Have you ever talked about a product with a friend, only to see an ad for it on social media later? It can feel like your phone is listening to your conversations. However, there is no evidence that companies like Meta secretly activate your phone’s microphone to target you with ads.
How Advertisers Learn About Your Interests
Instead, advertising systems build a profile based on your online activity. This information can include the websites you visit, products you view, links you click, videos you watch, apps you use, previous searches, purchases, and shopping activity.
Over time, these digital clues can reveal what you’re interested in, what you may be considering buying, and which advertisements you’re most likely to notice. In other words, the internet may know your habits better than you realize.
Why Ads May Appear After Conversations
Sometimes, the advertisement may have already been appearing, but you didn’t notice it until someone mentioned the product. This is similar to buying a certain model of car and suddenly seeing that same car everywhere. The cars were already there; your brain simply started paying more attention to them.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri has offered another possible explanation. The person you were speaking with may have previously searched for or interacted with the product.
Advertising systems can identify connections between people by looking at information such as social relationships, shared interests, location patterns, internet connections, and similar online behavior. Advertisers may also place people into groups based on shared characteristics.
Checking Microphone Access
Both iPhones and Android phones allow users to review and disable microphone access. On an iPhone, open Settings, select Privacy & Security, then tap Microphone. You’ll see a list of apps that have requested access. Turn off access for any app that doesn’t need to use your microphone.
On an Android phone, open Settings, select Security and privacy or Privacy, and look for Permission manager. Tap Microphone to see which apps are allowed to use it.
Removing microphone permission can provide peace of mind, but it won’t stop personalized advertising. Apps and websites can still use browsing activity, searches, purchases, and other data to decide which advertisements to show.
Original reporting: Alabama News Network — read the source article.
