Comment by nickpsecurity

I was one of the people claiming this. I’ll tell you why I thought it.

1. I’m seeing ads for trending topics or those tied to things I’ve said or typed (targeted).

2. On one or two platforms, it was usually the same ads. Especially the targeted ones. They didn’t change often.

3. My friend and I discuss a rare topic.

4. Thirty minutes later, my app refreshes to show an ad on the rare topic from No. 3.

5. In each case, the only input for moving that information into a computer was my phone’s microphone.

6. Prior investigations showed some other devices, esp Alexa-style, were transmitting lots of data to their companies even when people weren’t talking to them. Their terms allowed their recordings to be used by the company, too.

So, we believed it was another example of a product listening in on us for money.