Well, I found this to be very odd. May be a coincidence, maybe not...

Last night my wife had a really stiff, sore lower back that has been bothering her for a couple days. While we were sitting in our living room, with our laptops, etc., I recommended to her that she try BioFreeze, a product that has really helped me out with all my ailments in the past. We mentioned the term "BioFreeze" several times in our conversation.

This morning I turned on my laptop and what pops up but an ad for BioFreeze. I had not done a search or anything on it, just included it in our conversation. We just went through our laptops, tablets, etc. and turned of all of our microphones. I found this to be extremely weird and somewhat scary. Yeah, might be a coincidence but....

We do not own a smart t.v. Even after we have turned off all of our microphones we have planted some terms in our conversations to see if we get any more pop-ups. I have never been overly paranoid about such things but this has bothered me.

Moosetrot

It's the hummingbird drone hovering in your open window
and recording all your conversations that you should be
most concerned about !!!

w

you should expect your smart phone is always listening

alwasy

this has happened many times to us

Any ways to get around that besides throwing it outside into a bucket of water?

Moosetrot

Edward Snowden gets a new phone then opens it up and un solders the microphone(s) and covers the camera lenses

I believe he also puts it in a shielded metal box at the door

this was from an interview he gave

when he wants to make a call he physically plugs in a pair of ear buds with a microphone

if anyone should know about spying and getting spied on the ex-NSA officer probably has a few ideas

Nice info, green county pete.

Coincidence, have been told this before. Tried more than once with my friend to "make" it happen and never does. He still believes though. I tell him he's paranoid. We all know the search engines keep track of our doings but your laptop listening in is a little off base for me to believe. If you are worried put a piece of tape over the microphone. JMO take care

When downloading apps deny the media permissions. Those "free" apps make money by collecting and selling your info.


Personally.... I don't care. I tell someone I'm interested in something and magically the item appears for sale at a good price.

I know it actually happens. Happens to me and my wife often too.

Just last weekend I was talking to a guy out in the bush about his 6 wheel quad. I’ve never seen one before and he was telling me all about it and what it can go through and all that.

The next morning, seriously, I had a sponsored ad pop up on my phone about 6 wheel quads.

Do flip phones have the same issues?

Moosetrot

Russians LOL

yep


ALso the gps works on your phone even if you dont have cell service. If the phone has a battery in it, its listening.

true flip phone not a smart phone that has a flip should not be as much of an issue , however finding one that will work on 4G may be harder

Verizon has planned since 2019 that by Feb 2021 all 2 and 3g will be gone.

smart phones are not phones at all they are small computers with a dial application

your laptop also has a microphone and can do the same thing.

don't even get me started about Alexa aka Wireless wire tap they get you to pay for.

As stated, your smart phone is always listening. Just like that Alexa gizmo. If you have Google on your smart phone, that's how you can search quickly. You say, "Hey Google" and it will turn on and wait for the question. I'm sure that those algorithms constantly listen for information and that is sold and used by big tech. Chances are that your laptop also has something similar.

This is a fact. Happens all of the time to myself and my wife. No paranoia or tin foil hats. I'm not saying someone is sitting there listening to everything you say but the software will pick up on keywords and market to you based on that. It will also target you based on location. For example, if you spend some time at a car dealership, you will likely get ads for new cars.

Had my techy wife go through my smart phone that I am too stupid to really use. She disabled all kinds of stuff that I have never used on there including Google and switched to Duck Duck Go. Prior to dumping Google on there we did a lot of mentioning a particular item and it is goin to be very interesting to watch and see if I get pop-ups for that item on my laptop.

I was not built for this current world.

Moosetrot

I too have Duck Go as my search engine on all my computers. Firefox as my browser.

Same here happens to the wife all the time.

That's kind of creepy. Not surprising just creepy.

I have not seen any ads for Duke traps or brush hog blades or chicken feed or dog biscuits or guitar strings or Bibles or Gospel music. I must have received a bad phone.