Am I being listened to?

I see this question coming up all the time, saying my phone/device listens to me…. and yes, it is true they do listen to you! Of course they do, if you say ok google to ask it a question surely it has got to listen to you hasn’t it? So to read yet another article about it comes as no surprise

https://www.unexplained.ie/article/718-am-i-being-listened-to-mystery-of-mobile-phones-social-media-and-suggested-content/

So in a nutshell, yes your phone listens to you, yes it saves the data, yes your privacy is being abused but to what amount depends on your point of view, and yes I can honestly say if you are very big on privacy then a smartphone isn’t for you…
I think the bit that annoys people is talking about something whilst on social media and then magically ads for those products starts appearing everywhere. Now this is,of course, because the big tech firms share data about you for targeted ads and they also sell that data. The latest data seems to point to Facebook for example making between $12 – $14 a year from YOUR data. It is this fact that allows Facebook to still remain free along with ad revenue and boost revenue. In fact, boost revenue is what they want to get, thus it making seeing what posts/news you want to see increasingly difficult. Shareholders are never happy with financials folks! If you are that bothered about your privacy and your data then you cannot reasonably be expected to be on social media, although there are better platforms that use a heck of a lot less of your data emerging, but they have significantly less users/engagement