These days it seems like every Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube ad is getting too personal. Ever thought your TikTok ‘For You Page’ was a little too for you? You’re not alone in this sentiment.
It’s no secret that the algorithms of social media and streaming services have been specifically tailored to our own personal taste. What gets tricky is when you swear you didn’t look up something and merely just thought about it or had a conversation with a friend about it, yet you see an ad for it not even 10 minutes later.
How much are you willing to bet that your phone is spying on you? And if you believe that it is, how willing are you to listen to its suggestions? That was the question TransImpact posed to 1,000 people. Over 63% of people said that they believe their devices are spying on them.
When it comes to targeted ads and suggestions, over half of people in the survey say that it bothers them when they get targeted ads from products that they’ve searched. Over 44% even said that they rarely buy items from targeted ads. Even when it comes to suggested watches on streaming services, people aren’t buying in. 42% of people said they only sometimes watch titles from Netflix’s recommendation list.
So it sounds like we as consumers are admitting we believe that our phones are spying on us. However, it seems like we still hold the power! As long as we don’t start giving into the recommendations, we may still be a little comfortable with our tech eavesdropping.
