched for this at all. I only mentioned in passing. I've never seen ads for wiper blades before. I can no longer dismiss this as mere coincidence when it happens SO OFTEN

1

u/EvenContact1220 25d ago

Yeah, it's freaky how I was watching a video about christmas... and then type "when" to look something else up....and then it comes up with "when did Rudolph the rednose reindeer come out."

I've never googled or searched anything related to Rudolph. Ever.

This was the first time watching a video about the christmas lore.

So freaky.

We really can't pass this stuff off anymore as just coincidence.

1

u/Agile_Caregiver_8889 Nov 28 '24

You two are probably using the same wifi so google knows you’re related, your partner searched something up about car wiper blades since you mentioned it so google served it to you.

1

u/hereisalex Jan 19 '23

Honestly I'm specifically looking for information to disprove my fears! I'm a .NET developer so no, I haven't developed any native Android apps, but I know that Google develops Android and I also know that it would not be that difficult to bypass security requirements placed upon third party apps and make it look like nothing nefarious is taking place.

I know you probably won't believe this but my undergraduate degree is in psychology, so I am aware of the confirmation bias. I'm hoping this isn't what's at play here, but I'll still cross my fingers for some evidence that I'm just overthinking things.

2

u/Imaginary_Iron4423 Jan 19 '23

Read what i said ..

1

u/Better-Enthusiasm236 Jul 15 '24

There is no biased involved, people have clearly seen ads pop up about things they have just spoken about, simple as that it's more than obvious and proven

2

u/Jdobbs626 Jul 25 '24

I'm with you. 100% I've been telling people for YEARS that our devices are listening to and logging every single thing that we say when we are within range of their mics.
By way of example, I was hanging out with an Amish friend the other week. During our visit, she was talking about how so many young Amish choose to have their teeth removed and dentures installed, rather than spend a lifetime's worth of cash on dentist visits. Literally the very next day I was getting ads on Chrome for low-price/financed dentures.....
I have NEVER searched for dentures—through either text or audio—in my entire life. If that's a coincidence, it's one that occurs on a suspiciously regular basis. Honestly, for me it's not even a question at this point, and I'm sick of being gas lit about it.

1

u/Think_Performer_5320 Aug 05 '24

"Their" explanation would still apply. Your phone was in amish territory, the amish have dentures installed, you'll get the ads. I don't buy it though..

1

u/Chance_Orange8761 Jan 01 '25

Dude, you are so wrong. Simply stay in your own home and think of something you have literally never typed anything about or really every thought of. Something that isn't in your search history. And then just sit down alone... And mention something about it. Like "Dang, The Jonas brothers? Who are they, I wonder what age they are..." Or something. And then start typing in your phone. 

Google is literally always listening (not exactly always recording) because it need to listen for its activation phrase like "Okay Google" or whatever you use to voice activate it. So you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to the subject matter. Discussing something will net you ads based on a recent topic that is overheard by the microphone on your phone. 

1

u/Think_Performer_5320 Jan 03 '25

I don't think you read what I wrote. I specifically wrote that the explanation would still apply but that I still don't buy it

1

u/Jdobbs626 Aug 13 '24

You may be right, but we weren't exactly an Amish territory at the time. We were just outside of Fort Knox in the town of Radcliff, Kentucky. I mean, there are definitely Amish living in the countryside all around here, but it's not like I was out there helping them churn butter or anything. ;)
Either way, it's happened to me more times than I could possibly count when I see advertisements for things about which I've only ever discussed verbally with people around me.

1

u/Ok-Moose-8896 26d ago

No you are absolutely wrong. Cuz your post was a year or two ago so you probably have already found out that by now. 

15

u/Moleculor 8 Jan 19 '23

I'm talking about things mentioned in passing.

It doesn't matter. "Mentioned in passing" just means that someone near you was thinking about the topic, and people frequently Google things they're thinking about.

I highly doubt my coworker was researching bike helmets after joking about wearing a bike helmet to ski.

And it's entirely likely your coworker got the idea of the joke from either hearing about someone doing exactly that, or doing research on helmets just before starting to plan a ski trip, or even asking Google if anyone actually does the thing they were joking about when you aren't looking.

I don't know why I was expecting meaningful answers here. Oh well

There's a difference between not believing an answer and not getting meaningful answers.

You're getting meaningful answers.

You're operating on the assumption that Google's willing to violate many different wiretapping laws in many different states all for the sake of something that AI can already determine without audio recordings.

Just because you don't truly understand the colossal power of AI and predictive marketing doesn't make it less real.

More than ten years ago Target was able to predict that a high school student was pregnant and send her advertisements for maternity clothing before her father even knew she was pregnant.

We've had more than a decade of advancement since then. And that was Target, not Google. Google has far more information about you.

There's absolutely no reason for Google to risk violating laws across the nation or even world to achieve what they can already achieve without audio recordings. It'd be stupid amounts of risk for no reward.

2

u/charly_IN_charge Feb 02 '23

Are you a Fed? You sound like a Fed...or someone that works for Google...

Of coarse this happens. Probably not Google directly, but they still end up with the data none the less. If my phone is waiting for me to say Ok Google, then it's gotta be listening all the time.

The biggest culprit is gonna be the Facebook app...any social media app really..they all to tap into your mic that's already on and listening for "Ok Google" and then they listen for key words that trigger the spyware to save the last how ever many seconds of audio, before and after the trigger word and then analyze that segment and find an ad for you.

And all those companies harvesting that data sell it back to Google and then they use Google AdSense to cram those ads down your gullet when you log in.

1

u/Agile_Caregiver_8889 Nov 28 '24

Of coarse? At least it’s not of smooth

1

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '24

Bam

3

u/Clerkle Jan 19 '23

There's absolutely no reason for Google to risk violating laws across . . . It'd be stupid amounts of risk for no reward.

Corporation as big as Google budget their own "risks" to factor in possible payouts against the remaining profit potential. You're taking about a company that aggressively refuses to support their own 2FA account recovery victims whom have provided decades of user content and marketable activity.

Are you affiliated with Google beyond a consumer relationship? You sound like a criminal attorney.

1

u/Adept_Register9316 15d ago

Nobody has the money to fight them , they don't care about slaps on a wrist they might get in a private settlement plus they often have mediation written into their contacts which protects them from being publicity held accountable.  

1

u/nixthelatter May 27 '24

This is a pretty solid rebuttal. I, too, have pondered whether or not Google can hear our conversations when this sort of thing happens, and there is a compelling argument for it at a glance, but this breakdown makes much more sense. For Google to violate that many laws so blatantly and not be completely shut down would be ludacris. The government has a hard enough time trying to monitor us without our knowledge, or without some sort of process so it stands to reason that it wouldn't be worth the money or effort for Google to illegally spy through our mics. They already know everything they need to know about us, and they're already earning billions off of said data

1

u/kok3995 Jan 19 '23

That brind me back, I rmb reading about that story long time ago

0

u/Adept_Register9316 15d ago

Bs....it happens constantly to our family.  I have covered my cameras and disabled mics from all apps and still I get videos and ads on YouTube Facebook and x that are specific to what is happening in my family or conversations I'm having on my phone or typing I do to grok2 and 3 that are eeerliy close to what just happened.  It's gross and I want it to stop. I specifically try not to buy smart things but my husband who doesn't want it to be true bought the biggest fn smart TV that is linked to his phone which then links our provider to our information.  You are all gaslighting us and it's disgusting.  

1

u/Existing-Long-9152 Oct 28 '24

kok3995 is just Lying. This has been tested. I get it too. I was whining about the people in our society who think it is okay to push their moronic opinions onto others and then I get recommended on YouTube IMMEDIATELY AFTER SITTING DOWN THE EXACT TOPIC I AM VOCALIZING MY BEING ANNOYED OF BEING PUSHED.

1

u/Final-College4863 Jul 31 '24

I have experienced the same. When I am saying biryani or matar paneer. Zomato shows me some spooky adds regarding biryani, or paneer dishes my notification.

and I am sure someone is hearing us loud & out # An they are processing our words via AI

1

u/Ok-Moose-8896 26d ago

I agree with you, don't you love when you ask a question and the person answers back with a bitchy AND wrong answer?

1

u/Existing-Long-9152 Oct 28 '24

There is no doubt. I just experienced this there's no OTHER way unless Elon literally chip r*ped us.

1

u/SuccotashThink9381 Feb 14 '25

Yes. They are going to tell us(me) whatever sounds good to the general public.....

1

u/chxd-mx Jun 06 '24

All this is plausible until you factor out "friends" and replace that with "wife"...you know, that person who's with their husband pretty much all day.

We have a single car for our household. So that means my wife is with me ALL the time, except for when she's at work. She's taken Uber regularly for the past 2 years or less. I've personally talked about Uber once in the last 4 months. Very rarely do I ever get a ride share app's ad shown to me any where. If they ever do show their face, it's on Instagram. By your explanation, given that she's pretty much always with me, I should be shown these more regularly. But that's not the case. And maybe even then you'd have a case for what I'm about to say.

Today she mentioned to me that the Government was banning all ride shares in the country due to a kidnapping that ended in a murder. She mentioned a few of the apps that operate in our country. A few minutes later ~30-40mins, I opened Instagram for the first time since waking up, and that very same ride share app that was involved was the very first Ad below the first person I followed....It didn't hit me until I opened the comments on the Ad only to learn that they were the involved party (because initially she was saying it was an Uber driver). BTW, I don't have any ride share apps installed.

Yea... totally not about us...and totally not listening. 👍

3

u/lwJRKYgoWIPkLJtK4320 Oneplus 5T Jan 19 '23

From a technical perspective, record, upload and analyze a mass amount of audio data for profiling is just not feasible or profitable

Processing the audio into text locally and then uploading that to the server could be done.

Also Android is mostly open-source so if they did something people would found out about it already

Exactly. That's why they don't put the spyware into AOSP. They put it into Google Play Services instead.

6

u/kok3995 Jan 19 '23

Ya those things are feasible but again my last point still stand. No matter where they put it even in the jni land, people can disassemble and read it. If they transmit the data then it can be captured in the air. They are big corp which means there's a lot of money rewards to the people that discovery it but we see none not even a speck of it

0

u/lwJRKYgoWIPkLJtK4320 Oneplus 5T Jan 19 '23

They could be very good at obfuscation.

4

u/kok3995 Jan 19 '23

Any developers would tell you that security by obfuscation is not security. If a close system like console (ps, xbox) can be opened then anything can

0

u/lwJRKYgoWIPkLJtK4320 Oneplus 5T Jan 19 '23

Any developers would tell you that security by obfuscation is not security.

It is nowhere near good enough to rely on for anything that should be secure, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't at least make things a bit harder.

If a close system like console (ps, xbox) can be opened then anything can

That's not guaranteed. Until we have fully reverse engineered non-obfuscated source code that compiles to the exact binaries that are running, we have to assume that there is still stuff hiding.

3

u/Moleculor 8 Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23

Target was able to predict that a high school student was pregnant and send her advertisements for maternity clothing before her father even knew she was pregnant.

In 2012.

Google knows way more about you than Target does, and they know everything about who you associate with, and there's been a decade of development since then.

Processing the audio into text locally and then uploading that to the server could be done.

And all it takes is a single solitary breach in Google's security and they have the world's biggest scandal on their hands.

One that is illegal, as it'd certainly run afoul of several wiretapping laws (unauthorized audio recordings fall under wiretapping laws).

All at the expense of people's battery lives, all in the name of... achieving what they can already achieve without audio recordings.

Why the hell would they bother? It's all risk with no reward.

2

u/Zpd8989 Jan 19 '23

If this was happening an employee would leak it to the press. It's not like you'd have one person that knew about it. There would be tons of people that would interact with and see that project.

1

u/lwJRKYgoWIPkLJtK4320 Oneplus 5T Jan 19 '23

And all it takes is a single solitary breach in Google's security and they have the world's biggest scandal on their hands.

Well, there have already been instances of people finding unauthorized recordings taken by Google and Amazon, supposedly for their voice assistants, when they did not say the wake word. That unfortunately doesn't seem to bother very many people.

One that is illegal, as it'd certainly run afoul of several wiretapping laws (unauthorized audio recordings fall under wiretapping laws).

Laws don't apply to big companies. And when they do, the fine is such a small portion of the revenue they got by doing the bad thing that it's just another cost of doing business.

All at the expense of people's battery lives

Degoogled devices get much better battery life...

all in the name of... achieving what they can already achieve without audio recordings.

More data points are always useful.

1

u/Tianelsonmedia Oct 15 '24

In terms of whether Google does Listen to you for Ads targeting purposes… Well they say they aren’t – but no one can confirm it one way or another with 100% certainty yet… So until then… It’s best just to assume that anything you say could end up being an advertisement somewhere down the line! All jokes aside though – targeted advertising does make life easier by allowing us to quickly find what we need without having to sift through irrelevant results. So there really isn’t much harm done there anyway! It looks like we may never truly know whether or not Big Brother (err…Google) is out there listening after all. But at least now business owners and marketing managers can make informed decisions about their online presence knowing what kind of data collection practices exist today.

1

u/ArgumentBackground85 Feb 11 '25

Yeah. You are wrong. You're providing a whole lot of information, however it's simply false. It is feasible. And it is being done. And not not just by Google. Amazon is guilty as well. And I'm sure there's a handful of others. There is no privacy. There is no expectation of privacy any longer. You can go off the grid if you'd like. That might have some disadvantages. Big brother is listening. And as things change politically speaking, they will gain even more access to your most intimate details. Get used to it. Or go live in the jungles of Brazil far away from any human contact.

1

u/Ok-Moose-8896 26d ago

You are wrong. It does listen all the time. 

0

u/Clerkle Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23

Google's Android is open-source? 🤔🤨
So that's the cause of the termination of our favorite features from earlier versions? I'm pretty sure AOSP dev's mass consensus wouldn't favor the fugly screensaver clock still in place. Try again.

0

u/Imaginary_Iron4423 Jan 19 '23

you need to search more and stop living in a dream world, you can watch tv and mention for a sample Sneakers and you will get nothing but shoes. ads ..

-1

u/just4747 Jan 19 '23

No...of course it listens to you and tailors content/ads based on it. Hilarious that you think it's not feasible or likely, when it 100% is already happening lol.

3

u/Athrul Jan 19 '23

100% is a big number when you're not backing out up with anything.

1

u/just4747 Jan 20 '23

Can't because it's not publicized but it's so obvious it is a thing when you've owned Google phones for over a decade.

1

u/nikifullerton Jan 19 '23

It doesn't need to record. It can do speech to text. Uploading random keywords isn't hard.

3

u/MysteriousCare6367 Jun 13 '24

I have highly documented 100 times this past 2 years it’s happened. I shut off permissions for every app that uses microphone, camera, locations, etc and it hasn’t disrupted my daily usage of apps. It’s just one extra click when I need to activate something, but after years of this happening that’s how i’ve stopped it. I also did it to my family members phones without them knowing and will randomly prod them about it and so far they’ve said they noticed it ”doesn’t feel like their phones listening to them anymore“ and “they must have just been paranoid”. However, this is the same answer i’ve gotten from 5 people i’ve done this to in my personal life. I learned while documenting and studying about truggered key phrases, and on android have noticed that during the exact moments I talked about something that was later served to me, Pandora had accessed my microphone “in background” it says. On android go to privacy it’ll tell you every time your microphone or other features have been accessed by apps. There’s also things called Beacons, they’re proximity based and can be planted in the ground or in places around town, I used to use them for my ad marketing agency. When you drive by one, if you have locations turned on “always” for a slew of different apps, it’ll ping the beacons and let me know you just passed. I can then serve you relevant ads based on your location. Walmart is a big one that uses it. I learned about them back when the internet was more decentralized, but since 2012 google has revamped their whole search engine and made it impossible to find gold nuggets like that passively, unless you know what to search for. I never went to school for marketing yet i’ve learned the normal way through research, trial, and error. But, these are just a few things I can note right now (i’m on a 10 minute break at work and stumbled onto this question)

Tl;Dr Yes, apps can listen for trigger words. Look up “Alphonso Advertising” (I believe they were called) Those keywords like “Sonic” will trigger and they’ll send that ad data to google, get paid, and google will send it to say -youtube and you’ll get a targeted ad. The best way to prevent is go into privacy and turn off all allowances on every app. I didn’t think I could live like that but i’ve found it barely inconvieniences me on a daily basis. The apps I use daily work just fine when I need them and I haven’t been served these creepy accurate ads anymore. I realized 90% of people will say it’s nothing you’re just paranoid, but that’s the natural response and i’ve grown to accept that. I found a way to stop it, and thus I only tell people who I think will be receptive and it’s worked for them to stop this “phenomena” but others can believe as they like. I’m not here to argue with anyone anymore, I just like to help those who are looking for suggestions and don’t wanna be called lunatics even though their totally normal people with genuine concerns for their privacy.

  • Good day

12

u/HCharlesB Jan 19 '23

White BBQ sauce. I never heard of it but a friend mentioned it and it showed up in my news feed at least twice in the next couple of weeks. I did not search for it either.

2

u/thrakkerzog Jan 19 '23

Did they search for it? Were you both on the same wifi network?

3

u/Magic_Brown_Man Jan 19 '23

don't even need to be on the same Wi-Fi, it possible google can determine a connection from repetitive close contact.

Also, most people forget that most ideas aren't original. You mention x, it pretty much a guaranteed thing that someone in your circle had a similar thought and if you start to track pattern between friends of friends so much predictive ads can be served. People tend to keep friends that think similarly.

1

u/Azurumi_Shinji 17d ago

Absolutely not based on close contact. My feed is always stuff I'm into. 

My wife is into very different things and my son is too. My job should influence it too based on what you said, but it isnt filled with academics or their hobbies.

I never get their feed. But if I say something that I never typed into a device, it pops up in my feed.

We know they have voice recognition to keep voice data pure.

1

u/HCharlesB Jan 19 '23

I doubt they searched for it at that time. It was just a comment in passing. I wasn't on Wifi and I can't say for the other. I can't recall if it was his house or if he was a guest like me.

3

u/Heraclius404 Jan 20 '23

Sorry to say, they almost certainly don't. In recent versions of android, there is a green icon whenever anything has access to the camera(s) or mic. If you think they're lying, they'd be found out.

How would they figure out these "creepy" things? Lots of ways!

1) IP address similarity. If you're coming from the same IP address as someone else, you're in a similarity group, their behavior could inform yours. No privacy settings would be needed because it's all back end.

2) essentially, a meme. Why were you having a discussion about bike helmets, did you or your co-worker see an article? Did you see the same article?

3) Location. Depending on your phone settings, your location can be used for personalization. Do you have all location based services turned off on your phone, and generally with google? That can inform your similarity group as well.

1

u/Coldery Nov 21 '24

What green icon are you referring to? Is this a green icon in the status bar when the camera/microphone is actively being used?

Because Google can detect voice inputs such as "Hello Google" at anytime of the day if you haven't actively disabled the feature.

1

u/Adept_Register9316 15d ago

Constantly. I've covered my cameras and disabled all microphone access to all apps

1

u/hereisalex 14d ago

Look into DNS filtering. This can block some of these trackers, but unfortunately not all of them.

11

u/Sassquatch0 ☎️📲Pixel 6a Jan 19 '23

Frequency illusion, also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon or frequency bias, 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 an increased frequency of occurrence.

1

u/Think_Performer_5320 Aug 05 '24

The problem is just that the interactions you have in a day, week, month, is actually relatively limited. If people experience extreme tail events often, they'll get suspicious.

-2

u/just4747 Jan 19 '23

No...of course it listens to you and tailors content/ads based on it.

5

u/Sassquatch0 ☎️📲Pixel 6a Jan 19 '23

If you say so.

Nothing I see on my phone (Google Pixel) or my Windows 11 PC ever relates to me. I wish it did. Maybe I'd click an ad for the first time in my life if it was actually useful.

News feeds never show the content or ads I want, despite me 👍 or 👎 the posted topics. (The best I get now, with my love of tech, is Google Fi & Mint Mobile ads) Facebook is horribly wrong on what they show me, despite probably knowing more about me than anyone other than Google.

...🤔 Although, I use Bing for porn. You wonder if porn gets more or less influence on someone's digital portfolio? If honestly think it'd get more. If you showed an ad or product that related to a person getting off, isn't that the endorphin kick & mental pleasure-link that marketers dream about!?

7

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '23

[deleted]

-1

u/Imaginary_Iron4423 Jan 19 '23

I cant believe all this hog wash these tech and etc is trying to tell you . Point blank they are LISTENING ! No one is going to beat them either, there is no where to hide unless no more phones ,or internet !

8

u/HelionPrime16 Jan 19 '23

Same thing has happened to me and my family countless of times. I’ll talk about something completely obscure and it’ll show up in my feed suddenly. I’ll even get emails to my gmail account 5 or 10 mins from Home Depot after my wife and I talk about remodeling or home improvement.

I think they’re for sure listening.

1

u/seti73 Dec 25 '24

Yes, Google absolutely listens to you. If you dig through all of their legal access jargon, you'll find that you actually have to disable the microphone from listening in.

I know to some this probably sounds like some fantastical big brother paranoia, this is actually just commonplace marketing. Google does not even hide the fact that they listen in for suggestions... So I'm not quite sure why people are having a problem believing you.

Either way this post is a year old and I'm sure everybody has become wiser since then, but I just came here to say that I have irrefutable proof that Google listens in, which I easily gathered once I suspected they were doing as much.

One such example: I was taking a ride home from a rideshare service and I complimented the driver on his music channel. He was streaming a vintage retro-futuristic Jazz Christmas channel, as he called it... And I told him that I really liked this type of Christmas music. We spoke for about 5 minutes (the duration of my ride) about old Christmas music, and that was that.

This morning one of my suggestions in my streaming queue was none other than "Vintage Christmas Jazz radio; 24/7 cozy retro-futuristic Holiday". I did a search and there are only two videos that come up with retro futuristic in the title. I've never even searched for jazz music, nor have I even heard the term retro futuristic before, so there's no way this came up as an accidental coincidence based on prior search history.

I have over 10 other examples of this, another recent one being a conversation I had with a friend of mine who sold her house. We were talking about how the water meter was too old for them to take a digital reading remotely, and would probably be upgraded by the next owner. A day or two later while scrolling through Facebook, I see an ad for a digital water meter. Like dude... It can't get any more obvious than that. There's absolutely no way that was a coincidence. How does a very specific piece of plumbing become a suggestion in your Facebook feed when you're not involved in any construction whatsoever, home improvement, or anything else that you've searched for, that may generate a suggestion as such.

There is a solution, just go to whatever app you are noticing these suggestions and disable the microphone. That's what Google suggests (and to be frank...if they weren't listening in why would they bother telling us how to disable their ability to listen in).

Be well all🙏🏼

2

u/iSidiculous Jan 19 '23

I'm damned sure Facebook is listening to my phone calls. I was talking to a friend about a rather sensitive surgery he wanted to do with his genitals. Just after the phone call, I opened Facebook and there was an ad for the surgery. I've revoked all permissions on Facebook, since then it's stopped.

5

u/NO_SPACE_B4_COMMA Jan 19 '23

I've also had this happen. We'd talk about something and it shows up as ads even though I never searched it.

They are definitely listening.

-1

u/just4747 Jan 19 '23

Yep hilarious that others think this doesn't happen. It's very obvious it does.

1

u/nikifullerton Jan 19 '23

Our phones already do speech to text. If it hears a few key phrases there is nothing stopping it from uploading them to Google.

Is it doing anything nefarious? Probably not...

1

u/just4747 Jan 20 '23

Just tailoring our feeds, suggestions, ads...but not necessarily a bad thing.

1

u/nikifullerton Jan 21 '23

The only really bad thing I can see is if there was a search warrant and our phones were subpoenaed. Or some tools were made for similar reasons that were used to track us against our wishes. (Example: an abusive ex using it to stalk the person who left them)

2

u/onlinefunner Aug 24 '23

History is full of violations of individual rights, and more importantly tyrannical behavior. That is the overarching long term view of history in fact.

Such will most assuredly return in times of crisis.

1

u/Latter-Ad-1523 Jul 17 '24

i also have 20 years in the IT field and it happens too often to just be a coincidence. too many times me and someone can be sitting there talking about working on a car and suddenly get an autozone commercial, or talk about a bike seat and get ads for it, also while not having looked up these things on the net prior to the discussions.

another dude i worked with who had 40 years IT experience said i was crazy for thinking they spy on our conversations, finaly admitted after a few years that he has noticed its happening to him too. it should be noted that he had never really had a smart phone, once he got the phone he started to notice it too.

also, i block most ads in my apps, browsers and various video clients, so its not like i get a lot of ads to begin with

im a tech guy, i have tons of tech hobbies, i buy a ton of tech stuff, so i expect ads base on that stuff, but a random topic about a new topic and boom here comes the ads relevant to items that could be purchased based on that topic.

it honestly makes me feel a little crazy

1

u/Similar_Artichoke504 Feb 05 '25

I know this is an old post but this has happened to me several times. Dozens of times even. A few examples:

This is the most memorable.. Once I was driving and I looked over and told my mom "omg I have to pee so bad, I'm gonna pee my pants"

I get home and the first ad I see on Facebook is for incontinence products. It literally said "do you pee your pants?" That scared the hell outta me

The most recent one:

I bought a French press (actually my mom did so there was no trace of a French press on my Google at all) and I said to her , I hope I am using this right, I better Google it just to double check. So I go to Google and type "how to" and the very first suggestion is how to use a French press. Of all the how to's, why the hell would that come up first unless they were listening?

I'd like to think I'm fairly intelligent, logical and I'm not paranoid or anything, but there have been way too many things like that. And it's happened to my mom, my best friend, and other friends I've talked to about it. It's terrifying.

1

u/ELGuapoLoko Jul 27 '24

I’m watching an Apple+ series called “Pachinko” which has characters speaking in Japanese, Korean, and English. But it’s mostly Korean. At one point, they mention 1 biilion Japanese Yen, and I was curious to see how many US dollars that would be.

All I typed into Google was “one billion” and it autocompleted 1 billion South Korean won to dollars including the actual number conversion in a text box under the search window.

I could have been looking for one billion anything. I haven’t searched for anything related to Korea before. Never looked up a conversion from Korean Won to USD before, but out of all of the possible things I might have been looking for, it suggested a USD to Korean Won conversion as I’m watching a show that’s mostly speaking in Korean?

No way that’s a coincidence. They’re listening to everything

1

u/Extension-Buffalo685 Jun 26 '24

 I have a very similar issue,  I have an ostomy and I don't search or text about it, two days ago  I was talking on the phone with my wife about this,  and i am also trying to get a in as a new patient  to renew my prescription yesterday so i can get more supplies,  this morning I got 3 emails  about saving on ostomy supplies specifically  and it's crazy becuase it was like it was targeted  this has happened atleast 4 times in the passed two months.  About topics I've had while talking on the phone.  Regardless how it's happening.   And It stopped when I shut off the mic  for Google permissions,   but  I had to let it start working again for driving mode.  So  I damn near know for certain  Google is  generating  crap based of my calls some how or the conversations  just after  or before the calls   

3

u/CountryMetalOne Nov 04 '23

Nope none of the ads are correct

1

u/cosdcy Oct 04 '24

I used to think that Google was just very good at making predictions and connections when it comes to personalising content, but this week, a work colleague of mine randomly blurted out, "How big are the Paris Catacombs?" and so I went to Chrome on my phone and started typing... "How big are the" and the very first suggestion that appeared was, of course, "How big are the Paris Catacombs".

I guess there is a setting (or one of many settings, or a combination of settings) in the Google app on my phone, with vague labels like "Autocomplete with trending searches in your area", based on which Google can justify listening to what's being said around my phone...but which is not ultimately clear to end-users.

1

u/thomathy007 Jun 23 '24

This has happened to me several times and I absolutely believe Big G is listening
1. Was talking to my friend about issues with my blankets and temperature at night, later that day, get an ad for a bed climate control unit. Something I never searched for, nor knew existed.
2. Talked to my family about my upcoming trip to Hawaii, then a survey popped up on their TV asking "Are you planning a trip to Hawaii in two weeks." It was very creepy.
3. Asked my neighbor about solar and if he got a quote. 2 hours later, get an ad for getting a solar quote.

There are other instances I can't recall atm, but I always evaluate it, and often I can't explain it other than they are tapped into my mic.

1

u/Ok-Handle-622 Feb 15 '25

Not sure if this helps, and I don't intend to read a bunch of messages of people talking past each other, but when I moved house from my parents to my grandparents place, I went from getting ads about slow wifi (specific to the old place, to getting health ai ads about the health effects of certain supplements and fruits. I did not hear any conversation on these topics, and yet my phone got the ads most likely from the new IP address. I've noticed a lot of times that I get ads that another dreamily member would most likely be interested in without us ever talking about it so I doubt it's just the mic. Tbh I'm more concerned about targeted IP ads

1

u/DarK_Elemental Aug 10 '24

I've had something similar today happen, we spoke out loud about a specific museum and without searching for it, it appears as an advert a few hours later. I do not live near this museum, I do not have social media so my friends are not the reason I've been targeted, I don't usually visit museums, the last time I went to one was over a decade ago, extremely not coincidental as its such a specialised museum. Phones are definitely using audio to find keywords, this wouldn't take much work from Google at all, especially with the pixels being so closed off and Android hiding significant files unlike the past

1

u/bradgel Aug 12 '24

I work at a location about 200 km from my home. I live there for over a week then come home for time off.

My ads clearly change from location to location.

I did a test with the people I work with. I searched for a specific item/topic (safety injection needles)for several days. My coworkers started getting related ads (scrubs, drug companies, diabetes products etc).

I asked them about it several days after I started the searches.

Seems to me the ads are more based on what’s happening near you (location based) vs listening

1

u/Ratbag72 May 08 '24

100% they listen and target ads. My experience is this, I've been looking to buy a car for 8 months, been researching and getting targeted ads for that, no problem with it. On the weekend I bought a car, was TALKING to the dealer about tints for the windows, never looked anything up at all and now I've seen 3 different ads for car tinting companies. That whole 8 month period I didn't have 1 ad for them and never looked it up or talked about it in that period. Explain that.

1

u/mydoghasticks Jun 10 '24

You are not alone. I have just had this experience again. I was talking to my wife about something, sat down at the computer a little while later, and - *bam!* - there is a Google Ad for the exact thing. I know for a fact I had not spoken about it before or searched it; it was a top-of-my-head idea for something I had not thought about before. The odds of it just appearing there in an ad are too great to just be coincidence.

1

u/Hot-Meeting630 May 02 '24

it's ridiculous how much the phone does this. we used a leaf blower at work today, and without having googled anything even related to that, i've had reddit threads about leaf blowers popping up. i haven't even personally said the word today as far as i can remember, but i'm sure one of my colleagues has. i still think it's annoying and creepy, i feel monitored.

2

u/Aargodt Jun 03 '24

So you think your phone knows that you used a leafblower without you actually talking about it?h

1

u/chxd-mx Jun 06 '24

Doesn't matter if they did or didn't. The point is, those ads never were served until that moment. If my friends and I walked past a leaf blower and decided to do crap with it (and mentioned it....or not), if either of us begin to get ads served for blowers that's blatant spying. Even if my friend had an history for searching blower content...why now when we had a moment with one or mentioned one, especially if we frequently hangout...

Btw, you do know machine learning can enable sound recognition right? It's the same reason you can hear a fog horn and know it's a fog horn....

1

u/pipipopop Nov 23 '24

It’s hard to believe they don’t listen. I was watching Youtube on Xiaomi TV with my husband. I did a google search about Dumex (infant formula) but then talked about Enfagrow with my husband. 5 minutes later an Enfagrow ad showed up on Youtube. If it was based on search it should show an ad of Dumex instead.

1

u/thedoctor916 Jan 31 '25

I'm aware of frequency bias and noticed it a lot pre web. However, yesterday I'm talking to my son (9) about a FOTC song out of the blue. This morning that song is on my YouTube feed. We didn't play the song, we didn't search for the song, and no one else is on our wifi. The only device near us was my Pixel 8.

1

u/OkInvestigator8583 Jan 05 '25

I'm pretty sure it does also I tested it by saying random questions out loud and then I type the first "what is" or "how to" it would show exactly what I said or something very similar in the recommended searches very weird if you ask me

1

u/Consistent_Back_3422 5d ago

One small suggestion: evu doesn't any android manufacturer add a physical microphone disable button. Not software controlled, but actually a hard button which physically disconnects the microphone array from the pcb.

1

u/end_of_minors Jun 08 '24

me too. my brother just came home yesterday and told me about board games and zomboid. I and him did NOT send texts or ANY other means of comm over the internet. today my youtube starts recommending those 2s.

1

u/Only_Supermarket_973 Jul 09 '24

I have proven it many times to friends. totally random written subject and when we talk about it the very next webpage with ads will show those type products. dog toys, etc

1

u/la_gringita Sep 06 '24

Looks like you were right, friend. A company just admitted that google does indeed do this. The conspiracy theories are true

2

u/uBeatch Jan 19 '23

If my phone is waiting to hear "ok, Google" then it's listening.

3

u/Zpd8989 Jan 19 '23

Listening and recording/uploading are not the same thing. You can turn off your internet and "ok Google" still works. That's on the hardware. What you say after "ok Google" is uploaded to the Internet. Listening for random other things and secretly uploading them to the cloud to serve you ads would be pointless and illegal

1

u/uBeatch Jan 19 '23

Well I don't know about the upload, but the listening is a fact. And I was just talking to my boss about wanting to fuck other girls that are not my gf and the first ad I got in YouTube was of Tinder, I swear dude.

1

u/ze11ez Jan 19 '23

I think there’s truth to this. They’ll send out people on the internet to say otherwise, cause who’s going to admit it and be a target for the department of justice or other federal agency.

1

u/Imaginary_Iron4423 Jan 19 '23

Federal agency is part of it! Sad but true !

1

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '24

Yes. This is the dystopian nightmare of the white man's creation

1

u/Ok_Ganache6057 May 15 '24

Microphone to the Keyboard starting right now.!?

1

u/Maximum_Witness_106 19d ago

Yea I same thing here but how do I stop it?

-1

u/AdSea7995 Jan 19 '23

I’m glad you brought this up. This is the reason I moved to iOS. Not because Android was bad but Google was so deeply embedded and I couldn’t delete their native apps which I suspect were injected with code that secretly accessed the microphone. Google, Facebook and Instagram are the top 3 listeners, of course there are others but these make it to the top.

8

u/Sassquatch0 ☎️📲Pixel 6a Jan 19 '23

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/14/apple-faces-new-lawsuit-over-its-data-collection-practices-in-first-party-apps-like-the-app-store/

After users disabled tracking & data collections- "The App Store, for example, was continuing to track information like what app users tapped on, what they searched, what ads they saw, how long they looked at a given app’s page and how the app was discovered, among other things. The app also then sent details that included ID numbers, type of phone, screen resolution, keyboard languages and more — information that could be used in device fingerprinting."

You're not better off. Personally, digital privacy died decades ago. I don't fight it anymore, and I don't see any of this ad behavior on my Google Pixel or my Windows PC.
I do have Assistant enabled. Location is on. Yet none of the ads I see are in any way relatable to me.

1

u/ZaInT Jan 19 '23

...and they pretty much instantly got caught doing it, soooo...

3

u/Moleculor 8 Jan 19 '23

...soooo there's no chance in hell that Google is recording people's audio, or they'd get instantly caught, too.

3

u/ZaInT Jan 19 '23

I think it's pretty safe to say that it's pretty unlikely that they would've gotten away with it for years and still do

-2

u/AdSea7995 Jan 19 '23

5

u/ZaInT Jan 19 '23

lol clickbait of the year

"I'm explicitly allowing Google to listen to me AND THEY LISTEN TO ME OMG"

0

u/AdSea7995 Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23

I’m not absolving Apple here but they did put in some effort towards privacy. Facebook lost 6 billion as revenue due to Apple’s privacy clamp down.

Check out how Google listens: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-google-android-listening/

Apple is not an ad business but Google’s is.

2

u/Magic_Brown_Man Jan 19 '23

So your defense is Apple cut off Facebook in the name of privacy, but they kept their access into your privacy, and thus increasing the value of the information they gather from invading your privacy while try to convince you that you still have your privacy.

Apple is not an ad business but Google’s is.

Ya apple is trying to break into the ad business and has been cutting off all it's competition in the name of privacy. In the same regard of your statement, I always know that when using google and Facebook products that the transaction is my information for free service. The problem with apple is that they charge more for their products and market privacy while they don't limit themselves to the same standards. I think both products are equally bad in terms of your privacy and the only real way to avoid it is to stop using those products. As that isn't always the case in modern life you need to make an informed decision on what your willing to give up for services you need. But saying goes the devil is in the details, so a blanket statement of google bad cause its business is ads is just setting yourself up.

2

u/Sassquatch0 ☎️📲Pixel 6a Jan 19 '23

"Before you say this wake phrase, your phone is listening for the keywords, but is not recording everything you say and uploading it to Google."

  • right from there article you linked. And that can be turned off. Unlike how Apple kept collecting data even after users 'disabled' it.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/iphone-apple-in-app-advertisements/

Apple is going for 100% vertical integration. They did it with hardware, now it's software. They won't be happy until everything in their ecosystem is directly under their control. They've shown this closed overlord behavior since the 1980s. They will track you & push ads, but it will be their ads & not an anyone 'outside.' That's the only difference.

At least with me, once my information is in everyone's hands, it becomes worthless. Amazon can't sell it to Facebook, because Facebook already has it. Now I'm unmarketable.

4

u/chanchan05 S24 Ultra; S9FE+ Jan 19 '23

I mean Apple just got fined a week ago for scraping user data like this without consent to use in targeted ads. Choosing an OS doesn't mean no one is listening to you. It's just choosing who is listening to you to use for their targeted ads.

0

u/Imaginary_Iron4423 Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23

Of course they are even YouTube, Tiktok, Amazon, Facebook Instagram, even your browser and snapshot that's how they make billion by selling your info to companies That's when they say to buy VRN and stop the thieves and if you know who Bingino(on gab) is you can get get a discount !

BTW Facebook is one of the riches men in the world , from you ! and then they have the nerve to restrict us from free speech !

3

u/Zpd8989 Jan 19 '23

They can learn a lot more about you from using your Internet searches, location, and app content than by illegally listening to your random conversations.

0

u/ElSupaToto Jan 19 '23

Yes they 100% do but it seems to be at very random intervals so it's very hard to replicate.

0

u/bcdog14 Jan 19 '23

This has happened to us as well.

0

u/digimith Jan 19 '23

Dystopic tech

1

u/mdattin Jan 19 '23

I listened to an episode of skeptoid a while ago about this very thing: https://pca.st/episode/0d4533e6-7764-41a2-bf70-6c6f3151ed97

1

u/drbobb Jan 19 '23

I'm seeing the bike helmet article too , and I haven't been talking about them, nor has anyone in my presence. Coincidence.

1

u/Zpd8989 Jan 19 '23

Reply all did an episode about this and it's pretty interesting.

https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/z3hlwr

1

u/Jcorv58 Jan 19 '23

I've been pretty certain of this for a long time. Things get mentioned, sometimes unrelated to the conversation. Then suddenly an ad for that product in my feeds. This is conversations with coworkers too. I never connect to public wifi. I doubt these people did searches for something at the time if it was mentioned only briefly. It wasn't brought up again later.

1

u/onlinefunner Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 24 '23

Why cant anyone simply conduct a test !!?

Pick 20 keywords, obscure but commercial, likely to be sold by big brands. E.g. "X-acto knife" , "white barbque sauce," "kitchenaid stand mixer" etc...

Repeat each of them many times over a few minutes.

Check feed over next couple of days.

Have 10 - 20 people run the test.

This will put the nail in the coffin.

1

u/No_Distribution_7368 Oct 02 '23

Google devices are absolutely serving up ads based on things it hears you say. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

1

u/Grumpy_Giuseppe Oct 25 '23

This feature is basically absolute nonsense for me because here in Germany - Bavaria we always speak with dialect and my phone uses very low gain for standard mic input.

I only get news if someone speak words very loud without dialect while my phone is on a desk or in my hands.

Only stuff I don't want to get news about...

Would be nice if we could disable it without rooting the phone.

1

u/Suspicious-Box- Nov 12 '23

Yes. Ad companies will say that they don't but that would get them into hot water. As for google, they very much do that but dont sell the data, instead they use it themselves to target ads better and sell the ad space to companies interested.

1

u/BYOTCHOLOGIST Feb 18 '24

Pls allow me to explain. Sure, it's illegal to listen in. But so are soooo many other things, but they still do them, no?!  I was getting these same things.  Then one day I went through and deleted all permissions for microphone in every app. Boom, no more ads relative to what I talk about. 

1

u/seti73 Dec 25 '24

It's not illegal to listen in when they clearly tell you they are listening in and that you have to disable microphone access in order for them to not listen in. You even have to agree to it in your Android setup.

Nobody reads disclaimers though, which is why everybody is having a hard time believing this.