Your phone isn't secretly listening to you, but the truth is more disturbing

« The article posits that the uncanny relevance of some ads is due to sophisticated data collection methods. Companies analyze user behavior, online activity, and social interactions to predict interests, making it seem as though devices are listening.

In essence, while smartphones may not be actively eavesdropping, the depth and breadth of data analytics employed by tech companies can create the illusion of such practices.»

There has definitely been cases where I have not looked up an idea at all on my devices, only mentioned it in speech at home, and the highly targeted at shows up on mobile the next day or even that day. I would take the correlation theory if I actually left data to correlate.