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

Yep. They 100% do not share an interest in ear wax removal, or had a medical need of that nature.

Why do you think I would put up a comment on HN of all places, with this degree of confidence.

> tested with other ads… If I knew that this, was going to be needed to study, 5 years into the future, I would have conducted a double blind study. Sadly I could not, however, it’s still fun, so we can always replicate.

The question is, have you found a horrid ad yet? Side note, this was in the UK

I was kidding… Of course you and your friends share some demographics and interests—- making it unsurprising that you’d get similar ads.

> The question is, have you found a horrid ad yet? Side note, this was in the UK

The question is, why does it have to be a horrid ad? Does the phone only listen for things about horrid ads to show you?

You have to know that your phone isn’t listening to you right? That it’s just a coincidence and that when you’re told to be on the lookout for an earwax ad that you’re more likely to see one, right?

You can’t be 100% confident about what you’re saying and it horrifies me that people go through such lengths to protect these… ad companies? Oh you’re just bringing some sense to the situation, right? Ad companies are the sleaziest of them all and I would not be surprised if they did stuff like this. Smart tvs, dishwashers that NEED wifi to get full functionality, phones always with me and (especially android) users accepting everything willy nilly…

Your phone might not be listening to you straight out of the box. Might. You don’t know for sure, nobody here does. Why err on the side of blissful ignorance? And then you accept 10 end-user-agreements you don’t read, install dozens of apps you don’t read the small letters of… and you think nobody had been listened to?

It’s a bigger chance it happens than that it doesn’t, in my mind. I haven’t been able to catch it using mitm proxies, but I’m not the best at that, and I haven’t a pretty virgin iphone on purpose.

> You can’t be 100% confident about what you’re saying

Yeah but I am.

If you tell me a story about your phone listening to you that you absolutely swear is true, I know you love the idea of conspiracy theories and would laugh at someone who believes in astrology. But they’re the same thing.

It’s fun to see coincidences. It’s fun to think you’ve outsmarted the man. But that’s all it is — fun.

It’s not real.

> Ad companies are the sleaziest of them all and I would not be surprised if they did stuff like this

OK prove it.

> It’s a bigger chance it happens than that it doesn’t, in my mind

OK, should be easy for someone to prove then.

Is it really more likely that this thing is happening that nobody has been able to prove or that people like to see patterns to explain the weird things in the world?

> I haven’t been able to catch it using mitm proxies

Shocker lol.

But should be easy for you to find someone who has caught them red handed, right?

man, without getting into the specifics, the vast difference in medical habits because of gender, activity levels, and the fact that I had an unusual condition which caused me to look into this, ITS EARWAX removal for fs sake.

What, are you saying that there is an ASMR or god knows what community that focuses on ear wax?

I never got those ads in my LIFE, until I had a medical need. Have you?

>why does it have to be a horrid ad?

Because I choose horrid ads to mess with my friends? You could try for adult teletubbies, lord knows that might exist. Whatever floats your boat, I say.

You seem to have some horse in this race, or some larger level of commitment than the simple joy of messing around with this should entail.

And holy hell, I had an example of a medical condition, an ad, in the UK, discussed in a bloody field, with no towers or other devices to listen in, and the other person did not have the same medical condition.

And yet this is not enough. And all you have to do with this, is try it out yourself. Hell - I am even suggesting this in a manner that is open to being a fun lark with friends.

I am by far the largest black hole of joy amongst the stellar folk in my orbit. This converastion is invigorating, in that you are near certainly part of my tribe.

> I never got those ads in my LIFE, until I had a medical need. Have you?

Believe it or not I don’t have thephotographic recall of the ads that I see that you seem to possess.

> You could try for adult teletubbies

Why don’t we both try this and report back in 24 hours when our listening phones have had the time to work their magic.

> And yet this is not enough.

That is correct. Your phone is not listening to you.