Your phone is listening to you all the time

[ponyboy]

So I've recently had two instances in which there is no other explanation other than my phone is listening to my conversations.

Just today, I'm on facebook, with my phone on my desk, and I watch a video about a man who bought a Rolex watch to use when flying and he's getting it appraised on Antique Roadshow. He has all of the original boxes and even the receipt which shows he paid $543 for it in 1973 and he states as much in the video.

They go on and the guy appraises the watch at $100k. That's a pretty good return on his money! That gets me to thinking, I wonder how much $543 in 1973 is today adjusted for inflation? So I open another tab and type in "$543" and google auto-fills "in 1973". How could it possibly know I was going to type in "1973"? That's such a random thing that there's no way of it possibly happening unless it was listening to the video through my phone. There's no microphone on the desktop and I'm logged into google on both my phone and the desktop so it's easy for them to communicate.

There was also no mention of either $543 or 1973 in either the post or the description of the video so it couldn't have gotten that number from text on the page. The only way would have been through the mentioning of both on the video.


Then the other instance happened a couple of months ago. I'm at work and a co-worker and I are talking about the flat earthers. About how crazy the stuff is they believe in (sorry if you're a flat earther) and everything else. We talk for a few minutes and then I said, "I wonder if they think the moon is flat?". Then we talk about that for a minute or two and I said, I'm going to google it.

I spin around in my chair to my desk, where my phone is also sitting, and I start typing into google and I get out "do flat" and google auto-fills "earthers think the moon is flat". How would it even be possible for it to guess that is what I was about to type unless it was listening to our conversation? There's no microphone on my desktop at work, again logged into google on both my phone and desktop, so my phone is the only way it could possibly know what we were talking about.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I'm 100% positive that your phone is listening to what you're saying and transmitting it to google and who knows where else. There is no other explanation on how these two things could have occurred otherwise.

So be careful what you say around your phone, which is virtually impossible because everyone always has their phone, because "they're" listening. It's crazy!

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Does that take the burden off my wife all the time.
If my phone really is listening to me all the time can someone devlop an app to text me what my wife said right before she asks me what did i say?

 

[dclpluto]

So I've recently had two instances in which there is no other explanation other than my phone is listening to my conversations.

Just today, I'm on facebook, with my phone on my desk, and I watch a video about a man who bought a Rolex watch to use when flying and he's getting it appraised on Antique Roadshow. He has all of the original boxes and even the receipt which shows he paid $543 for it in 1973 and he states as much in the video.

They go on and the guy appraises the watch at $100k. That's a pretty good return on his money! That gets me to thinking, I wonder how much $543 in 1973 is today adjusted for inflation? So I open another tab and type in "$543" and google auto-fills "in 1973". How could it possibly know I was going to type in "1973"? That's such a random thing that there's no way of it possibly happening unless it was listening to the video through my phone. There's no microphone on the desktop and I'm logged into google on both my phone and the desktop so it's easy for them to communicate.

There was also no mention of either $543 or 1973 in either the post or the description of the video so it couldn't have gotten that number from text on the page. The only way would have been through the mentioning of both on the video.


Then the other instance happened a couple of months ago. I'm at work and a co-worker and I are talking about the flat earthers. About how crazy the stuff is they believe in (sorry if you're a flat earther) and everything else. We talk for a few minutes and then I said, "I wonder if they think the moon is flat?". Then we talk about that for a minute or two and I said, I'm going to google it.

I spin around in my chair to my desk, where my phone is also sitting, and I start typing into google and I get out "do flat" and google auto-fills "earthers think the moon is flat". How would it even be possible for it to guess that is what I was about to type unless it was listening to our conversation? There's no microphone on my desktop at work, again logged into google on both my phone and desktop, so my phone is the only way it could possibly know what we were talking about.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I'm 100% positive that your phone is listening to what you're saying and transmitting it to google and who knows where else. There is no other explanation on how these two things could have occurred otherwise.

So be careful what you say around your phone, which is virtually impossible because everyone always has their phone, because "they're" listening. It's crazy!

They do call it a smart phone.

 

[Tompson999]

ponyboy

And what Edward Snowden said about your suspicions?

 

[ponyboy]

Does that take the burden off my wife all the time.
If my phone really is listening to me all the time can someone devlop an app to text me what my wife said right before she asks me what did i say?

That's a million dollar idea right there

 

[sam_gordon]

If you think about it, OF COURSE the phone (and Alexa et al) are listening all the time. Most smart phones these days have assistants you can talk to... "Hey google, navigate to the nearest pizza restaurant"... "Hey Siri, where's the closest grocery store?"

 

[Kellydelly]

Yeah....good thing I don't say anything worthy of an investigation.

 

[Floridaman999]

In that case, I'm sure I'm on a list or two.

 

[Brett Wyman]

At least someone is!

 

[Amanda999]

Creepy!
I noticed on my android phone a setting to turn off its listening app (I can't remember what its name is) - have you searched your settings? Its waiting for map directions, phone calls to make, etc.

FWIW I got the same google suggestion when just now I typed in "do flat." As to the $543 (google didn't auto suggest 1973 to me just now): perhaps the show you were watching was a recent episode, so many people would have searched the same question? I often search currency conversion rates (for foreign countries) via google (seems similar). Regardless, it is creepy!!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Creepy!
FWIW I got the same google suggestion when just now I typed in "do flat." As to the $543 (google didn't auto suggest 1973 to me just now): perhaps the show you were watching was a recent episode, so many people would have searched the same question? I often search currency conversion rates (for foreign countries) via google (seems similar). Regardless, it is creepy!!

"Do flat" came up with different suggestions for me, but I typed in $543 and 1973 came up as one of the first suggestions.

My Sister-in-law is convinced the phone listens. She and her son were talking about brown recluse spiders, and she typed in brown in Google, and brown recluse was the first option that came up. For me, I was at work, carrying my phone, and they had a craft fair. I told a coworker I'd love to get into quilting. Later that day, quilting ads came up on Facebook when I went on it. So, I believe in the possibility that they may be communicating with each other - phone, Google, Facebook, etc.

 

[js]

At work there are three of us that eat in a conference room every day. One day, one of the girls was talking about Stitch something, where you buy clothes and the company sends you different outfits and then we were hanging out at the same lunch I went on my phone and under FB, where I do not have any friends, just use for my cruise and Disney groups, that ad came up.

Another time we were talking about Aruba, where a coworker has a TS, and sure enough it came up on my FB again. The first time I thought it was a coincidence, the second time, I thought was magic lol

 

[Poohlove]

A bunch of us were sitting around talking for hours and one of the things we talked about was how phones listen. The next day of all the topics we covered several of the people had suggestions come up on facebook about macaroni and cheese. Thankfully that was what was singled out I dont use facebook but there has been more than one instance where I could swear my phone listened to me and made search suggestions accordingly

 

[gotomu212]

Not ruling it out, but it’s also amazing how sophisticated the algorithms are and how often other people think to search the same thing -especially since google is used by such a large percentage of people.

I occasionally get copies of tv programming and movies before they are released (total legal as part of a job) and there have been times I’ve googled random things while watching and there are no google suggestions but then I’ve googled it again after the release from a different unconnected device and it’s an auto suggest because other people watching also googled it.

This also happens when nEtflix or Hulu release old TV shows again and suddenly these old episodes are triggering google searches.

 

[Searc]

Yep, it sure is. If you have facebook, talk about some random odd subject with your phone near you and see how long it takes for ads pertaining to that subject to appear on Facebook.

 

[starry_solo]

If you're logged into your Google account on both your phone and your desktop, that's another reason why it can do that.

 

[wenrob]

Not ruling it out, but it’s also amazing how sophisticated the algorithms are and how often other people think to search the same thing -especially since google is used by such a large percentage of people.

I occasionally get copies of tv programming and movies before they are released (total legal as part of a job) and there have been times I’ve googled random things while watching and there are no google suggestions but then I’ve googled it again after the release from a different unconnected device and it’s an auto suggest because other people watching also googled it.

This also happens when nEtflix or Hulu release old TV shows again and suddenly these old episodes are triggering google searches.

This and sometimes just coincidence. I was reading the egg yolk thread. Did a google search and “what to do with egg yolks” was about the third suggestion down. No speaking involved in that so my phone wasn’t “listening” but I was reading a thread about egg yolks and it happens to be that time of year where people are trying to figure out what to do with a bunch of eggs.

I have done about a billion searches about moving decorative rock, been on the phone about half a dozen times about it today and have had several conversations about it over the last couple of days. No mysterious ads or suggestions about that. If my phone was listening to me I’d hope it would help me out because I can’t find anyone to haul away this damn rock.

I have Alexa and Siri but they are listening “for” and no “to.” And even if they were listening to me why would they (Apple and Amazon) report it to Facebook or Google? That’s where the whole theory falls apart for me. I don’t see what they would have to gain from that. I don’t know, I’m either not paranoid or naive. But eh, if anyone is listening can you help me find a way to get rid of this rock?

 

[hereyago]

My phone may have gotten an ear full when I just stubbed my toe

 

[MidnightParade]

If you think about it, OF COURSE the phone (and Alexa et al) are listening all the time. Most smart phones these days have assistants you can talk to... "Hey google, navigate to the nearest pizza restaurant"... "Hey Siri, where's the closest grocery store?"

Agreed. You’re phone is listening all the time waiting to hear ‘Hey Siri’, ‘Okay google’ etc. I turn this feature off as I think it’s weird and creepy. Sometimes phones will even respond even if they hear a ‘hey siri’ On a commercial or radio ad.

 

[ChrisFL]

I know specifically Facebook Messenger has a listening portion built in for this reason. There's even youtube ads I saw for people trying to sell companies about using that listening feature to help search results.