REVscene Automotive Forum - Signs that your phone is listening to you, even when in your pocket

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Has anyone else’s YouTube ads been going real heavy lately? Specifically on mobile for iPhone (no Adblock). I’ve started getting an 80%+ chance of an ad before every video, and even started getting ads after the video has ended. So say I’m listening to a music playlist or something, I’d get an ad before a video, at the end of the video, and immediatly again at the start of the next video.

Just as I’m making a sandwich for lunch listening to a video in the background, I’m hitting every single ad break or whatever.

I understand why advertisement is there. But this is getting out of control. Especially Spotify ads recently, it’s also happening between every 2 songs. And it’s alsays ads for “get Spotify premium!” So they’re literally engineered to be annoying and make me sign up and pay.

I've had this creepy shit happen a couple of times now.

This week, a co-worker was telling me about his weekend. He fixed up his dirtbikes and stuff, and told me he was considering buying a new can-am side by side.

The last two days, I'm seeing can-am ads on my facebook feed....

Quote:

Originally Posted by 320icar (Post 8944982)

I always watch those people are awesome videos. When my girlfriend watches them on her phone it's a solid video. When I watch them on my phone there's the 15 second ad before it starts and then I get another one halfway through the video. Extremely annoying!

I stay signed in on YouTube so does it know that since I watch a lot of videos I'm more prone to seeing the ads compared to my girlfriend who barely watches any videos and gets no ads?

youtube pushing hard on getting that premium sub

I'd say this is more of a YouTube effort to push ads with far more effort than before. I watch YouTube on both my mobile devices and PC, and I've also noticed that on most videos that are 10+ min long, it is very likely that I'll get hit with ads before, during, and after the video.

IMO, there isn't much I can do when I am unwilling to pay for YouTube premium.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 320icar (Post 8944982)

I’m pretty sure youtube makes more on me via ad revenue than my subscription to youtube black or whatever

Just a reminder that if you sub to our sponsor PIA, it'll block all this sort of tracking, and block all ads including mobile youtube ads SeemsGood

Just turn it off when you come to RS Kappa

98% sure facebook is listening to me

at work having a conversation with a client, did not search the keyword afterwards... slim chance it's coincidence as its not really a trending topic

crazy thing was my phone was at least 20m away unless my garmin watch/work desktop has a mic i dont know about

I’m wondering if devices can talk to each other or get info from your router???

I have noticed a couple times now where I’m talking about something or I googled something on my phone and then my work Microsoft surface (so many features disabled) I went to google the same thing and it auto completed what o had just searched (highly specific) on my phone and knew what I was looking for. Not even the same browser, not logged into Chrome or anything... creepy as fuck

^ I think a lot of things do it based on your modem's IP? Google definitely knows both devices are accessing their site from the same location. If it's only the devices you use (and not others at your place) though the shadow profile algorithms have probably guesstimated it's the same person using both devices.

Funny this got bumped. Talking to a new coworker at lunch yesterday she was talking about how they were quite poor growing up (parents declared bankruptcy etc)

Later that night I had about 4 YouTube ads in a row about financial help, assistance programs, bankruptcy etc etc

I’ve never ever googled it, talked about it or anything of the sort before nor gotten ads like this. The evidence for my phone listening is too obvious to miss

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 9147883)

Update on this 8 year old thread

Facebook partner admits smartphone microphones listen to people talk to serve better ads

LOL~ Even before they came out to admit it, don't most people already know this through first hand experience?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Traum (Post 9147886)

LOL~ Even before they came out to admit it, don't most people already know this through first hand experience?

Yup that's what this old thread was about (and if you look back some people denied it). But here it is, finally, fully admitted to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 8797356)

Yeah I avoid public wifi completely. I have no idea why it's even considered a service. Why do you need wifi when you most likely have fast mobile internet anyway? Unless you're downloading huge files or streaming, there's really no need to be on wifi.

Still don't know why I got failed for this LUL

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 9147895)

Still don't know why I got failed for this LUL

Poor reception in concrete buildings, older folks refusing to pay for data (my in laws and parents included), last resort for comms if cellular connection is glitching out on your device? Lack of tethering on your cellular data plan and wanting to use a laptop, tablet, etc?

I don't know either why someone would fail you over this though lol.

There's a narrow band of niche where I need public wifi.

- No reception in said building because of construction/deadspot or my HK phone just doesn't have the correct bands. Even then I'll just make do.
- Need it for a laptop because I don't have reception or don't have any juice left on my phone to hotspot. It's extra niche because the work laptop has security policies in place and will not connect to VPN on most public networks so I need my hotspot most of the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 9147894)

Yup that's what this old thread was about (and if you look back some people denied it). But here it is, finally, fully admitted to.

Well no, it isn't. The only "sources" are garbage sites.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvoFire (Post 9147915)

work laptop has security policies in place and will not connect to VPN on most public networks so I need my hotspot most of the time.

Isn't the point of a VPN that it's secure tunneling through whatever you're running your connection through, regardless of snooping and whatever malicious intent?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RabidRat (Post 9147934)

Isn't the point of a VPN that it's secure tunneling through whatever you're running your connection through, regardless of snooping and whatever malicious intent?

The VPN is more so to give me access to internal sites than prevent snooping. I think even if encrypted, they don't want to risk data being intercepted on an un-secured network.

Quote:

Originally Posted by underscore (Post 9147932)

Well no, it isn't. The only "sources" are garbage sites.

It's former VICE people, do you have experience with their journalism being bad? Do you think they faked the pitch deck and wrote a fake story about it? That would be a pretty bad idea for a new media site to do, especially one that relies on subscriptions

im surprised that this needed a former exec to admit. shouldn't it be somewhere in the fine print when you install fb and someone with lots of time on their hands or a lawyer should have found this a long time ago? if it's not in the fine print somewhere then it would definitely be an illegal privacy breach since there is a reasonable expectation of privacy when you have your phone sitting in your pocket.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 9147979)

It's former VICE people, do you have experience with their journalism being bad?

Unless they're currently working for VICE that doesn't mean anything, even if you think VICE is good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 9147979)

That would be a pretty bad idea for a new media site to do, especially one that relies on subscriptions

Is that not an incentive to sensationalize things for profit?

Gizmodo has an article that is actually somewhat thorough but a week in and no significant news source reporting on it makes it seem like this is a pretty big nothingburger: https://gizmodo.com/pitch-dek-gives-...ing-2000491095

Quote:

Media conglomerate Cox Media Group has been pitching tech companies on a new targeted advertising tool that uses audio recordings culled from smart home devices. The existence of this program was revealed late last year. Now, however, 404 Media has also gotten its hands on additional details about the program through a leaked pitch deck. The contents of the deck are creepy, to say the least.

Cox’s tool is creepily called “Active Listening” and the deck claims that it works by using smart devices, which can “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations.” After the data is captured, advertisers can “pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers,” the deck says. The vague use of artificial intelligence to collect data about consumers’ online behavior is also mentioned, with the deck noting that consumers “leave a data trail based on their conversations and online behavior” and that the AI-fueled tool can collect and analyze said “behavioral and voice data from 470+ sources.”

The main question I have is: how the fuck is this legal?

Most states have some form of wiretapping law that restricts the ability to record a person without their explicit knowledge. If we are all being recorded by our smart devices all the time, and those recordings are then being funneled into targeted-advertising so that e-commerce sites can sell us more jeans or Blu-Rays or whatever we happen to be yapping about in our living rooms, how is that not a breach of, say, California’s state law that requires two-party consent for conversations to be recorded?

The pitch deck also claims that Cox currently partners with major tech platforms, including Google, Amazon, and Facebook. “WE PARTNER WITH THE BEST TO PROVIDE THE BEST,” the deck states, showcasing affiliations with the major tech companies. While Cox may partner with those companies in some capacity, it’s not clear that any of the companies have partnered with it in regards to this particular advertising tool.

Some of the companies listed in the deck seem like they are a little bit wary of the legal ramifications of Cox’s “Active Listening” product. When 404 Media confronted Google about the pitch deck, the company said it dropped Cox Media Group from its advertising partners program. “All advertisers must comply with all applicable laws and regulations as well as our Google Ads policies, and when we identify ads or advertisers that violate these policies, we will take appropriate action,” the tech giant told 404 in a statement.

In a brief statement, Amazon told Gizmodo, “Amazon Ads has never worked with CMG on this program and has no plans to do so.”

When contacted by Gizmodo, a Meta spokesperson wrote via email: “We don’t have any comment. But just to clarify, the pitch deck in the article lists Meta as a general marketing partner, not as a partner ‘in this program'”. They then provided a link to a blog post on Facebook’s policies on using microphones for targeted ads.

Gizmodo reached out to Cox Media Group as well as Google. We will update this story when we learn more. You can read the full pitch deck by clicking here.

Someone pitching a concept isn't "fully admitting" to any of the nonsense in this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by underscore (Post 9147987)

Unless they're currently working for VICE that doesn't mean anything, even if you think VICE is good.

Is that not an incentive to sensationalize things for profit?

Gizmodo has an article that is actually somewhat thorough but a week in and no significant news source reporting on it makes it seem like this is a pretty big nothingburger: https://gizmodo.com/pitch-dek-gives-...ing-2000491095

Someone pitching a concept isn't "fully admitting" to any of the nonsense in this thread.

So you don't think it's true?

While I'm sure we all suspected it was happening, Apple recently added monitoring controls to your phone, you're able to see if your GPS or mic/camera is being utilized by any app.

With that in place, do we still believe your mic is being used to market to you?

Maybe so, if you ask "Hey Siri" that same functionality of informing you your mic is being utilized doesn't display, perhaps they disable that feature for the corps that throw Apple some $$$ (Meta and Google pretty much.)

Anyone notice how Safari now CONSTANTLY has a little pop-up letting you know about Google Chrome, and using Chrome Keys instead of passwords? That's a result of this bullshit:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-2022-cue-says