Subscribe:

May 17, 2019

Is your phone listening to you?

It’s a spooky feeling: You’re discussing a TV show or a pair of shoes or whatever with a friend, then you open Instagram and see an ad for the exact thing you were just talking about. But it’s not like your phone is listening … right?

A boy makes faces while testing out the Animoji feature on an iPhone X at the Apple Store Union Square on November 3, 2017, in San Francisco, California.
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP/Getty Images

Subscribe:

Segments From This Episode

Food delivery apps bring business, but are they good for business?
by Erika Beras
Kazuhiro Nogi/Getty Images
Restaurants may need to prepare those meals differently and hire extra staff.
Grumpy Cat built an empire on memes. That’s getting harder to do
Larry French/Getty Images for Getty Images for Madame Tussauds
The cat was a pioneer of the viral internet.
Making sense of stats that don’t make sense
by Justin Ho
pxhere
Don’t question your sanity when economic indicators point in opposite directions.
These bygone supermarkets live on in our memories
by Renata Sago
Judy Griesedieck
Many people remember local supermarkets past. Here’s our ode to three venerable chains that are now gone.
Is your phone listening to your conversations?
by Jack Stewart
Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
Companies don’t need to eavesdrop to target ads — we give them plenty of information.