Not using degoogled phone

Internet access to non foss apps

NGMI

to some extent… all human behavior is just POME

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviorism

pinephone has hardware killswitch. but that cant protect you from other devices like other ppl phones.

I have 0 apps allowed microphone access all the time.

There is no evidence that phones are snooping on people, but I would say even if unlikely it’s a reasonable concern given what companies do get up to.

However it is more likely the ads were being served because of all the other data you’re allowing Google to scrape from you all the time rather than the phone mic.

Rather than focusing on the microphone, look at the bigger picture of how your data is being pillaged by Google all the time.

For me, I switched away from Gmail, stopped using their search engine, use Firefox and not Chrome, and don’t use their other services where possible. I have android on my phone and use Google maps and Google home. It’s still a huge problem but I use that part of the ecosystem for convenience and no other. Similarly on PC I don’t use Google for anything where I can avoid it, use Firefox containers to keep Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta data as separate as possible, plus I use Linux and VPN as needed, and lots of privacy extensions in Firefox.

It’s possible to minimise your data exposure to the big tech companies, but difficult to severe completely. You could go even further and switch from android to Graphene OS (I have seriously considered this).

I would go by the principle of compartmentalising your data as much as possible and limiting access to snooping eyes. The transition can be hard but once you’ve done it you get used to using disparate unnonnected services. Like I really don’t need or benefit from my email data being connected to my data storage or my search engine; it’s a false convenience that benefitted Google only.

Just get a Pixel and flash GrapheneOS.

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The thing with tailored ads is, you’re more predictable than you think you are. Source: am a data scientist (not in advertisement).

Before caller ID people were SURE they were psychic because ‘I was just thinking about them and they phoned’

The reality is the odds of things like that never happening are far more unlikely than it happening occasionally

I had a friend that was convinced that facebook was listening because she was talking about some ice cream and later got an ad for said ice cream.

Well, of fucking course you got an ad for ice cream. It’s fucking summer, you will get ads for ice cream in the summer.

I’ve never had this happen to me but I am always on a a Degoogled version of Android such as GrapheneOS, DivestOS or /e/ OS.

me and a coworker tried an experiment almost ten years ago where we would whisper “breast milk pump” into a phone that had it’s screen locked and everything. About two weeks later started seeing ads for expecting mothers, we are both dudes…

It’s more likely that ad networks are showing you ads based on the other person being in vicinity and having things in common. I don’t think voice snooping is the main cause here

did you or some of the people in your inner circle google whatever you talked about? that is also another way it would have come up in your ads.

Most of these apps are communication apps that need the mic lol, you 100% could have picked better, way more egregious examples.

I’ve noticed that too. Intentionally veered a conversation into a different topic and, lo and behold, I get “relevant recommendation” short time later. That was, not entirely coincidentally, the same day I unlocked the bootloader and flashed a de-googled ROM.