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March 10, 2017

Does the iPhone Bluetooth Blab?

I was talking to my daughter this morning and she brought up a troubling subject. She stated that she was puzzled by something that her iPhone Bluetooth app may be doing. Recently she was talking with her roommates about a subject, overweight males, and a little bit later she starting receiving ads in her favorite apps for swim suits (a product named Chubbies?). She had her iPhone Bluetooth adapter on as she uses it to send music to her Bluetooth speakers.

Same thing happened when she was talking about switching her cell phone provider, she started getting ads about different cell phone service plans. Then one of her roommates got ads about Brooklyn hair salons ... this a few hours after  she was talking about looking for a different salon, in Brooklyn. They both use ATT cellular service on their iPhones.

My daughter used AirDrop to send images, etc., to her work phone or her computer. She kept it on all the time. Once she stopped the Bluetooth adapter until she needed it, the ads stopped. Coinky-dink?

Does any one have any information on this?
Are cellular service companies doing something illegal or is this part of the tiny, tiny script that you don't read in your service agreement?

This is why I refuse to have an Amazon Echo or anything like it in the house. It is just another way for someone to listen in on your life.

6 comments:

LL said...

That's troubling but it's not surprising.

sig94 said...

LL - I'll say. Other than our cell phones we don't have any smart appliances/devices in our home. Our Bluetooth is turned off except in the car when we play music.

Doom said...

They don't need bluetooth in your car. Do you still have friends in the force who you could get to tell you things straight? They have listening devices. Thank NSA and other for handing those out like candy to police forces around the country.

I think you would be surprised what they are putting bluetooth in now. And mics. It's not how it was.

LindaG said...

I'm pretty sure that is what they call targeted advertising. Online, it's based on what you look at.
The bluetooth probably works the same way. Certain words or phrases trigger the ads while it is on.

As I heard someone say recently, nothing is private any more.

Good you for not using those services that do what people could do themselves.

The only time we use wifi is when we are traveling so the driver can receive calls without actually using a cell phone.

Be safe and have a blessed weekend.

sig94 said...

Doom - I used to buy this stuff for the special investigations guys. There are so many different ways to listen into conversations now, it is literally impossible to prevent eavesdropping on any electronic communications save you buy an expensive encrypted set up. And even that is no guarantee. Since I am not a criminal, I'm not worried about it... unless certain kinds of behavior suddenly are illegal, like going to church. Then we go underground, like the Soviet Union churches prior to 1991.

sig94 said...

LindaG - oh yes, there are ways for targeted ads technology to find out what interests you. Even while you are driving.