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Imagine your girlfriend showing you a pair of stylish shoes from Tamara Mellon she wants to buy (more like wants you to buy). You chat about them for a minute and then move on to other topics. Three hours later, you’re browsing on your own phone and see ads for the exact same pair of women’s shoes. Weird. That’d be funny, except that these coincidences, if you can call them that, seem to happen every day now.
It may have sounded like something out of a psycho-thriller film five years ago, but having Siri or any other tech madames spy on you is now a very real thing. So are we going to do something about the big ear in the sky or continue to just let it listen in? We have a few ideas about the topic, but more importantly, how to fix it.
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So, has Big Brother tapped into your life thanks to the lifesaving technology provided by the geniuses at Apple? Or are we stupid for even trying to prove this? You be the judge. Sound off with your opinions in the comments.
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Siri Can Hear You
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Is Siri Listening To You?
It turns out it's probably not Siri that's creeping on your private conversations about shoes or sex toys. In fact, if you're going to point a finger at anyone or anything, it should firstly be at yourself. Then secondly, be at third-party apps that mine your data.
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'Hey Siri' Or 'OK Google'
When it comes to Siri or Google, you have to trigger them to work using the phrases that make them come to life. So if you're not shouting, "Hey Siri!" before you talk about wanting to go to Japan, it's unlikely that Siri is the problem.
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'Hey Siri' Or 'OK Google'
When it comes to Siri or Google, you have to trigger them to work using the phrases that make them come to life. So if you're not shouting, "Hey Siri!" before you talk about wanting to go to Japan, it's unlikely that Siri is the problem.
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Hey Siri
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Third-Party Apps
So the real problem are all the wonderful apps you download onto your phone to escape from your life. Things like Facebook and Instagram (owned by FB and a monster in its own right) can farm from non-triggered data (which you'd know if you ever bothered to read through the pesky terms of service).
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What Does This Mean For Our Privacy?
No one knows for sure what triggers third-party apps to tap into what you want and desire. And Facebook swears up and down that they're not really listening to your conversations. However, they're not selling your data to advertisers directly. Instead, they're creating demographics of people who belong to a specific target audience. It's like a more nefarious way of advertising. Instead of using a TV show to target you, they use your own information.
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How To End This Tech Treason
It's the only way.
