Hello!

Context

It was two weeks before Christmas, and I was rushing around to buy the perfect present for my mother.

I wasn’t sure what to get her at first, so I talked to dad and eventually we hit upon the idea of getting her a necklace.

As dad was driving me to school, he prompted me to do a few quick searches for “necklace”, “nice necklace”, and “pretty necklace”... but in the end, I didn’t find anything I liked, so the instant I was dropped off at school, I ended my search.

But when I logged onto Amazon? “Chakra Tree of Life Necklace” was one of the first things that popped up. I bought it immediately, thinking, “Thanks, Amazon!”

Later on, when I kept seeing ads for the same necklace, even when the holiday season was long gone, I had to ask myself: How did Amazon know that necklace would catch my eye? Had it been listening into my conversations with dad? As it turned out, I was onto something.

Is my phone listening to all of my conversations?

Not necessarily...but there definitely is someone(s) listening to you, and they have much better ways of finding out who you are other than just “listening.” It may not be a matter of literally listening to what you say, but metaphorically listening to and seeing how you interact with their applications. Still confused? Consider this.

What are they listening for?

Essentially, what these “listeners” want is information about you. Where have you been? What have you bought recently? Who are your freinds? Are you a woman, a man, or neither? How old are you? Do you lean towards the left or right when it comes to politics?

Who is listening to me and why?

Big companies like Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Amazon use the data they collect from you to curate better content for you. They collect how you react to certain stimuli (i.e. videos, music, photographs and their substance) and use that information to provide you with a better experience of their product. They can also make money by selling that information to other companies.

How does my phone know me so well?

Because you let it, you’re feeding it data. I don’t think many people realize it’s not a good thing that your phone is getting to know more and more about you. Sure, it gets easier, but is it worth your information? Information such as your purchase history, your location, who your family and friends are, what websites you’ve looked at recently. Basically... everything you’ve ever done on the web. Why?

Because you've agreed with the terms and conditions. Because you like things online. Because you share your location. Because you share your contacts list. Because you conducted a search using their services. Because you use their technology to take pictures, so they can take data from photo location and what’s in the picture

How do I stop them from listening? Can I do that at all?

But if you want these companies to stop collecting data on you entirely, there’s no simple solution (unless you want to throw all of your electronics into the ocean). You can restrict their access to data, but you can’t stop them entirely. Sorry.