OK, we know our phones are always listening to us, but damn it so are our computers. At my desk I had Facebook on all morning streaming the inauguration. I'd forgotten it was open and was doing other things. I was just in a work conference call and we were discussing a feature on a certain vehicle. Tabing through different programs to change what I was doing and Facebook came to the top. Guess what I had an advert for right at the top of my Facebook page? That's right the exact vehicle we had just been discussing. This is not a make, model, or category of vehicle I have any personal interest in, so I have never seen adverts for it before. Yet there it was right in front of me on my Facebook home page. I know all these things track what you look at, what your cookies are, and do a disturbingly good job at times of interpreting your interests, but berkeleying facebook is now using my computer mic as well as my phone mic.
Note. I dropped off FB completely for a few years after an incident where the FB app was listening to a conversation I was having (with another member on here actually) at a bar one night. We were talking about a young woman I worked with (she had the same name as someone the friend was talking about, not creepy) The FB messenger app then decided to send her contact info to the last few people who I'd talked to via FB messenger. That happened to include my wife, and a group of fellow parents, mainly women, and other people. Then my phone started beeping as I was getting WTF messages from all these people wanting to know why I was sending the contact info of a very attractive young woman to them all. Note, the phone was on the bar, untouched the whole time. Only started using FB again over the last couple of months. Forget it, it's gone again.
Duke
MegaDork
1/20/21 1:30 p.m.
FB Messenger is the very devil. I never let that crap near my phone.
Yup. Any time I need to use messenger, I'll reinstall it, send/receive the messages, then delete it.
If I could get my extended family to use an email chain, I'd delete it all together.
WilD
Dork
1/20/21 1:43 p.m.
Someone in my office brought up the various flavored KitKat bars that are popular in Japan during some spiritted "water cooler talk" about candy. The sudden onslught of flavored KitKat ads I was flooded with later that day was unsettling.
I use the friendly app as my messenger workaround.
mtn (Forum Supporter) said:
Yup. Any time I need to use messenger, I'll reinstall it, send/receive the messages, then delete it.
If I could get my extended family to use an email chain, I'd delete it all together.
On the iPhone (or iPad), it is easy to reload the desktop version of FB in Safari, and then messenger works fine. I'd assume there is something similar on Android. I use this method to avoid ever having to install any FB apps.
Yeah, unfortunately while I can log out and ignore FB itself, FB Messenger is how we keep in touch with my mother, sister, niece etc. in the UK with no land line. Not practical to re-train half the UK to use something else just because Ol' Zuck makes the KGB look like a group of nuns wondering why the level of communion wine keeps dropping.
If someone ever proved that facebook/google/amazon was listening to target adds, it would be a big deal. They haven't. I can't explain how that happened to you or anyone else Ive had this argument with, other than coincidence that you caught because of your suspicions. Its not hard to tell when a device is sending data back home. They aren't listening. Same with all of the smart home devices too. They listen for one word to wake up and start recording. thats it.
In reply to eastsideTim :
This case was on my laptop, the one a few years ago was on an iphone.
In reply to lnlogauge :
Damn, I want to believe you, I really do, it's just the anecdotal evidence keeps saying otherwise. 
Have you watched social dilema on Netflix? Scary E36 M3
Have you peeked into the FB terms of service? They have the right to access, not only the device(s) you use for FB, but ANY DEVICE ON THE NETWORK you use to acces FB. They amso reserve the right to use "our camera" at will. BTW, "our camera" is the one(s) installed on your device(s).
Anyone that still thinks things like what the OP described are coincidental are simply delusional.
I alone have more that one of those coincidences happen in the last 12 months.
It would be nice to believe it's limited to one app. Or one entity. It isn't.
The only real way to "opt out" is to completely reject the technology.
DrBoost said:
Have you peeked into the FB terms of service? They have the right to access, not only the device(s) you use for FB, but ANY DEVICE ON THE NETWORK you use to acces FB. They amso reserve the right to use "our camera" at will. BTW, "our camera" is the one(s) installed on your device(s).
Anyone that still thinks things like what the OP described are coincidental are simply delusional.
I alone have more that one of those coincidences happen in the last 12 months.
Find one single reputable source that agrees with what you're saying. They have your location, they have your search history, they have the search history of who you're around. they know a crazy amount about you. But to say that they are getting information from audio simply isnt true.
Also, facebook TOS does not give them right to use the camera at will. Again, no reputable source is going to back that one up either.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to eastsideTim :
This case was on my laptop, the one a few years ago was on an iphone.
I suspect they use some sort of geolocation, too, so it could be someone else’s device. Say, you and a friend are together in a bar, and he searches for a car while logged in to FB. You two are friends on FB, were on the same cell tower (or WiFi network) at the time of the search, and voila, you get targeted ads based on this connection. Which could make for some very fun hijinks.
The way it ACTUALLY works is your phone listens to you and the network the phone is on then gets the data sent to everyone on that network. My wife and I have tested.
hell, one time I was playing Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson (call me a rock god?) Playing it on my guitar. No radio. Keep in mind, no tablature open. I then went to my computer to use it and, lo and behold, there, on google chrome, was an ad FOR LEARNING HOW TO PLAY CLIFFS OF DOVER!
I took it as a compliment, since the only device listening in my music room was my phone. That means my phone knew what song I was playing, and that means I was playing it accurately.
A couple of years ago while visiting my wife's sister, I was outside with my BIL while he cooked burgers on his grill. As guys do, we got to talking about his grill, why he picked it, mine, the different types, how to keep them clean, etc. This whole time my phone was in my pocket untouched. About an hour later after dinner, I pull out my phone and suddenly I'm getting ads for grills.
Don't tell me that berkeleyer isn't listening.
In reply to eastsideTim :
I'm sat in my home office, in the basement.
In reply to lnlogauge :
I call BS. They absolutely do listen and they do send data back. I can see the outgoing data on my phone.
Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to eastsideTim :
I'm sat in my home office, in the basement.
That's just creepy. But I'd still say it is possible it was not your laptop listening in. It may have been your phone (if you have messenger installed), or (hopefully) it was because whoever you were talking to on the conference call is not as good about their privacy settings, and did do some sort of search. I lock my stuff down pretty well and run adblockers when possible, so don't see these connections often - most of the ads I get in FB could be tied to links I've clicked on FB, or groups I am a member of.
Neither of those have anything to do with listening for ad placement. Alexa stores audio that's recorded after saying alexa. Contractors listened in on recorded audio. Okay?
You can see data moving, but you don't know what data. If it was happening you'd see significant amounts of data, and you'd see the microphone turned on. If either of those happened, you would have every tech blog writing about it and backlash as far as the eye can see.
You can turn off most app permissions, such as access to microphone. I only use FB through a phone browser and the messenger app. I hardly get any targeted ads this way. In fact some of my ads are hilariously mis-targeted.
However, my (extremely non-car) GF keeps getting GRM content in her feed and other signs of "they must be listening".
In reply to lnlogauge :
Every tech blog that relies on affiliate links and big tech marketing for their own budget? Those ones?
In reply to Javelin (Forum Supporter) :
Every single tech blog is covering this up? Good God man. That's a hell of a cover up/conspiracy just because you don't like the answer.
