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Simon Willison
@simonwillison.net

@futurism.com important update to your story from September 2024 futurism.com/the-byte/fac... - the FTC just punished those companies for lying about how their technology works, they weren't listening through device microphones at all

futurism.comIn Leak, Facebook Partner Brags About Listening to Your Phone’s Microphone to Serve Ads for Stuff You MentionOne of Facebook's alleged marketing partners explained how it listens to users' smartphone microphones and advertises to them accordingly.
Shane Carrow
@shanecarrow.bsky.social

I’m fairly confident any targeted ad a person swears was caused by an eavesdropping mic can be explained away by other data gathering points they just haven’t thought of

Simon Willison
@simonwillison.net

I like how this McSweeney's headline puts it www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/cal...

mcsweeneys.netCalm Down—Your Phone Isn’t Listening to Your Conversations. It’s Just Tracking Everything You Type, Every App You Use, Every Website You Visit, and Everywhere You Go in the Physical World“The truth is simpler, and not at all alarming: your phone only seems to be listening to you because it’s collecting data about every word you type, every we...

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Shane Carrow
@shanecarrow.bsky.social

When I was engagement ring shopping I did *all* research, even Google Maps queries, on my work phone to prevent any ads showing up on my personal phone in case my gf saw it; I still got targeted ads on my personal phone and when I thought about it for a bit it was obvious why!

Shane Carrow
@shanecarrow.bsky.social

My theory was that they spend 24/7 in close proximity to each other no matter where they go, so can be surmised to be operated by the same person even if their only other connection is having the other’s number as a contact