Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Android Microphone Snooping (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by czardestructo@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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So I had a verbal conversation with a coworker yesterday and now I'm getting fed very specific ads. No possible way it's accidental. I have most of the microphone access to apps limited, I have Google assistant turned off and no VPA setup in my home. I use a Oneplus 9 pro, does anyone have recommendations on how to further root cause this or just par for the course for using any standard android OS? Have other folks had similar experience after locking down their stock phones?

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[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 98 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

your coworker might've looked up things related to the conversation, and the ad provider figured out that you two are in the same social circle. so far I haven't seen any actual research that would prove that ads are tailored based on microphone recordings (and actually seen the results stating the opposite a few years ago), just a bunch of anecdotal stories.

[–] czardestructo@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago

That's actually a great point. He is older and uses a dumb phone but we have been working with each other over 5 years so there are going to be lots of connections to each other. Furthermore this coincidental ad is rare, I haven't gotten one like this in awhile.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch -2 points 8 months ago

There are people who google stuff while being logged into google?