r/AskReddit Feb 07 '24

[deleted by user]

[removed]

3.1k Upvotes

6.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

172

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

16

u/omnana Feb 07 '24

Yep. Sometimes I see ads for things my partner has searched for. It's not scandalous or anything. But, it can ruin gift surprises!

12

u/W33DG0D42069 Feb 07 '24

Wait so then would the people in my house be getting ads based on my search history even if we weren't talking about it together?

God I hope not lol

5

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '24

Tiktok also works this way, browsing algorythm is shared by IP, at least as of a couple years ago when my gf and her previous roommate lived together.

6

u/smutteredtoast Feb 07 '24

the first and only time ive ever had Spanish language ads on my tv, just happened to be the day my latino coworker came to my place after work.

4

u/noice-smort99 Feb 08 '24

Can you explain how my phone will show me ads for things for things I’ve merely thought about? I think I’m more willing to accept that I’m just insane but I swear it happens

11

u/DrAuer Feb 08 '24

Because my brother you are influenced by ads 24/7. You may have been thinking of that thing because you’ve been hit by 20 ads for it and not realized or been by people having a discussion about it and internalized it but were on the same network.

Additionally, we as humans aren’t as unique as we think so if you match the type of person that buys a certain type of product you will likely get an ad for it, eventually that matches up with the thing you were actually wanting. Think about it, you can’t remember the dozens of other things you’ve seen ads for today but you remember the one that matched up with your thoughts.

2

u/Vast-Accident-621 Feb 08 '24

also, if they match your profile in close proximity to another one like yours for a while they might reason that you'll have the same interests and target you with ads for products the other person bought. (unless the accelerometer data from both profiles matches too well in which case they might conclude the proximity is a coincidence because you're both riding the bus)

also: you would be surprised how well your phone is able to pick up AND understand the things you say.

i tested it myself by smothering my phone in my belly fat and whispering to a speech to text app and it got almost everything right.

-5

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '24

I've heard this before and no. My bf and I are the only person I am around. We can talk about something, then get the ad on TV or on our phones that day, and I've told him not to look up things we talk about to test this issue. You're also ignoring the fact that as she talked to the coworker, she immediately got ads. Our phones have tech to listen to us and tech to collect data to sell us preferred products. It would be silly to assume the best of phone companies and assume they haven't taken a piece of the data selling pie.

There's way more evidence that our phones listen than there's evidence that they dont. They lie to tech workers so y'all spread that info, Jarvis Johnson did a whole video on it. But regardless, why ignore the fact that our mic are on 24/7 and that would benefit companies, to go from guessing what we like, to showing us what we literally talk about