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Ask HN: Is there any way an app can listen conversations secretly and show ads?

9 points by sahin-boydas ↗ HN
I am a person who is pretty aware of what i search what i type.

I had few instances that i heard an ad on radio and chat with my wife or my friends and sometime after i see an ad on the mobile web. (i am 100% sure i didnt do any searches about it)

10 comments

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vegcel
Yes, if they have access to your microphone, pull audio and convert it to text, search keywords and display ads. It's not really practical though, and there are other behaviors which are way better and easier to track for advertising purposes.
sahin-boydas
I saw an ad in the mobile web while i am checking a news article. it was a basic retargeting adsense i think
sahin-boydas
do u think they can send the text with advertising id of the iphone ?
savethefuture
Most likely. A lot of ads are third party code being executed on your device, look into malvertising.
Nadya
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBnDWSvaQ1I

I tested this with my mother, telling her about this in person and talking about dog toys. My mother does not have a dog - but by the end of our 2 hour talk about how much she wanted to get her dog a dog toy she was getting advertisements for dog toys and dog food on Facebook.

She has an iPhone.

romanovcode
iPhone or Android does not matter. You need to disable microphone access to Instagram, Facebook and Facebook Messenger if you wish them to not listen to you.

Actually if you are on Android I'm pretty sure there is no way to disable google listening to you 24/7.

ackidacki
There's no conspiracy. The guys who make the ads target radio and the web in the area the radio broadcast was made.

The radio ad is for familiarity and the web is to get people to get whatever it is.