We’ve all been there — you have a casual conversation with a friend about, say, tennis, and even though you’ve never expressed interest in tennis in your life, a few hours later, your phone is showing you ads for tennis rackets. This is enough to make you wonder: Is your phone listening to you for ads?
It’s no surprise that there are so many Google searches like, “How do I stop Google from listening to me,” “Can targeted advertising make my phone hear me?” and “Does iPhone listen to you for ads?”
Recently, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over privacy concerns related to Siri. Users claimed that their private conversations were recorded unintentionally and shared with third parties, including advertisers. While Apple denied any wrongdoing, the settlement underscores the growing concerns around privacy in the world of targeted advertising.
However, while this settlement focuses on Siri’s unintended recordings, it’s important to remember that not all targeted ads are a result of eavesdropping or voice activation. For example, at Grapeseed, we use predictive, anonymized data to drive results — not secretly recorded conversations.
In this article, we explore whether your phone is really listening to you and how targeted advertising actually works.
Does Online Targeted Advertising Make Your Phone Listen to Your Conversations?
Concerns about online targeted advertising and privacy are valid, but this doesn’t mean that your phone passively listens to private conversations to serve you more specific ads. There are nuggets of proof that Amazon and Google store audio snippets, however, this personal data is not sold, nor is it available for any advertiser to use.
Back in 2017, the New York Times reported that more than 250 mobile gaming apps were partnering with Alphonso, a data-collection company that aggregates CTV viewership information through ACR technology. These Alphonso-partnered apps ask permission for microphone access after they are first downloaded. By doing so, the apps tap into your phone microphone to listen for audio cues from a specific CTV commercial in order to send you mobile ads for the product that was just displayed on your CTV.
Although this certainly presents a grey area about phones listening in on your private life, it’s important to note that these apps do not continuously listen in on personal conversations. Instead, they function similarly to smart speakers — activating only when they detect a specific audio trigger, much like how Alexa responds to wake words. The collected data is not categorized, repackaged, or sold for broader use in online targeted advertising.
The recent Apple lawsuit over Siri recordings does highlight real consumer privacy concerns, but it does not reflect the practices of the entire advertising industry. Responsible advertisers, including those at Grapeseed, rely on ethical data practices, leveraging anonymized, predictive data rather than secretly recorded conversations to drive results.
Ultimately, while online targeted advertising may feel eerily precise at times, the reality is that data-driven insights are what power most ad strategies.
What Data Does Your Phone Actually Collect?
Rather than passively recording conversations, your devices, including your phone, watch, computer, gaming system, and even smart appliances, actively gather various types of data to enhance user experience, optimize performance, and, in some cases, enable more relevant advertising.
Here are some key types of data your devices collect:
- Location data: Your phone tracks your whereabouts through GPS, Wi-Fi signals, and IP address tracking, which can be used for navigation, local recommendations, and geo-targeted ads.
- Search history: The terms and phrases you look up online inform future search results and ad personalization.
- Browsing history: Websites you visit and the pages you engage with help platforms refine content recommendations and targeted advertising.
- Purchase history: Online and in-store transactions linked to digital payment methods contribute to personalized shopping suggestions.
- Physical interactions: Devices monitor how you interact with them—such as touch patterns, screen time, and app usage—to improve user experience and personalize content.
Despite this extensive data collection, reputable advertisers do not link this information directly to personal identifiers like your name or home address. Instead, they rely on anonymized, aggregated data to create audience segments, ensuring privacy while still delivering relevant ads.
So, while it might feel like your phone knows you a little too well, it’s not because it’s listening — it’s simply analyzing the digital footprint you leave behind.
How to Protect Your Privacy and Control Your Data on Your Phone
If you’re concerned about unwanted tracking, there are several steps you can take to limit how apps and websites collect and use your data.
Review and Manage App Permissions
Apps often request access to data they don’t necessarily need. Regularly reviewing and revoking unnecessary permissions can help protect your privacy.
- Delete apps you no longer use to reduce unnecessary data collection.
- Review your app permissions and disable access to sensitive features like:
- Microphone
- Location
- Contacts
- Camera
- Phone/SMS
When downloading a new app, be mindful of the permissions it requests. For instance, if an app asks for access to something unrelated to its function, select “Don’t Allow.”
Limit Microphone Access
Some apps request microphone access unnecessarily. You can manage this in your settings:
For Android (Google):
- Open Google Settings on your device
- Select Apps
- Choose the specific app from the list
- Select Permissions
- Turn off Microphone access
For iOS (Apple):
- Open Settings
- Go to Privacy & Security
- Select Microphone
- Toggle off access for apps that don’t need it
Block Websites from Tracking You
When browsing the web, you’ve likely seen pop-ups asking for permission to track your activity. Selecting “No, block all cookies” helps prevent websites from collecting your visitation data, which reduces the chances of seeing retargeted ads.
For example:
- If you visit a website about fish tanks and allow tracking, you’ll likely see fish-related ads afterwards.
- If you block tracking, the site won’t be able to retarget you with fish-related ads, unless another source connects your browsing behavior to similar content.
Keep in mind that blocking cookies is a step toward better privacy, but it’s not foolproof. Gray areas remain in how data is collected and shared across platforms. Still, taking these precautions can help minimize tracking and give you more control over your digital footprint.
Why Might You Get an Ad After a Casual Conversation?
In rare cases, snooping and phone hacking can occur. Take for example, the massive public scandal in the UK in 2011, when journalists at the now-defunct News of the World — owned by News International (now News UK) — hacked the phones of politicians, royal family members, and crime victims, among others.
However, phone hacking is rare and is not a technique that reputable advertisers employ. It’s certainly not what targeted advertising is about. Targeted advertising is built on data collection and audience segmentation rather than illicit surveillance.
So you might be wondering, “Why did I get an ad for cat food after my friend and I talked about their cats while having lunch together? I don’t even like cats!”
Let’s use this cat food scenario to explore how targeted advertising really works — what worked in the past, what still plays a role today, and how the landscape is shifting.
Why You Saw That Cat Food Ad
- Your Friend Has Cats
In this case, if your friend has been shopping for cat food, for example, and you’re connected through a shared Wi-Fi network, then the ad for cat food might be triggered because the system identifies a potential link between your interests. The advertiser might have targeted you based on the IP address and shown you ad campaigns about things your friend is interested in or has previously viewed or received emails about.
2. You Were in the Same Location
When you grant access to your location through an app like Google Maps, a social media platform, or even a game, that information is added to your advertising profile.
That location data is then used to serve you targeted ads. But that’s not all — it also syncs with internet users around you, such as a partner, family member, or friend. This means they might see ads that target you — and vice versa.
If a company can determine that you and your friend were in the same location and if your friend had previously had any online interaction with cat-related content or sites, then there’s your connection. They’re using the same targeting on both of you based on your friend’s user behavior.
That’s why after a conversation about cats, you may notice that you start to get ads relevant to cat owners. It’s the algorithm comparing your advertising profile with those around you and showing you whatever they have interacted with or searched for online.
3. Maybe You’re a Pet Owner
Let’s say you own a dog and always buy dog food. You could be lumped into a third-party dataset for “pet owner,” and the advertiser running the online advertising campaign may not have done the diligence to separate the user data and target cat owners only. So, you might still get ads for cat food because the system identifies you as part of the broader pet-owner demographic.
4. Your Demographics Match
Perhaps you and your friend are of a similar age and are both pet owners. If so, advertisers may assume that you’re interested in similar things based on your demographic information.
Add in the fact that you were in the same location when you had the cat conversation, and all these data clues could have been collected to solidify the interest connection.
5. It Could Be Geo-Targeting
Mobile advertising has taken geo-targeting a step further by using your physical proximity to businesses, stores, and events to serve ads. For example, let’s say you walked by a pet store on the way to lunch, and they happen to be running a geo-targeted promo for cat food to reach a specific audience and find potential customers in the local area.
You may think that your phone was listening in on your conversation because of this coincidence, but it’s simply a matter of being in a geographical location that is being targeted for a cat food marketing campaign.
6. Did You Search for Cat-Related Information?
Maybe after talking to your friend about their cats, you absent-mindedly opened up a search engine and looked up some cat facts. This kind of online behavior signals to the ad system that you probably have some interest in cats, and who better to hit with an ad for cat food?
Any of your browsing habits could have led to that ad being served — even if it’s only vaguely related to the information you searched for.
Or maybe you’d been getting the ads all along and only really noticed them after the discussion.
7. It Could Be Mobile Retargeting
Imagine seeing a cat food ad on a digital billboard at a gas station. This could be part of a mobile retargeting strategy, where advertisers capture your device ID for mobile retargeting with relevant ads.
The Shift from Behavioral Targeting to Contextual and Deterministic Data
Historically, advertisers relied heavily on behavioral targeting, using third-party cookies to track browsing habits, demographics, and search history. But with increasing privacy regulations and consumer concerns, these methods are becoming less effective.
Today, advertisers are shifting toward deterministic and contextual targeting. Contextual targeting focuses on what users are engaging with in real time, while deterministic targeting uses first-party data and direct consumer engagement (such as app usage or email addresses).
For example, if you have the Nike app and have signed in with your email, Nike can sell that data to audience providers, categorizing you as part of a “sportswear” or “fitness” segment. Unlike old behavioral tracking methods, this approach builds buyer profiles based on deterministic data rather than tracking browsing habits across multiple websites.
This shift is helping advertisers create more relevant, precise, and privacy-conscious advertising strategies, ensuring they can still reach their target audience without overstepping privacy boundaries.
Busting the Audio Spying Myth
If you don’t understand how targeting advertising works, it can seem like your phone is listening to you — which can feel like an invasion of privacy.
But the truth is that although advertisers gather data about their target audience from their phones, it’s not through audio spying, and it’s not a coincidence — it’s simply highly targeted advertising and data collection.
So now you know that your phone isn’t listening to you, what other advertising myths would you like us to bust?
The Grapeseed Media team provides expert advice on all things programmatic and digital advertising. Just let us know what you would like to learn about, and we’ll prepare a session for you.
