So this is my personal experience, but im completely convinced now that our smartphones literally DO listen to us even when we aren't using them.
Several months ago, my ex was talking to me on the phone about a specific gift for my son. He was wanting a good headset that wouldn't break(earphones with a mic) for playing games on Xbox with his friends. He went through a few beforehand that were pretty cheaply made and didn't last, so we decided to get him a new set that would hopefully do the job. I let my ex figure everything out since she was researching already. She settled on a specific model of the Sennheiser brand. At NO TIME did i ever Google search, Amazon search or ANYTHING on any of my devices or accounts. Literally no info was punched in on my end. All of our devices and accounts are COMPLETELY separate. Frankly Id never even heard of Sennheiser until she brought it up in a conversation. So Christmas comes and goes. Shortly afterward specific ads start showing up...on Reddit and a few other sites as well. I didn't really think anything of it at first, but one day it dawned on me that...shit...how the fuck does this stuff all of the sudden show up? I mean, these ads were pretty specific and before this I had of course never even seen and at at all for Sennheiser, ever.. I basically put it in the back of my mind but summed up that somehow they got our info.
Fast forward to a week ago. Im driving in my vehicle with my son. We are talking about different things and I don't know how I brought it up - I think I might have been talking to him about internet/privacy etc. He's 10 years old and a pretty smart guy who absorbs info like a sponge, so I will at times teach him what I can. I told him about this viral story where this guy apparently did an experiment with his wife who was in the room with him and started talking about cat food with his phone right next to him...even though they dont own a cat and have never even done any internet activity about cats. He apparently starts getting ads a few days later about cat food.
So, I explain all of this to my son, not even thinking about my own environment. Consider now, Ive never searched ANYTHING about cats or cat food or cat anything on my devices or accounts. I don't own any cats nor google search etc about them.
I shit you not, a few days ago these ads start popping up:
these ads are from a reddit mobile app (ive been on reddit for at least a couple of years and i can guarantee you ive NEVER seen an ad about fucking cats much less fucking cat food choices). Just about every Reddit ad on my mobile device now is this ad about fucking cat food. I haven't seen yet if it has popped up anywhere else on my browsing, but I won't be surprised when it does.
Good grief
1984 anyone?
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