You’ve most likely had it happen before. You’re having a conversation with someone and then you open your phone to the web or Facebook and start to see ads for the things you were JUST talking about. So what’s really happening here? Most people think that their phone is listening to every word you say and sending that info off to some ad agency to customize what you see. Well it turns out that’s not the case, but what’s actually happening might sound even creepier!!

There was a former Google design ethicist that explained how it actually works;

“I know for a fact, the data forensics show, and the Facebook VP of advertising says, promises, that they do not listen to the microphone. How is it they’re still able to know the conversation you had? It’s because inside of a Google server or a Facebook server is a little voodoo doll, avatar-like version of you. Like a model of you. And I don’t have to listen to your conversations because I’ve accumulated all the clicks and likes you’ve ever made, and it makes this voodoo doll act more and more like you. All I have to do is simulate what conversation the voodoo doll is having, and I know the conversation you just had without having to listen to the microphone.”

 

Now that I know that, I almost prefer the idea of them listening to my conversations over the idea that they’re creating an artificial intelligence based on all of my interactions online and using that ‘fake me’ to predict what I will enjoy and what I’ll want to buy.

 

Filed under: facebook, google, phone