Yes has happened to me and many on this sub. I've even seen posts about it on other subs that are not conspiracy related.

You know what I was thinking? Ads do work. They really do. On a subconscious level.

Also you know how in Futurama they put ads in dreams?

I mean I'm starting to think that isn't far-fetched.

But isn't it funny with all this technological progress...the result will be the efficiency of advertisements? Haha. It's sad

Ads are effective even if you are aware them.

Silly example: after playing too much Pubg (its a game where Red Bull is a boots item), I bought 3 energy drink already when usually I wouldn't buy any.

Subconsciously they are now associated with a good thing.

I know exactly what you mean. I played rocket league once and now I have no option but to run over soccer balls every time I see them.

BRB heading out to buy red bull

But isn't it funny with all this technological progress...the result will be the efficiency of advertisements?

It is funny you mention 1984 and technological advancements. In Orwell's 'fictional dystopia', the telescreens are used to lie to the masses about the military and war. Food for thought.

Rome had bread and circuses, America has welfare and public programming. There is nothing new under the sun. Keep the masses fed and entertained, and they'll ignore what happens behind closed doors.

Ads do work. They really do.

Definitely, if they didn't hundreds of billions of dollars wouldn't be spent every year on marketing. Enough wealth to feed the world and then some right there. And it's not just to get kids to ask for McNuggets and Coca Cola with their first words, it's think tanks shaping public opinion through 'news' too.

Goebbels and Bernays would be so proud of how far it's come.

And everybody thinks they are somehow immune to them!

It's harder to convince a person they have been lied to, than to lie to that person.

Some quote I can't remember where it came from

Your cousion probably saw The Sponsored Post before he told you

Not sure why this is being downvoted. Likely this is what happened.

I'm also starting to wonder if ads are targeted based on what people within a network are searching - then the topic would more likely to come up in conversation before someone sees an ad.

It's being downvoted because enough people have experience with one off situations where they mentioned something totally unrelated. Like myself. So whilst these explanation are definitively part of the whole snooping scheme, there is far deeper stuff going on. Downvotes because of ignoring those and trying to find an excuse instead of acknowledging that we are being listened to.

What's that?

There's no question the targeted ads are getting creepier. Usually I can connect in with recent internet activity or purchases made with store cards. But there was on time my knee was bothering me, and I hadn't done a search on anything, just complained about it to my girlfriend. Next day there's an ad for some scammy looking "natural" cure for knee pain.

My roommate left out the packaging for one of those microwave ready meal type deals, didn't google it, have my phone out, say anything about it, yet someone got ads all over my devices for this meal company. HOW

It's been going on ever since congress voted to let ISPs sell customer data. I have schizo tendencies and it really fucked with me hard for a couple months until i figured out that this was what was really going on.. I even spent a week in the hospital lol. I really ought to file a lawsuit.

Same thing happened to me. Bought a Siggi's brand yogurt. Never purchased, searched or talked about it before. Ate it in front of my computer and then was advertised Siggi's yogurt within the hour.

Maybe they used remote access to the camera?

Yeah, I keep my computer cameras covered, but it must have been on my phone.

I just went ahead and put a sticker over that one too.

Yeah, I put sticks on cameras now too.Although, the thick electrical tape, (that you can get at automotive stores) is good for using over the mic and obscures the camera even more.

Good tip, I'll upgrade.

Welcome!

I covered my cameras on my phone and all my dumbass coworkers, "HAR-HAR-HAR, what are you - PARANOID????"

This is the idiocy culture reason why the NSA has gone unchallenged...

confirmation bias

Test it for yourself.

i use adblock

Ok then don't.

It happens though. I tested it out a bunch of times.

Just playing devils advocate here but is it possible your girlfriend searched about knee pain after you talked with her about it?

Your the craziest person iin here!

It happens to me all the time and on instagram. Sometimes I feel like they have ads of things I was just thinking about getting or needing, but didn't even say them out loud, which creeps me out all the time. Also, I was talking about human trafficking not too long ago and the next day on facebook I got an ad to be a "sugar baby" making 15000-20000 a month!

http://imgur.com/a/keEil

http://imgur.com/a/keEiI

Wow t minus 4 months before they are sued for pimping

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say they're reading your mind (although anything is possible). They can figure out some crazy unconscious things just by crunching data. I watched one presentation on big data where the guy gave an example of people with VW Beetles - the data shows that they tend to have cats and like crunchy peanut butter. I've heard it can even affect your credit - for example, regularly buying bird seed indicates that you are responsible and likely to pay off your debts. Weird shit.

Yeah I agree with you that minds can't be read (..yet), but it still keeps me wondering how ads can be so precise without any verbal clues. Data analysis is truly insane.

I've been felling the same way, started making notes lately every time I notice something.

A few days ago I looked at an instagram picture of my friend on an iphone, she was wearing glasses I hadn't seen. I thought to myself "those are cute maybe I should get a pair" and later that day was researching a hiking route online (hadn't searched anything else and haven't searched glasses in like 3 or 4 years) and got a sidebar with ads for similar looking glasses.

Today was reading a bunch of outdoors stuff again, Googling brands and mountains and stuff, in article about rock climbing on my Windows PC. The woman mentioned Great Lakes Hydrolyzed Collagen. I searched that, then clicked a link about adding it to coffee. In that article she mentioned her skin was nice and she also used Rose Hip Oil and another product. I didn't linger on it and only briefly thought "I should buy myself some Rose Hip Oil" and then carried on.

I looked at something on my iPhone about an hour later, and there was an ad for Rose Hip Oil.

So fricking weird. You'd think I'd have an ad for an outdoor brand or something... but the only ad I got was for the thing I thought about buying.

Facebook or another service you use on both devices has paired both devices as being you. It doesn't matter which device you use, they'll serve you up ad content across both/all devices you use.

Yep, I've experienced it with people I live with. I'll be saying something on one side of a room and they're surfing their laptop in real time and seen ads for what I've talked about within minutes.

if you use social media like facebook - you have relinquished your right to complain about privacy.

No they haven't.

yes they have... fine print

I'm certain that the terms of service do not prohibit one from complaining about their lack of privacy.

no, but most of the time, it is, indeed, in there. its no secret

sure they have. its like people using Alexa, Siri, and stuff like this. Then complain that they are listening. Thats beyond stupid. Same as using facebook. You sign a contract when using services like these. And they say what they do right out in the TOS / EULA. Its a trade. So if you use their service you cant complain afterwards. It doesnt make any freaking sense.

I'm just pointing out that you're conflating right to complain with right to privacy.

fine, i guess they havent conceded their right to complain although its hard to take any complaints seriously as you actively have to chose to opt-in. complaining after the fact when you can instead just opt back out is silly. if you dont like it stop using the service.

its hard to take any complaints seriously

You only use smartphones, apps, services that don't require you to relinquish your rights?

My point being, there are very few if any choices in tech that will allow one to operate in a business capacity which is required for almost everyone while retaining one's right to privacy. There is no choice. FB, Twitter, Google, Instagram are just the most glaring instances of it all.

You've undoubtedly relinquished your rights to a TOS somewhere. That does not mean, nor should it mean that you just throw up your arms and accept your fate. If nothing else, complain about it. Take it a step farther and lobby against it.

Same. I was speaking to my son and he said he wanted Teddy Grahams. I never searched for them online in any way. The next day I logged into Instagram, first thing I see is a Teddy Grahams ad. You think Instagram is a prime demographic target for them?

Not going to lie... I now want Teddy Grams... haven't had them in so long

Do you use the Facebook App or Messenger App?

If so, there's a 99% chance it's listening to you when you don't realize it.

This is 100% correct and how it works.

Delete FB messenger (or FB entirely, but everyone has an excuse as to why they won't).

You can also just turn off microphone permissions for Facebook and messenger if you are on iPhone. I'm sure there is a similar option in android phones.

Usually android will ask for permission for an app to use a feature the first time you use it. For example if I were to take a photo with FB messenger, android will first ask me if its okay for the app to use the camera. These permissions can be changed in the android settings.

Better solution is to delete that shit off your phone completely

Not arguing against that, I'm giving insight to the user who was unsure about permissions with Android.

Just get rid of the apps and only visit via browser if you feel you must have it.

There's your answer. I bet it has access to your microphone.

I don't have any apps installed beyond the base google apps. Was driving on a road trip. I had my trip setup in google maps and was occasionally looking at the phone to know how far the next turn was going to be. Then I would set it down face down.

Was talking to my GF about getting something to eat. She mentioned getting a burger.

The next time I looked at my phone there was an additional stop at a burger joint hundreds of miles away. It creeped me the fuck out. I didn't search for a restaurant before that conversation. And I definitely didn't setup a stop in another state I wasn't driving to at a burger joint I never heard of.

Talking face to face w a girlfriend about maybe installing a pool in her backyard and she got pool ads for about a week.

Yup, I've had this happen as well. Some family members and I were discussing how we'd run out of napkins and needed to get some more, not 10 seconds later an ad for napkins pops up in the online poker game my mom was playing. I don't know about y'all, but I that was the first time I've ever seen an ad for napkins, there's no way that can just be a coincidence

I've never seen an ad for napkins, and I don't use AdBlock

You don't use ad block? Wtf is wrong with You?

I want to see all sides of all agendas. I listen to NPR and republican talk radio too.

Fair enough. You're more patient than I am.

Can't remember specifics, but yeah I've had verbal conversations, and a couple of times just thought about something and then saw an ad on Facebook or Yahoo related to the same item/purchase I was talking about the next day.

Definitely thinking about dumping Facebook, it's just all drama and trash.

I dumped Facebook and my social life went to 0. It's really sad - nobody wants to hang out or keep in touch if you're not conveniently in their FB feed for them to spend the least amount of effort dropping a comment or clicking a "like" every now and then. Social lives have become cheap.

THIS has happened to me. Just thinking about something really random and it comes up. Totally freaks me out.

I'm in the middle of a "1 week test", I had someone change the passwords to all my social media accounts. Haven't logged on since Friday.

It's weird getting used to not checking it all the time. And some big friend dramas went down online and I had people texting me about it, I it was so nice to not know anything about it.

Pretty sure when my week trial is up, I'm going to dump it.

Thinking about going back to a flip phone too.

You can turn targeted ads off. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/stop-facebooks-targeted-ads-from-stalking-you-around-the-internet/

Though it doesn't stop their data mining on you.

I've had videos recommended to me on Youtube based on multiple viewings of an image in imgur linked to on reddit. And literally seconds after thinking a random very specific "shower thought" an ad has popped up that feels downright wrong for Google Ads to even have on a major website. That thought was "I wonder if Fortunetellers are just really good guessers" as I click a Google search link, and a large ad pops up for "Fortunetelling Call This Number 10 dollars an hour blah blah", on fucking GameFAQs. A place you wouldn't expect a full screen pop up ad for a shady business like that. Today, I've seen 3 different subs post an image on imgur that was a screenshot of Youtube and I got the video recommended afterwards out of nowhere. Literally something I would never watch and I meticulously try to train the recommendations AI by always clicking the Not Interested -button and then Tell Us Why.

That happens to me all the time. If you want to test it out, turn on a radio to hispanic music, and set your phone next to it for a while. If your ads start being delivered in spanish, clear your cookies and turn your mic off.

I'm going to test this with an android device I don't use anymore. I'll wipe install only messenger try it see outcome wipe install only Insta.....etc

I had an ex gf that I wasn't even friends with on FB that started talking about wanting to get married and ring shopping one day (I was like hell no). The next day fb starts showing me engagement ring ads.

I recently became an insurance agent...that week I went to my class, I started receiving ads for insurance policies...they're definitely listening

I suspect that your devices are listening to you, recording your conversations, and sending those recordings to companies which pay for them.

Lost me at Facebook

This happened to me for the first time in 2013 and people still don't believe me.

Wait until your insurance claims start being denied because your search patterns included some undisclosed health related items. Or you ordered too many pizzas in June.

How about your car insurance goes up because your phone is tracking your speed, and insurance companies purchased the data from Google. (Google already derives traffic & store busyness by phones).

The list is really endless. We are literally building our own prisons.

My room mate got a raise at work and two weeks later, his credit card companies emailed him asking him to confirm his salary and offering to raise his credit limit.

Yep, bank records are probably sold. Nobody reads the fine print and we all hit "accept" when installing software. We are to blame because we consent.

Has anyone even attempted at figuring out fico? It has always surprised me that I've never seen much info while everything else in the world is hacked.

Progressive auto insurance already has dummies opting into this with their "snapshot" application.

I went to Italy last week as a vacation, I booked ahead some trains and hotels

turns out google makes reminders for all your flights, trains and hotel bookings based on your emails

it even auto downloads to cache the attached files of the mentioned emails

also also before my first flight I got a pop up notification, that Google maps can download maps for Rome and Florence, the exact places I would be visiting...

also also also, based on the prices of the places I went to eat at (I did a under 10E run on Rome and an over 20E at Florence) the restaurants that popped up on google maps changed to adjust

this while also asking for my reviews on everywhere I walked trought, mind you, I didn't have roaming so I just used location services, which are free everywhere.

this means google actively tracked my location even while "offline" and then uploaded and adjusted according to this recordings

and now I'm getting a "Set up your Google Assistant" notification I cant get rid of

Same here.

Yes. 100% Yes. I thought it was the Facebook App but it appears that Google is doing it too. I remember have a conversation with friends and they mentioned something they wanted to buy. I had no interest in this product, never searched on my phone for it etc. But sure enough ads on my FB came up about it the next day.

I was talking to my girlfriend about getting some hotdogs and hamburger meat for a bbq. About an hour later there were tons of Ball Park Frank adds everywhere.

We hardly even buy hotdogs and I know for a fact I was not google searching hotdogs or anything hotdog related.

We should make a sidebar discussion about this since people come here to talk about it so often

Yep, happens all the time to me. The creepiest:

I was in a Walmart parking lot when I told my passenger I needed to charge my A/C's refrigerant. Later that evening I got an ad in Facebook for A/C refrigerant on sale ... AT WALMART.

I have my microphone switched off. I have selected for google to tell me if a third party wants to record anything etc. I don't have problems. However my husband has his on and we were talking about some really obscure thing I have never looked for before, nor even thought about. Colouring in books for grown ups. The next day he got adverts for exactly that. Yes they are listening and when we find irrefutable evidence we should take a class action and get compensation.

Agree that a class action lawsuit is the way to go.

Yep. This happened to me the other week. Me and my GF were at the grocery store and we were looking at getting steaks. We had a nice short little conversation about how to cook them since weren't sure since I didn't have a grill. The next day I pull up YouTube and in my recommended feed is a video on how to cook steaks. I have never once googled or YouTube anything about steaks.

So stop using their services...they clearly state whatever they're doing in their terms and conditions. I like probably 99% of people don't read them. That being said if you want them to stop listening to you stop using their services. Very simple

Yeah, I don't know why anyone wouldn't quit or drastically reduce their use of these services after noticing this. Personally I'd like to see this practice made illegal, but it seems the majority are too far in denial to even admit it's happening.

My girlfriend and I have been noticing this for like a year as well. We will have a conversation about something, or mention a product, and boom there it is on facebook, or suggested searches.

Why do you still use their services? This would just be too creepy for me.

I speak Portuguese, but only recently started typing with it online. All of a sudden, I get google search results to join Facebook in Portuguese. This didn't happen before, and I live in America, lol.

I've still to this day not seen an advertisement tailored to my voice. I see ads come from my google search history plenty but still haven't been able to correlate me talking about something with the advertisements I'm exposed to. Can anyone confined with 100% certainty that the ads you're all talking about only come from what you speak about and not some other factor?

I was trying to convince my boyfriend it happened, so we opened the Instagram app on my phone and started talking about a subject neither of us had searched or spoken about in any memorable past, we chose "constipation". Within twenty minutes I got a Dulcolax ad.

We did it again with a restaurant we have never been to (we also don't watch any tv or listen to any radio with ads), it was Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill or something, and we got an ad immediately on his phone.

He was convinced.

Talked with my friend about Korea. Got some videos about Korea on my YouTube feed

Told my dad over the phone that I "wish I knew Portuguese" so I could read some original poetry. Very same evening I got an ad on social media to "quickly learn Portuguese". I've never searched it. Can't deny this shit.

One particular moment that really stuck out to me was when I was having a conversation about trench foot. Never before in my life have I searched it, typed it in a text, social media, anything. It was such an obscure conversation. When I went to Google it I typed in "T" and the FIRST suggested search word was "trench foot" - very weird.

Just wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience.

Yes, I have.

I was talking to a friend at work last week about shoes and she told me "nike's website has good deals on converse right now". I have never visited the nike website or shopped for converse in my life. Later that evening I was scrolling through instagram and there was an ad for converse with a link to the Nike website.

I'm not at all questioning the comments made by some and the overarching ethos of the post but isn't it possible that the Baader-Meinhof effect is at least somewhat responsible for some of these encounters and it may just be that in some circumstances you only notice the advert as it happened to be in your mind from recently

South Parks PC season was one the hit it right on the nail. Everything becomes ads.

Yep, I mean, what are the chances of amazon suggesting mobile one motoroil after a conversation about car maintenance, we must be crazy.

Delete Facebook messenger !!

Someone needs to prove this so we can get a class action lawsuit together, if only to soread awareness (tos probably allows them to do this)

Go through all the apps on your phone and take away the rights to your microphone.

Yeah it's creepy and not very subtle. After Snowden (and kinda the movie Eagle Eye) I have no reason to believe we (myself included) have ever not been monitored.

This has happened to me before. I can't remember what item I was talking about, but I remember an ad showed up shortly after for the same product.

YES, this is definitely happening and has been for quite some time.

If you want to know how real is Facebook surveillance check this reddit list on what wrong with Facebook and why you should delete Facebook.

Part of this content was shared with the following results

• r/bestof: u/fantastic_comment compiles a list of horrible things Facebook has done over the course: of 2016 [12.7k points and top 150 of r/bestof]
• r/StallmanWasRight: Facebook 2016 Year in Review [3842 points and most popular post all time at r/StallmanWasRight]

And watch the recent documentaries:

• ABC Australia Facebook: Cracking the Code on r/documentaries - link thread
• BBC Panorama What Facebook Knows About You on r/unitedkingdom - link thread

This should be enough to delete your the account. Remember that

By staying on Facebook, you’re granting them permission to collect and use information about you, regardless of you even using the Internet. And by staying on, the data they collect on you gets used to create models about your closest friends and family, even the ones who opted out.

Check guide with step by step instructions to leave Facebook

Had a conversation using gmail phone address. This was a phone call that the other person was using their gmail address as the phone number (not sure what this is called).

Anyways, next day on my youtube suggested videos at the top was the exact conversation I was talking about.

Let's just say that the conversation was about a subject that doesn't concern me, but it did concern my friend.

So its a huge coincidence that it showed up the next day.

Before you install any app on your smartphone look at the permissions and ask yourself do I really need this app and why are they ask for these permissions. There is no such thing as 'free', how can a product/service be free you will either be paying with your dollars or else with your privacy

yup google and alexa are listening

A friend told me she needed a trash can once. Amazon prime found the perfect answer and it popped up in my Instagram feed.

They do it with google too.

It's been happening to me as well...especially with Google. Me and my roommate were having a conversation about the Cubs specifically about Leon Durham...

I started to type what year did....... and the auto suggestion finished with Leon Durham play for the Cubs. He started his career with the Expos so, for it to finish right on target was strange as hell.

This is exactly how things have gone down for me as well!!!! Whatever you've just finished discussing will be alluded to or blatantly copied into your suggested list of queries.

It's scary as hell. If people don't think their mic is on they have their heads in the sand. I downloaded a flashlight app. and they wanted mic,camera, contacts permissions...for a flashlight app.?? da fuk

I'm going through my shit now

Yeah, this mass surveillance shit is getting out of hand.

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/6rzh84/the_earth_is_the_centre_of_the_universe_the_sun/

110% - especially on Pandora, that shit uses you mic. I already knew Facebook did, but this week alone I've seen two advertisements on my phone related to conversation-only matters. Also I hadn't been to a Taco Bell in 5 years. I went through a Taco Bell drive thru the other day, and that week I was seeing Taco Bell ads.

Can confirm.

Was talking with my sister-in-law about our Halloween party last year. Mention that we may need some "dry ice" for visual effects (while my phone is present). Type the letter "D" and it auto completes "dry ice" in Google search. Never have I looked up dry ice or any thing Halloween related.

This isn't the first incident.

Talk about some really weird topic, like a rare disease, or a strange type of snake or something that you would normally never talk about and see if it serves you ads based on that.

This has been happening on my iphone, my computer (hp), even my smart tv (hisense) for about a solid 9 months.

Happened to me a couple months ago. I had never seen/heard of a fidget spinner before. A co-worker bought one and showed it to me, and we chatted about them briefly. The next time I opened Facebook on my phone -- fidget spinner ads. It freaked me out.

I was having a conversation with a friend about chiropractics and subluxations sure enough ads for something that sounded like subluxations shows up. They listen in it's creepy

I've had similar experiences.

I'm positive someone's listening to my conversations -- all of our conversations, but I also believe companies mine info via debit card purchases. So, a recent purchase may/will be advertised (back) to you, simply for purchasing a particular item or product.

It could alternatively be because you are associated if your cousin, you interact with him online, that it might think you have similar interests as your cousin who may have bought, "leased" digital content, or otherwise interacted with the documentary film.

Yes, I have had it happen.

I was talking to my wife about someone we know needing to remove a racoon from their attic, but we never googled it or typed it anywhere. The next day and for a long time thereafter, I started seeing ads for "critter removal services" on various websites.

Coincidence? It could be, and maybe I was just noticing those ads since we were recently talking about it, but it was still sort of freaky.

I have tried to reproduce it in a controlled experiment, but have been unable to do so.

Basic countermeasures: Get off Facebook, tape over cameras, disable driver support for cameras and microphones, install ad-blocking software in browser, don't use Google, don't use voice-command software with equipment with internet connectivity, etc.

This has happened to me several times over the last year or so. Really ramped up in the last two months.

I have uMatrix installed and don't use Facebook messenger. When I do rarely see a targeted ad, it has no idea what gender or age I am, let alone what I like. Try doing these things. uMatrix helps a LOT. Those adsense ads can look at damned near anything on your page and figure out how to advertise to you based on that. Don't let google do that.

Very creepy thing happened after I read this article yesterday. I was home last night, and was snacking on a certain brand of pita chips. 10 minutes later I went to find a video on YouTube, and guess what the ad was for? Those very same pita chips. An ad I'd never seen before (at least to my knowledge). Way too creepy.

Same thing knew to happen to me and i just tought i was paranoid but there's something fishy going on

Ive noticed that with google searches where I'll talk about something completely fucking random, type in honestly three to four letters sometimes or just the first (ambiguous) word and boom pops right up

lol Facebook.

yes they have... fine print

sure they have. its like people using Alexa, Siri, and stuff like this. Then complain that they are listening. Thats beyond stupid. Same as using facebook. You sign a contract when using services like these. And they say what they do right out in the TOS / EULA. Its a trade. So if you use their service you cant complain afterwards. It doesnt make any freaking sense.

its hard to take any complaints seriously

You only use smartphones, apps, services that don't require you to relinquish your rights?

My point being, there are very few if any choices in tech that will allow one to operate in a business capacity which is required for almost everyone while retaining one's right to privacy. There is no choice. FB, Twitter, Google, Instagram are just the most glaring instances of it all.

You've undoubtedly relinquished your rights to a TOS somewhere. That does not mean, nor should it mean that you just throw up your arms and accept your fate. If nothing else, complain about it. Take it a step farther and lobby against it.