I think my phone is spying on me

[MightyGiants]

More specifically, my Facebook app.   I am very familiar with cookies, and how after I research tires for my car, there will be ads for tires on various websites I visit.

On the other hand, this was a bit more unsettling.  I wasn't researching home blood pressure cuffs, but I was talking to someone who was researching them.   A little while later, I go on to Facebook to acknowledge B-day wishes, and the first ad just happens to be "top 5 blood pressure monitors".  I am having a hard time accepting that was just an amazing coincidence

[Sem]

I am having a hard time accepting that was just an amazing coincidence

It wasn't.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

More likely Google than something specific to do with your phone. Google sees and hears everything and makes its billions by offering sales leads (for a price of course)

[DaveBrown74]

That's unsettling. Cookies are bad enough (as are all the constant in-my-face requests of whether or not I'm ok with them)

[Bob In PA]

The new math for PC's is often this... AI + well-intended (or not-so-well intended) software = ersatz spyware

It often helps (often definitively) to erase all cookies and reinstall as many programs as possible.

But I'm not sure that answer works as well for cell phones... because I don't have one and never studied them.

Bob

[Ed Vette]

Was you phone in your pocket or was the screen on?

[MightyGiants]

Was you phone in your pocket or was the screen on?

My phone was in the belt holster, which means the screen should have been off.  I don't recall if I took it out to look at it at any time during the conversation (there is a chance I might have taken a quick look at this site)

[Ed Vette]

My phone was in the belt holster, which means the screen should have been off.  I don't recall if I took it out to look at it at any time during the conversation (there is a chance I might have taken a quick look at this site)

That has happened to me too and if the phone was off or resting that's scary xxxx. It's not just Google that can spy. Was it the iphone?

[Ed Vette]

That has happened to me too and if the phone was off or resting that's scary xxxx. It's not just Google that can spy. Was it the iphone?

One other thing, you may want to consider. If your holster prints, meaning it shows an outline with your shirt over it and can be assumed open as a firearm, you may want to be aware that you could be a target by bad guys. NJ is a carry state now both open and conceal.   

[Sem]

A while back my niece and several of her friends were sitting around the kitchen table, and as a test, they all set their phones on the table, screens locked. They began talking about something random, in this case wicker furniture. within 24 hours all five of them were getting ads for, you guessed it, outdoor wicker furniture. This was a year or two ago, so it's nothing new.

[MightyGiants]

That has happened to me too and if the phone was off or resting that's scary xxxx. It's not just Google that can spy. Was it the iphone?

Yes, it's an I-phone

[Ed Vette]

Yes, it's an I-phone

Not good.

[Sem]

Not good.

Happens to me occasionally too. I have an iPhone and I do not have the Chrome app installed or use Google on it. Seems everybody's listening. All for our own good no doubt.

[Ed Vette]

Happens to me occasionally too. I have an iPhone and I do not have the Chrome app installed or use Google on it. Seems everybody's listening. All for our own good no doubt.

Google owns YouTube too. They may own other apps you have.

[T200]

If you don't disable your digital assistant (Siri, Google Assistant, Bixby, or Alexa) they are always listening.

They are activated to engage when they hear their command words. But they are ALWAYS listening. Unfortunately what they pick up 'leaks' into other apps (Facebook/IG, Youtube) and you end up with ads based on what was heard.