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

What rot.

Here’s a simple experiment I ran and still works.

Back in the day there was a truly ghastly add for ear wax removal that showed up on YouTube in the UK.

In an experiment, and prank, I told two of my close friends about this, and how this horrid advert would kill my appetite when it came up.

And then I made it a point to repeat “ear wax removal” loudly several times.

Sure enough. A day later my dear friend messaged me with something on the lines of “I hate you”

Their phones were Android and iOS. I believe it was the Android user suffered.

If what you're talking about is the source of the ad, why did you see the ad yourself? Were you shouting about ear wax removal at your phone?

There are millions of ways the adware running on your phones could've correlated your profile and spread the "infection" to your friend. Basic location access being the most important one, but sharing an IP address (your friends' WiFi?), being near the same Bluetooth beacons, having the same stored SSIDs, or mere coincidence that your friend saw the same ad targeting a wide demographic are much more probable than "my phone is listening 24/7".

Sure. But its fun, and we can always replicate, just need a terrible ad.

Do note, this was tested in a park, so no shared WiFi, no Bluetooth beacons/devices. Also, this ad doesn’t/didn’t show up for others, ever.

I’m assuming like most friends you and your friends have nothing in common like interests, demographics, etc.?

And I’m assuming you also made them aware of other ads you’d seen recently so they could see if those showed up as well?

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?

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.