Do smartphones really listen to users’ conversations for targeted advertising?

Have you ever chatted with a friend about buying a certain item and been targeted with an ad for that same item the next day? If so, you may have wondered whether your smartphone was “listening” to you.

But is it really? Well, it is no coincidence the item you had been interested in was the same one you were targeted with.

But that does not mean your device is actually listening to your conversations — it does not need to. There is a good chance you are already giving it all the information it needs.

Can phones hear?

Most of us regularly disclose our information to a wide range of websites and apps. We do this when we grant them certain permissions, or allow “cookies” to track our online activities.

So-called “first-party cookies” allow websites to “remember” certain details about our interaction with the site. For instance, login cookies let you save your login details so you do not have to re-enter them each time.

Third-party cookies, however, are created by domains that are external to the site you are visiting. The third-party will often be a marketing company in a partnership with the first-party website or app.

The latter will host the marketer’s ads and grant it access to data it collects from you…

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