They already know

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next: Listening in.

Have you ever mentioned a product in conversation, only to be bombarded with related ads? Maybe you complain to a friend that your coffeemaker is broken, and later that day, there’s a coffee commercial on your screen.

Or you share a private mental health concern, and start getting pop-ups for online therapists.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Ad companies say it happens—but they claim it’s not for the reasons you may have heard.

WORLD’s Lauren Smyth has the story.

LAUREN SMYTH: Hayden Dailey uses his phone for lots of things, including filming model airplane unboxings for his YouTube channel.

SOUND: [Model plane unboxing]

But one day, he noticed something strange. It was shortly after a conversation with his mom about dating.

DAILEY: Obviously had my phone right next to me…. I'd start getting these ads for dating websites and whatnot.

He’s convinced there’s only one explanation: His phone was eavesdropping.

DAILEY: I didn't think about it at first. I was like, this is a little odd, but I didn't think about it.

A report from advertising company Vibe found that 70% of Americans believe their phone is listening to them. Older generations are overwhelmingly alarmed, and younger generations have given up trying to hide their data.

DAILEY: There’s nothing you can do about it.

Phones offer an assortment of privacy settings. You can block access to the microphone and camera, turn off ad personalization, and disallow inter-app data tracking.

BUDINGTON: But those protections by and large aren't the default.

That’s William Budington, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

BUDINGTON: It requires some active participation in in making sure that you you're actually going and changing those settings, and that isn't how it should be. It should be that your privacy is protected and respected out of the box.

Budington says ad companies have other options besides listening in. They can track your behavior online and your physical location, and tie it all back to you by a unique advertising ID.

BUDINGTON: They say that “oh, this isn't identifiable information. This isn't tied to your identity.” But it's easy to infer who you are.

Your name isn’t on every data point, but companies can form a picture of you as a buyer based on where you live and work, social media posts, and online searches. And it can be surprisingly comprehensive.

BUDINGTON: That's, I think, even scarier in a way. You know, they they don't even have to listen to our conversations to know what we might be looking for next.

But Vibe says sometimes, those seemingly targeted ads are just a psychological illusion. The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, or frequency illusion, is when you think about something and suddenly start seeing it everywhere. You’re not really seeing it more often—you’re just more likely to notice because you were already thinking about it.

The Vibe report found that once customers understood frequency illusion and how ad targeting works without a camera or microphone, they felt more comfortable with it. Some even tried to further customize ads to see more products they wanted. But Budington says that can create a new problem.

BUDINGTON: Even in the case where we're getting ads for products that we might be interested in, these ads that know so much about us might be doing unknowable harm to us…. If you have an addiction or are an alcoholic, then being shown advertisements for alcohol is not going to do you any good.

Hayden Dailey knows about frequency illusion. And he’s still not comfortable with targeted ads.

DAILEY: I can sit here and say, "Oh yeah, it's a good thing that like my phone is just like showing me the ads of stuff that I want,” or whatever. But what's the benefit of that?

Sometimes, he wishes he could just leave his phone behind.

SOUND: [Plane unboxing]

But he says it offers too many benefits—chatting with friends, shopping, and contacting family in emergencies.

DAILEY: Sometimes if I walk outside … I'll just leave my phone inside and just leave it in my room sometimes, and I'll go walk outside and do whatever…. You feel like no one is listening to you—you can kind of speak out more and just say things.

Twenty states have their own comprehensive consumer privacy laws. There’s no federal privacy regulation. House Republicans introduced the SECURE Data Act in April to establish a minimum privacy standard—but experts say the bill is likely to stall, leaving states to make the call on privacy rules.

For WORLD, I’m Lauren Smyth.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.