Are our phones listening to us?

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You may have noticed, but within the past few years people have started to discover they are getting advertisements for the things they search for online. If I was googling a certain pair of shoes, or maybe a new clothing website I would always get sidebar advertisements for those items or sites. I never found this "creepy" or "scary" until recently. Now it seems that every-time I search for anything I am getting advertisements or pop ups on my social media, internet browsers, and even game and photo editing apps. To take it a step further, the things I am talking or texting about also seem to find their way onto my social media feed. Last week, I purchased a new brand of face wash. I had never talked or texted about it, but it was on my counter near where I lay my phone. The next day I got an advertisement on my instagram for this brand of face wash. That really spooked me. Is even my camera recording when I don't know it?

Many questions are being asked by the public and the people are demanding answers to how much information is being stolen from us, and how can we stop our phones from recording us when we don't know that they are. It is a concern that companies, and some people say the government, are constantly recording us and putting advertisements in our feed based off of things we have verbally said, texted or emailed, or searched for online. This is starting to become more and more talked about. An article I have linked down below, states that a couple decided to test this out on their own. They sat their phone near them and had a long conversation about cat food brands. Only a few days later they started to receive posts and pop ups about cat food. Our phones and social media apps have generated so much information about us that they can predict things we might talk about or want to search in the future.

No company or app has admitted to listening to us, or stealing our information but I am sure that it will continue to be a talking point for a lot of people. It is legal for internet browsers to use your past online searches to generate advertisements, but the idea of listening to your voice and scanning your text messages has not been addressed yet. After reading all of the tweets towards twitter, and posts on instagram accusing these social media brands for stealing information, I think its best to watch what you say and do on your phone. This situation still needs a lot of clarity but I believe this mystery will be resolved within the next couple of years.



Narcity News Artical


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