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Comment by n00bdude | Hacker News Reader

The craziest thing I’ve ever seen with targeted advertising (on iPhone) is when I was vacuuming the room one day & as soon as I finished & opened Safari, was seeing ads for Vacuums

I hadn’t even ever said the word ‘vacuum’ - iPhone literally seemed to have cued the sound of the machine in the background. And mind you it’s an iPhone 7 with few apps & not some Pro Max future phone ..

From that moment I’ve been convinced 100% microphones listening, cameras probs watching.

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A little anecdata: I was halfway reading this comment thread in my iOS DuckDuckGo browser when I switched to the YouTube app and refreshed a couple times to see what ads I got: some mobile games, an online car dealership, a shower head and... a vacuum cleaner. Then I came back and read this comment.

I’m not too worried though, probably coincidence. The only place I really see ads anymore are on YouTube and most of the time they are irrelevant.

I've had this happen too, but I wonder how much of it is confirmation bias. I see ads for random stuff all the time and don't even think twice about it, but when we're talking about buying a laptop for my sister and I get laptop ads that sticks in my memory.

I would say it’s possible but at least in this case very unlikely.

It’s not the first time this has happened but definitely the most extreme case where I’d been alone for an extended time (during Covid) and the ad was pretty much immediately after vacuuming.

Of course no proof but like the saying if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck etc

Wow -2 downvotes for posting this really wow

That's because what you're posting is pure FUD. I don't mean to discredit the experience, and how that made you feel, but posting your conclusions as facts added nothing to the conversation here.

Happen to have an Apple Watch? Pure speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if accelerometer data could be used to classify common activities.

No Apple Watch. Phone was just sitting in the room charging. Finished vacuuming and bam - Dyson Vacuum Ad

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