And the true or not Google or other apps listening then you see ads based on that conversation. I think it's true since far too many times obscure things I've spoken about appear in ads soon after the conversation. So yes I'd say a mic blocking feature you can confirm is working, blocking, is needed.

Recommendation engines work on vast amounts of data they have on you and whatever made you speak about thing X was likely preceded by your internet activity which is not very unique as a precursor to speaking about X. In other words, if other people do Y on the internet and then end up doing stuff related to X, the recommendation engine will show you X just because you also did Y.

The other explanation is one of your contacts who were part of the conversation did things that either directly related to thing X, which you spoke about, or something the algorithm see other people do that relates to X, and you got shown ads based on your affiliation to this person.

I've also worked at FAANG and never seen proof to such claims anywhere in the code, and with the amount of people working there who care about these issues deeply I'd expect this to leak by now, if this happens but is siloed...

> I think it's true since far too many times obscure things I've spoken about appear in ads soon after the conversation

People have been making claims like this since at least the early 90s, about TV then, and no one ever credibly claims to have worked on something like this. I've worked with purchased ad data and I've never seen this data or anything that implies that it exists. It seems far more likely that its a trick of memory. You ignore most ads you see, but you remember ones that relate to odd topics that interest you.

Reminds me of the chrome bug I filed years ago that is still unfixed. An extension with access to all browsing tabs can open a hidden iframe to a website that commonly would have mic and camera permission (like hangouts.google.com), and then inject its own JavaScript into that hidden iframe to capture mic or camera.

For this to work hangouts.google.com had to not include the HTTP header to block iframing but thankfully if you make up a URL the 404 page served on that domain does not include that http header.

Just a personal anecdote: I don't have a dog, but my grandma has two. Once, while visiting her, the dogs were barking a lot. Almost immediately I started receiving ads for dog food in my cellphone.