> Is this actually happening though? If so, who is doing it and how?
I think there's a lot of anecdotal evidence that would seem to confirm this. It might seem like they're listening, but it might just be the real-time data collection taking place. If you have an Alexa in your house, it's always on and listening.
I have a neighbor who swears when him and his wife are talking about their grocery list, they'll get ads on their phones for the stuff they need. They even tried on purpose to test it out and were talking about getting blinds (they didn't need new blinds) and twenty minutes later they opened Google on their phone and on their desktop PC and they were being served ads for blinds.
I had another friend who did the same thing and started talking about how he hated he had to constantly shovel all the snow in his driveway and within minutes was getting ads on his laptop for snow removal services.
People will swear Alexa doesn't do this, but the amount of instances I've heard makes me think they can't all be coincidental.
I think there's a lot of anecdotal evidence that would seem to confirm this. It might seem like they're listening, but it might just be the real-time data collection taking place. If you have an Alexa in your house, it's always on and listening.
I have a neighbor who swears when him and his wife are talking about their grocery list, they'll get ads on their phones for the stuff they need. They even tried on purpose to test it out and were talking about getting blinds (they didn't need new blinds) and twenty minutes later they opened Google on their phone and on their desktop PC and they were being served ads for blinds.
I had another friend who did the same thing and started talking about how he hated he had to constantly shovel all the snow in his driveway and within minutes was getting ads on his laptop for snow removal services.
People will swear Alexa doesn't do this, but the amount of instances I've heard makes me think they can't all be coincidental.