Conversation cleary monitored and not sure how

Like packet sniffing/tracing?
No; Like they actually opened "server" ports on localhost (not port 80; I forget which ports) that their Meta Pixel tracking system would send and receive data from on the web to send tracking details from every website you visit to your Meta apps and vice versa; Your Facebook profile details to all websites you visited. Didn't matter if you had all cookies disabled on the web and strong privacy settings enabled. As soon as the report detailing the practice was published they stopped doing it
 
No; Like they actually opened "server" ports on localhost (not port 80; I forget which ports) that their Meta Pixel tracking system would send and receive data from on the web to send tracking details from every website you visit to your Meta apps and vice versa; Your Facebook profile details to all websites you visited. Didn't matter if you had all cookies disabled on the web and strong privacy settings enabled. As soon as the report detailing the practice was published they stopped doing it
That is wild.
 
No; Like they actually opened "server" ports on localhost (not port 80; I forget which ports) that their Meta Pixel tracking system would send and receive data from on the web to send tracking details from every website you visit to your Meta apps and vice versa; Your Facebook profile details to all websites you visited. Didn't matter if you had all cookies disabled on the web and strong privacy settings enabled. As soon as the report detailing the practice was published they stopped doing it
Unbelievable, worthy of a class action.
 
Happened again tonight, Portlandia displayed on the Netflix menu and I spoke it out loud to my wife. Two hours later I'm getting a push to follow the show on my Instagram feed, makes it seem like that's the culprit.

The list of apps running the mic between her phone and mine were:

Google Home
Nest
Instagram
Shazam
TikTok

And the Alexa was also listening.
 
And the Alexa was also listening.

I had the very first FireTV. At some point I used an old Xbox 360 controller instead of the remote (the old FireTV still had an USB port), because I didn't want to replace the batteries and I've only used the voice search function once and it didn't work properly.
When that FireTV became too old and began acting up, I thought of getting a new one. Then I found out that the new FireTV has the microphone in the main unit instead of the remote. Since I didn't want a permanent bug in my living room, I switched to Apple TV instead (apart from the fact that I miss SmartTube, I never regretted that decision).

The only occurance where I had this strange behavior, was when discussing specific topics with someone, while they had their Samsung phone out (hell knows what was running on the phone). Later at home, Youtube showed me videos with those topics.
In that case I suspect Google, because who else could link my Youtube account to my voice? (And I don't even upload videos, I just use the account to subscribe to channels.)
 
It is like a catch 22, we are more likely to buy the things we are interested in (and they get paid more) but are also turned off by the tracking to discover said interesting things by advertisers.
 
It is getting to the point where if you want to have a serious conversation about something, say a legal matter, you are going to have to go out in the middle of a field and leave your phones in the car.
Exactly, at first I didn't think it was such a big deal and now it feels like big brother is all over my house, a total invasion of privacy. I mean if they can nail the intricacies of what you're saying for ads, think about all the other things one might say in the comfort of their own homes.

It is like a catch 22, we are more likely to buy the things we are interested in (and they get paid more) but are also turned off by the tracking to discover said interesting things by advertisers.
The older I get the less I care about new tech at the expense of my personal privacy.
 
Exactly, at first I didn't think it was such a big deal and now it feels like big brother is all over my house, a total invasion of privacy. I mean if they can nail the intricacies of what you're saying for ads, think about all the other things one might say in the comfort discomfort of their own homes.
Fixed it for the new normal.
 
There's also a very common technique used by set-top boxes and even built into the TVs themselves, where they use computer vision on the content on screen to figure out what you're watching even if they don't have that information in the signal itself for advertising purposes
 
Exactly, at first I didn't think it was such a big deal and now it feels like big brother is all over my house, a total invasion of privacy.

I am a little surprised that Apple, who touts privacy in ads, doesn’t put a stop to this on the device level.
 
I am a little surprised that Apple, who touts privacy in ads, doesn’t put a stop to this on the device level.
I don't really see how that could feasibly be done - They do lock down a lot of things in the name of privacy, but at some point you either give developers the tools to make apps, and thus also the tools to develop tracking, or you don't have apps at all. If there's an API to make network requests; There's ways of tracking
 
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