It's no coincidence the item you바카라™d been interested in was the same one you were targeted with.
Has it ever happened that you start seeing things on your social media that you were discussing about the other day with your friends? Or 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 바카라ślistening바카라ť to you.
It's no coincidence the item you바카라™d been interested in was the same one you were targeted with.
But that doesn바카라™t mean your device is actually listening to your conversations 바카라” it doesn바카라™t need to. There바카라™s a good chance you바카라™re already giving it all the information it needs.
Here바카라™s how it happens
We regularly give a lot of our personal information every day to a wide range of websites and apps. We do this when we grant them certain permissions or allow 바카라ścookies바카라ť to track our online activities.
 So-called 바카라śfirst-party cookies바카라ť allow websites to 바카라śremember바카라ť certain details about our interaction with the site. For instance, login cookies let you save your login details, so you don바카라™t have to re-enter them each time.
 Third-party cookies, however, are created by domains that are external to the site you바카라™re 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 marketer바카라™s ads and grant it access to data it collects from you (which you will have given it permission to do 바카라” perhaps by clicking on some innocuous looking popup).
As such, the advertiser can build a picture of your life: your routines, wants and needs. These companies constantly seek to gauge the popularity of their products and how this varies based on factors such as a customer바카라™s age, gender, height, weight, job and hobbies. By classifying and clustering this information, advertisers improve their recommendation algorithms, using something called recommender systems to target the right customers with the right ads.
Computers work behind the scenes
There are several machine-learning techniques in artificial intelligence (AI) that help systems filter and analyse your data, such as data clustering, classification, association and reinforcement learning (RL).
An RL agent can train itself based on feedback gained from user interactions, akin to how a young child will learn to repeat an action if it leads to a reward.
By viewing or pressing 바카라ślike바카라ť on a social media post, you send a reward signal to an RL agent confirming you바카라™re attracted to the post 바카라” or perhaps interested in the person who posted it. Either way, a message is sent to the RL agent about your personal interests and preferences.
If you start actively liking posts about 바카라śmindfulness바카라ť on a social platform, its system will learn to send you advertisements for companies that can offer related products and content.
Ad recommendations may be based on other data, too, including but not limited to:
- other ads you clicked on through the platform;
- personal details you provided the platform (such as your age, email address, gender, location and which devices you access the platform on);
- information shared with the platform by other advertisers or marketing partners that already have you as a customer;
- specific pages or groups you have joined or 바카라śliked바카라ť on the platform.
In fact, AI algorithms can help marketers take huge pools of data and use them to construct your entire social network, ranking people around you based on how much you 바카라ścare about바카라ť (interact with) them.
They can then start to target you with ads based on not only your own data, but on data collected from your friends and family members using the same platforms as you.
For example, Facebook might be able to recommend you something your friend recently bought. It didn바카라™t need to 바카라ślisten바카라ť to a conversation between you and your friend to do this.
Exercising your right to privacy is a choice
While app providers are supposed to provide clear terms and conditions to users about how they collect, store and use data, nowadays it바카라™s on users to be careful about which permissions they give to the apps and sites they use.
When in doubt, give permissions on an as-needed basis. It makes sense to give WhatsApp access to your camera and microphone, as it can바카라™t provide some of its services without this. But not all apps and services will ask for only what is necessary.
Perhaps you don바카라™t mind receiving targeted ads based on your data and may find it appealing. Research has shown people with a more 바카라śutilitarian바카라ť (or practical) worldview actually prefers recommendations from AI to those from humans.
That said, it바카라™s possible AI recommendations can constrain people바카라™s choices and minimise serendipity in the long term. By presenting consumers with algorithmically curated choices of what to watch, read and stream, companies may be implicitly keeping our tastes and lifestyle within a narrower frame.
Don바카라™t want to be predicted? Don바카라™t be predictable!
There are some simple tips you can follow to limit the amount of data you share online. First, you should review your phone바카라™s app permissions regularly.
Also, think twice before an app or website asks you for certain permissions, or to allow cookies. Wherever possible, avoid using your social media accounts to connect or log in to other sites and services. In most cases there will be an option to sign up via email, which could even be a burner email.
Once you do start the sign-in process, remember you only have to share as much information as is needed. And if you바카라™re sensitive about privacy, perhaps consider installing a virtual private network (VPN) on your device. This will mask your IP address and encrypt your online activities.
Try it yourself!
If you still think your phone is listening to you, there바카라™s a simple experiment you can try.
Go to your phone바카라™s settings and restrict access to your microphone for all your apps. Pick a product you know you haven바카라™t searched for in any of your devices and talk about it out loud at some length with another person.
Make sure you repeat this process a few times. If you still don바카라™t get any targeted ads within the next few day, this suggests your phone isn바카라™t really 바카라ślistening바카라ť to you.
It has other ways of finding out what바카라™s on your mind.
With PTI inputs