I kept hearing a Spanish song on commercial radio for the last few weeks. It was really bugging me as it was on tv shows, radio etc.. problem is i live in Ireland, not exactly a hub of latin music!

Anyway, turns out it was the new Justin Beiber single.. and its bloody everywhere!!!

Any chance thats what happened to you?

Despacito.....Fuckin shoot me already

Fucking dirt.

My burrrtio! Cover and smothering in some good queso!

the spanish version without him is so much better

ANY song without him is so much better

This very well may not be a coincidence. More and more advertisers are inserting ultrasonic tones in their advertisements which can be picked up by smartphone apps to track your radio and TV habits. Some stores even employ them to tie your online identity with your real identity if you purchase something. This is no baseless, paranoid theory; just google "smartphone advertisement ultrasonic beacon" and you will find lots of information about this practice.

I wasn't aware of this technology, very interesting! Thank you!

What sort of telling information could one glean from the battery voltage of an individuals phone? You've piqued my curiosity.

I'd recommend checking in your Settings for YouTube, to see if it's got access to your microphone. If you can 'speak to search', then the answer is already yes.

It'll likely listen to its surroundings as part of a learning algorithm - to make your 'experience better' or as part of a wider conspiracy :-D

yes, definitely turn off the 'OK google' option. Though OP said he had an iPhone, so unsure if that option is available on non-android phones. I was surprised to see how many people have that constantly listening 'OK google' active.

I recently took a job as a licensed insurance agent...as I was going through the interview process, of course we talked about the job and "insurance." The next day I'm getting health and life insurance ads on my phone....so yeah...thats probably what happened to you.

It's listening.

Reads your Email, too.

Scan his files, face read his photos, track his locations, log his browsing, sees his passwords, analyze his health.

we gave them permission to do this by using the service and signing their privacy policy. Im researching this at the minute, ill link some of the findings below. its unbelievable what permission you actually give companies. Yet no one actually checks before signing! http://imgur.com/a/sIkYl

I keep seeing posts like these. Almost the exact same post. We have been discussing this for years . Not in the theoretical sense, like ever since they split the FB messenger into its own app and we reviewed the permissions in /r/technology ... This is well trodden territory.

I wonder if people aren't being influenced to write posts like these to apply chilling effect on having conversation about controversial issues.

Delete any app that has permission to access your microphone.

Some phones do not let you delete these apps. I use a s7edge cause of the app package disabler which lets you turn off the rapeware on your phone. Then there are shitstains like the entertainment network "we do not speak of" that force their app on your phone during an update an makes itself so you cannot uninstall it.

I won't own a phone I can't root.

Fair enough. I am not technologically capable. I do not know why. I had a G3 I rooted and within 2 days my phone blue screened.

There are risks to it, but I never really pay more than 100 bucks for a phone either. So, by the time a phone is in my price range there are usually very stable root processes available.

That makes sense.

Pandora doesn't have access to my mic but I know it listens to me based on the ads I get.

I believe this is done by location and not Mic. I say that because I have moved to a different state and it keeps playing ads from the previous state. I somehow think emails are involved...IDK.

It cis getting that information from the songs you select, it doesn't have to "hear" the songs you play to know which ones you like.

But the ads are specifically for conversations I've had around my phone. It has nothing to do with the music I select.

Not a conspiracy, reality of our times. Recently I started talking around my phone about how much I love redbull and want to drink it (I don't drink redbull) and wouldn't you know Red Bull ads are popping up on YT...

Youtube red trial was kind of cool but I'm shocked people pay them that much for such a pathetic service.

If you use firefox in desktop mode you can listen to youtube with the screen off. The ads are kind of annoying but not enough to drop $120 a year.

I do not own a smartphone, but there must be ad blocking apps for it, right?

Maybe a hack because most people use the YouTube app and not the browser version

AdblockerPlus

Adblocker, no ads.

2 posts in front page of /r/conspiracy basically talk about the same thing, must be coincidence ,

yup, i binge watched narcos with my phone by my side and started getting advertisements in spanish on facebook. it hears all

Wait til you notice it reading your mind...then you'll really be creeped out.

It happened to me just a few hours ago (Google Ads) and I took a screenshot of the ad and was filled with dread. I thought of a really weird specific thing and got a huge popup ad on GameFaqs through Google Search. Okay, the word was basically "fortunetelling", and 5 seconds later I get a totally out of nowhere ad with huge text "FORTUNETELLING" (in finnish, my native language). I basically thought "I wonder if fortunetellers are just really good guessers" (one of those funny random "showerthoughts" in bed) as I opened the Google Search result link to GameFaqs forums.

I am currently a struggling alcoholic, but very much on the wagon. I had a pretty deep conversation with my family about my alcoholism one day, and later that day, i opened my phone to find my internet browser open and sitting idly on an advertisement for a local rehab center.

I pressed the back button, and the tab closed. Could not later find it in my browser history. So lets recap, they microphoned my private conversation with my family, opened my browser, opened a new tab in private mode, and navigated to a sponsored ad for a rehab center after id already detoxed by myself, all because i used the words "alcoholic" and "addict" multiple times in one conversation.

This is the level of sophistication being employed in the surveilance of the human population.

Did you give it access to your microphone? Some apps listen to give you targeted ads

Some apps listen to give you targeted ads

Do you have a credible source for this claim? I mean, it sounds plausible enough, but I'm just wondering if it's now openly discussed / explained somewhere.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/is-your-smartphone-listening-to-your-conversations/

Yeah, it belongs here. They are listening. Marketing algorithms.

I was talking with a friend about, not searching online, plantar fasciitis. Then I get a YouTube commercial about a foot brace to fix it.

It seems the common factor is FB messenger. Regardless....I don't like it so I deleted my FB.

The song Despacito is number 1 everywhere in the world. It just tripled the previous record on youTube, and even non Spanish artists like Justin Beaver are singing it, so it's not too weird to hear it in a lot of places.

The only way this could have happened is if my phone mic was left on and listening to my radio and recording.

Yep same thing happened to me.

I had a phone conversation about some obscure topic that I've never searched for on Google or YT....ever.

THE VERY NEXT TIME I log into YT, I'm presented with a suggestion that is the EXACT topic I was discussing on the phone.

The only way this could happen is if they were listening. I make sure to double click and close every, single app when I'm done with it. So there's no possible way it was running in the back ground.

Why would you pay for YouTube .. Weird

Well a Spanish song IS number 1 right now..

Youve gave them permission to do this by using the service and signing their privacy policy. Im researching this at the minute, ill link some of my shocking findings below. its unbelievable what permission you actually give companies. Yet no one actually checks before signing! http://imgur.com/a/sIkYl