your coworker might've looked up things related to the conversation, and the ad provider figured out that you two are in the same social circle. so far I haven't seen any actual research that would prove that ads are tailored based on microphone recordings (and actually seen the results stating the opposite a few years ago), just a bunch of anecdotal stories.

Every single example of this happening is anecdotal. The people who tried to properly investigate this have not found it to be true. If you find a video of an actual serious research who proves this is true then I'll admit that I'm wrong. Otherwise these types of posts are useless

It's scary how accurate they can predict you with what data they have; they don't need to tap your microphone.

You're on a OnePlus; there's always a status bar icon if the microphone is active.

Think of what led to your conversation? Everything related to it you saw or searched online that could've later triggered you to talk about the subject, could also trigger them to serve you ads about it later. Perhaps your friend was the one, and the ad companies have linked you together, ie. by tracking your location and contacts.

And now you've noticed the adverts, you'll notice them much more, where you'd normally ignore them completely. Furthermore, if you noticed these ads, you might've clicked them or stopped scrolling and stared at them too long in a wtf moment and now the ad companies know, so they'll serve you a whole lot more of the same.

The amount of battery used and data that your phone would be sending if it was constantly recording and sending the data to Google would be very obvious

Its more likely that Google and Co have just profiled you really well and or you searched for that specific topic before. Or that topic was an ad that you clicked on in the past or that you slowed down when scrolling to look at

Newer android version notify you in the top right when your microphone is active and you should also be able to see when the last time, down to the minute, that any app accessed the mic in settings

The thing with tailored ads is, you’re more predictable than you think you are. Source: am a data scientist (not in advertisement).

It's more likely that ad networks are showing you ads based on the other person being in vicinity and having things in common. I don't think voice snooping is the main cause here

I have 0 apps allowed microphone access all the time.

There is no evidence that phones are snooping on people, but I would say even if unlikely it's a reasonable concern given what companies do get up to.

However it is more likely the ads were being served because of all the other data you're allowing Google to scrape from you all the time rather than the phone mic.

Rather than focusing on the microphone, look at the bigger picture of how your data is being pillaged by Google all the time.

For me, I switched away from Gmail, stopped using their search engine, use Firefox and not Chrome, and don't use their other services where possible. I have android on my phone and use Google maps and Google home. It's still a huge problem but I use that part of the ecosystem for convenience and no other. Similarly on PC I don't use Google for anything where I can avoid it, use Firefox containers to keep Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta data as separate as possible, plus I use Linux and VPN as needed, and lots of privacy extensions in Firefox.

It's possible to minimise your data exposure to the big tech companies, but difficult to severe completely. You could go even further and switch from android to Graphene OS (I have seriously considered this).

I would go by the principle of compartmentalising your data as much as possible and limiting access to snooping eyes. The transition can be hard but once you've done it you get used to using disparate unnonnected services. Like I really don't need or benefit from my email data being connected to my data storage or my search engine; it's a false convenience that benefitted Google only.

me and a coworker tried an experiment almost ten years ago where we would whisper "breast milk pump" into a phone that had it's screen locked and everything. About two weeks later started seeing ads for expecting mothers, we are both dudes...

I had a friend that was convinced that facebook was listening because she was talking about some ice cream and later got an ad for said ice cream.

Well, of fucking course you got an ad for ice cream. It's fucking summer, you will get ads for ice cream in the summer.

Before caller ID people were SURE they were psychic because 'I was just thinking about them and they phoned'

The reality is the odds of things like that never happening are far more unlikely than it happening occasionally

I bet using an adblock would make it much more difficult for your phone to call home. Try adaway

I don't see on the provided screenshot any apps that shouldn't have the mic access. You can certainly deny it and break some apps functionality but you'll be "safe from ads"

did you or some of the people in your inner circle google whatever you talked about? that is also another way it would have come up in your ads.

Just get a Pixel and flash GrapheneOS.

I didn't know there was a such thing as FUTO Voice Input. It's really good. Shame the "Open" nature of Google Android was rejected by Google Keyboard and other Google things...

Were both of you connected to the same network at the time you had the conversation? It’s possible your coworker had a lot of search/browsing history of what you were talking about and whoever is pushing the ads figured out you’re likely related to them by way of location/vicinity. I don’t think android is actively listening to your every conversation.

I've never had this happen to me but I am always on a a Degoogled version of Android such as GrapheneOS, DivestOS or /e/ OS.

pinephone has hardware killswitch. but that cant protect you from other devices like other ppl phones.