Do you ever feel like your phone has been listening in to your conversations? Are targeted ads on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and others eerily similar to what you just told your best friend? Well, you are not the only one.
According to a survey conducted by Local Circles, two in three citizens confirm seeing advertisements based on their private voice conversations. The survey received 63,000 responses from citizens located in 346 districts of India.
Major tech companies like Google, Meta, and WhatsApp are under fire for violating chat and user privacy. Google has also agreed to $68 million settlement in a Class Action Lawsuit over allegations that its voice assistant eavesdropped on users.
In a separate legal battle, an international group of plaintiffs, which included Indian users, filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, alleging the company made false claims about the privacy and security of WhatsApp chats.
On Tuesday, a closely watched ‘bellwether trial’ kicked off in Los Angeles against some of the world’s largest social media firms, including Meta, ByteDance and Google.
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Over 80% of the respondents agreed to having given microphone access to audio/video calling apps, social media and recording apps, and around 90% had given access to their contact list to WhatsApp.
Over the last 12 months, two-thirds of 12,960 respondents said they receiving targeted advertisements of specific products or services while surfing the web, after having mentioned them in phone conversations. Of these responses, 28% indicated that such instances “happened all the time”, while 22% indicated it “happened several times” and 17% said it has “happened just a few times”
To sum up, 67% of citizens surveyed said that they have had one or more instances in the last 12 months where they saw advertisements on the web or in apps based on their phone conversations.
Apart from this, instances of intrusive advertisements have also surged with pop-up advertisements making a comeback even after being mitigated by browser blockers.
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