Many people suspect that mobile applications secretly eavesdrop on them to get advertising information. Opinions like “sure phone was tapped because the ad showed up just like what I told my friend” are easy to find.
In fact, it is not uncommon for online advertising templates to target, close to the needs and exchange content of users. Therefore, it is reasonable to suspect that advertisers eavesdrop. However, these assumptions are not realistic.
Phones are not actually eavesdropping
There are many suspicions and allegations, but no evidence has been found to prove that social networks use phones to eavesdrop on users for advertising purposes. How to Geek asserts that mobile devices are not being exploited to record private chats and upload them to a remote server.
This seems unbelievable given the accuracy Biotechnology Email List of the advertising content. Currently technically, virtual assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant automatically record audio tracks when woken up by voice commands.
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Some content will be uploaded to the server to fine-tune the machine learning accuracy. Therefore, part of what we exchange may be heard by someone somewhere.
However, these recordings are not how the “scary” commercials appear. Advertisers get information, monitor us in a much scarier way.
Google or Facebook don’t need to eavesdrop
Compared with the risk of eavesdropping for advertising, the ease with which Internet companies can judge user needs is more problematic. Without using secret recordings, advertisers can predict almost exactly what customers are saying and hearing.
They capture trending trends and pair them with basic information about users that the company owns such as demographics, location, search history, shopping habits, daily loops, etc. From the data Here, Google, Facebook assess what customers (and surrounding circles) are interested in.
For example, two people meet at a coffee shop. The first person looked at the price of an item on Amazon. Later in the conversation, they casually mentioned the item they were looking for earlier. The second person is not interested in the item, but as soon as the browser opens, it appears at the top of the ad on the phone.
With normal psychology, users easily blame get CMB Directory to the phone for deliberately eavesdropping, getting information to serve advertising targeting ( Targeting ). But in reality, Google just takes a few basic data points and stitches them together.
The company got web browsing history, demographics, and location information from two people’s phones. No recording is required to judge whether these people are related.
Therefore, the fact that the item mentioned in the chat appeared in the ad was just a coincidence.
Eavesdropping to run ads is impractical.
The method advertisers are taking is much more accurate and optimal than eavesdropping. Technically, the software on the phone can record and upload to the cloud for other purposes.
But all of those tasks can put pressure on device hardware. It easily heats up the device, drains the battery, consumes mobile data and affects other applications. Only spyware and eavesdropping software use this method.
