So wait, the "phones are listening to us" urban myth turned out to be true? People getting ads about thing they recently talked about was a genuine concern?
Nope, it did not turn out either way that I can see. Google just apparently paid pocket change to settle out of court and move on with their lives. (If you're asking yourself why settle if they're innocent: it's cheaper.)
Anecdotally, my personal incidence of this kind of thing has dropped off a cliff since I stopped using Google devices, Gmail, and Chrome, and I also stopped carrying any cell phone regularly. It still happens occasionally, but it’s within the threshold of random chance now. Before, not so much.
I also separated identity linked activities like banking from other activities via a separate device with VPN.
The few ads that make it through my setup are usually generic bottom of the barrel ads for people in my region. Feels nice.
I used to be skeptical about this and would try and find alternative explanations, for example, cognitive biases, coincidences, search requests from another device routed through a common wifi.
However, I have changed my mind through a lengthy process of attrition of possible explanations.
Recently my wife was around her friend who was having a vertigo spell. We talked about it when we met. None of us searched about it. Lo and behold my YouTube feed has videos on how to mitigate vertigo.
It's possible that they transferred information across two phone devices that came in close proximity, the owner of one who has a history of vertigo. But even that is a stretch, why transfer 'vertigo' specifically ?
>>Recently my wife was around her friend who was having a vertigo spell. We talked about it when we met. None of us searched about it. Lo and behold my YouTube feed has videos on how to mitigate vertigo.
Again, while the simplest explanation is the most tempting one, we just have to consider that Google has an absolutely stunning amount of information on any of us. Like, it definitely knows your friend is your friend. It knows what your friend searched for recently, and it knows you met and spent some time together. So of course it makes sense to show you videos about some stuff that it marked as "interesting" for them. They are probably getting videos for stuff that you have looked up recently, whether you talked about it or not.
Yes, as you would note, this was one of my hypotheses. However, it is on shaky ground.
This friend has suffered from vertigo chronically, it was not a new one off. My wife's and her friend's phones have been close proximity many many times before. It's certainly odd that Google would recommend vertigo only after a vertigo spell happened in the presence of my wife. None of the three searched for vertigo.
Phone motion sensors detecting a vertigo spell ? Well that's a possibility, but I doubt Google would be running such a detector 24x7, seems too expensive, unless the opportunity to show a timely ad is lucrative enough to cover the cost.
Although none of the three searched for vertigo, the friend may have searched for her pharmacy to refill her meds.
This is not the only incident. I have come to believe what I now believe about this eavesdropping, after a long period of whittling out competing hypotheses. I would usually file these incidents under confirmation bias. But these have happened just too many times.
A quantative Bayesian analysis would have been the right thing to do. On that count I am delinquent. I will, however, grant you this, human intuition is terrible at Bayesian analysis and tends to see significant patterns when there are none.
Just touching on the notion here, but oh how sad and funny it is. Yep, devices with microphones in them have been here forever and could have been used this way easily from the start, and now here we are!
Microphones sure but the near real time analysis is pretty new. The Stasi as you may know required people with headphones on sitting in a van outside your house...
So wait, the "phones are listening to us" urban myth turned out to be true? People getting ads about thing they recently talked about was a genuine concern?
I'm dreading the "I told ya so" from relatives.
Nope, it did not turn out either way that I can see. Google just apparently paid pocket change to settle out of court and move on with their lives. (If you're asking yourself why settle if they're innocent: it's cheaper.)
Anecdotally, my personal incidence of this kind of thing has dropped off a cliff since I stopped using Google devices, Gmail, and Chrome, and I also stopped carrying any cell phone regularly. It still happens occasionally, but it’s within the threshold of random chance now. Before, not so much.
I also separated identity linked activities like banking from other activities via a separate device with VPN.
The few ads that make it through my setup are usually generic bottom of the barrel ads for people in my region. Feels nice.
I used to be skeptical about this and would try and find alternative explanations, for example, cognitive biases, coincidences, search requests from another device routed through a common wifi.
However, I have changed my mind through a lengthy process of attrition of possible explanations.
Recently my wife was around her friend who was having a vertigo spell. We talked about it when we met. None of us searched about it. Lo and behold my YouTube feed has videos on how to mitigate vertigo.
It's possible that they transferred information across two phone devices that came in close proximity, the owner of one who has a history of vertigo. But even that is a stretch, why transfer 'vertigo' specifically ?
>>Recently my wife was around her friend who was having a vertigo spell. We talked about it when we met. None of us searched about it. Lo and behold my YouTube feed has videos on how to mitigate vertigo.
Again, while the simplest explanation is the most tempting one, we just have to consider that Google has an absolutely stunning amount of information on any of us. Like, it definitely knows your friend is your friend. It knows what your friend searched for recently, and it knows you met and spent some time together. So of course it makes sense to show you videos about some stuff that it marked as "interesting" for them. They are probably getting videos for stuff that you have looked up recently, whether you talked about it or not.
Yes, as you would note, this was one of my hypotheses. However, it is on shaky ground.
This friend has suffered from vertigo chronically, it was not a new one off. My wife's and her friend's phones have been close proximity many many times before. It's certainly odd that Google would recommend vertigo only after a vertigo spell happened in the presence of my wife. None of the three searched for vertigo.
Phone motion sensors detecting a vertigo spell ? Well that's a possibility, but I doubt Google would be running such a detector 24x7, seems too expensive, unless the opportunity to show a timely ad is lucrative enough to cover the cost.
Although none of the three searched for vertigo, the friend may have searched for her pharmacy to refill her meds.
This is not the only incident. I have come to believe what I now believe about this eavesdropping, after a long period of whittling out competing hypotheses. I would usually file these incidents under confirmation bias. But these have happened just too many times.
A quantative Bayesian analysis would have been the right thing to do. On that count I am delinquent. I will, however, grant you this, human intuition is terrible at Bayesian analysis and tends to see significant patterns when there are none.
The reason occam's razor works is useful is it draws the one line connecting two points, rather than any squiggle that passes through them.
Was this built by the same developers who are paranoid federal agents are going to bust into the Google offices and haul them away into the night?
Just touching on the notion here, but oh how sad and funny it is. Yep, devices with microphones in them have been here forever and could have been used this way easily from the start, and now here we are!
Microphones sure but the near real time analysis is pretty new. The Stasi as you may know required people with headphones on sitting in a van outside your house...
Serious question: what happened to Apple Siri voice leaks? The one where a contractor was in possession of people's private conversations?
If I recall that leak contained some serious stuff including a rape and some people planning some sort of heist.
Maybe this other settlement is related? Apple had one of these too: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lopez-voice-assistant-payout-se...
So that comes out to what 0.3 cents per user?
The cost of doing business