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Comment by ch_ase | Hacker News Reader

We search for everything we talk about these days…our location services are always on. The times I’ve noticed this I can usually trace it back to a friend had been searching for something and then we (our phones) were in the same place. Even the guy from the lawsuit with the doctor… his phone knows he was at that doctor and that doctor offers that procedure. Seems possible without listening.

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Location being on in general doesn't mean the search query has access to it. Safari makes you approve each individual location access by a website.

Yes, but I think that's the part that feels... unsettling.

I watched a Nigerian film on the seat back display on the plane the other day. I looked it up on my laptop when I got home because I didn't finish it.

The next day in my Instagram explore page I had a Nigerian meme...

Yes, I get it -- could be frequency illusion or some IP address/cookie shenanigans. Still feels weird.

Or more likely: Confirmation bias. I also occasionally get Nigerian memes on IG despite never having searched it. But unlike you I don't have the Nigerian film google search history that would lead me to conclude it was targeted.

Put another way, if you googled a Swedish film then saw Swedish memes you would think that was targeted. Then upon viewing the Nigerian memes you would have attributed it to a random video rather than anything targeted.

“ I looked it up on my laptop when I got home”

That is the real mechanism for triggering the ads and memes, not that “your phone is listening to you.”

At least feel creepy about the real cause and not some imagined monster under the bed.

I keep location services off, but realize that’s probably not completely hiding my location.

This is gaslighting. Even if it’s a coincidence, people have numerous examples of situations where they or anyone with them did not search for a thing. I’m not saying the only possible explanation is that the phone is spying on you - but I’m saying, don’t gaslight people and say “you probably searched about it and forgot”.

But what if their friend searched for it rather than them, and they were associated due to their location?

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