cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25882429

scarily… They don’t need to to be this creepy, but even I’m a tad baffled by this.

Yesterday me and a few friends were at a pub quiz, of course no phones allowed, so none were used.

It came down to a tie break question of my team and another. “What is the run time of the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the ring” according to IMDb.

We answered and went about our day. Today my friend from my team messaged me - top post on his “today feed” is an article published 23 hours ago…

Forgive the pointless red circle… I didnt take the screenshot.

My friend isn’t a privacy conscience person by any means, but he didnt open IMDb or google anything to do with the franchise and hasn’t for many months prior. I’m aware its most likely an incredible coincidence, but when stuff like this happens I can easily understand why many people are convinced everyone’s doom brick is listening to them…

  • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
    2·
    1 day ago

    So while the phone itself may not be listening, apps can, depending on permissions etc.

    Yep. That’s the best of my knowledge, today.

    I haven’t seen any evidence that the operating system, itself, is listening.

    But we know that many free, and even some paid subscription apps (check out the permissions on Paramount Plus!) are watching the screen or listening to the microphone.

    We know these apps sell the data they collect to absolutely everyone.

    There’s every reason to believe that collected screen, microphone (and possibly camera?) data then gets correlated with location data collected directly by Google.

    Source: I’m a Cybersecurity professional who knows waaay too much about the state of what is possible, and why.

    The why is mainly just Google and Meta using their influence for evil.