I don’t think it’s that surprising. Here’s two true statements:
I don’t trust my phone on a fundamental level. I also have mentioned things out loud and gotten ads afterward about them.
On the one hand, those two statements absolutely don’t prove that my phone is listening. Just because I don’t trust my phone doesn’t mean that it’s being used maliciously, and the ads I’ve seen might just be a coincidence.
On the other hand, those two statements together are definitely suggestive. They feel suspicious. It would be so easy for Apple/Google/Samsung to secretly listen and make a boatload of money by telling me a lie. Lord knows they’ve lied about other things.
So yeah, balance of evidence is that phones probably don’t do that. But don’t be surprised when people suspect that they do.
spencerflem|1 year ago
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24224884-how-voice-d...
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/29/cox-caught-again-braggin...
ddulaney|1 year ago
I don’t trust my phone on a fundamental level. I also have mentioned things out loud and gotten ads afterward about them.
On the one hand, those two statements absolutely don’t prove that my phone is listening. Just because I don’t trust my phone doesn’t mean that it’s being used maliciously, and the ads I’ve seen might just be a coincidence.
On the other hand, those two statements together are definitely suggestive. They feel suspicious. It would be so easy for Apple/Google/Samsung to secretly listen and make a boatload of money by telling me a lie. Lord knows they’ve lied about other things.
So yeah, balance of evidence is that phones probably don’t do that. But don’t be surprised when people suspect that they do.
nuancebydefault|1 year ago
Also, it happened a few times I talked about some thing and an hour later it was talked about on broadcast TV. People over-fit on finding patterns.