If they listen to my phone their ears must hurt. Around one to a few guys and I have a dirty mouth.

I wonder sometimes if ads are popping up all the time that I just don't normally notice until I see the thing (eg the chairs) and then when I see them on FB I notice??

I have a few friends that claim same happens after they just talked about a product recently.

For me, I have a Yahoo email address I rarely use. When checking, I go thru the Yahoo home page.......A large percentage of their news headlines are:

1) Porsche 911
2) Formula I drama
3) Anti Trump......

Maybe that's it. We see what we want to see.

And maybe we want to believe that automation is not doing what it seems to be doing. ;)

That may be literal..

A person I knew recently passed away from jaw cancer.
Supposedly holding the cell phone directly on the skin raises the radiation exposure to 10 times 'safe' levels.

Having even a slight air gap makes a difference.
(and with some people, you can just set it down and pick up the conversation ten minutes later)

So many clueless paranoid wingnuts here.
No, they are not targeting ads by spying.
Jesus F'ing Christ.

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/12/28/18158968/facebook-microphone-tapping-recording-instagram-ads

Don't be ridiculous, of course phone apps spy - well 'spy' may be too strong of a word being that "collecting data" is what EULA's call it.

The only Question is to what degree?

No need to spazz about and call people wing-nuts.

I listened to an interview on NPR about the subject of targeted ads and selling data. Google is bad about collecting and selling data about you, and Google Chrome is the worst browser as far as collecting cookies and selling your browsing habits. The guy did an experiment and switched from Chrome to Firefox and the number of cookies that were allowed in and the number of targeted ads dropped significantly. If you use gmail your emails are scanned for key words and the data is sold.

If you enable the “Hey Siri” functionality your phone is quite literally always listening to you. What it does with the data is another discussion altogether.

I do keep "location services" disabled on my phome and JS is disabled. My dumbazz phone becomes "smarter".... only if I let it....to some degree....YMMV.

I sold my soul to Gmailhell before most of you even knew it existed....live & learn :(.

Same happened to me about a year ago. Really freaked me out. Then I starting noticing it more often. Items that I had recently talked about with people would appear as ads on my facebook newsfeed shortly after.

These devices/apps are listening to what we say. When you click yes to the permissions when installing apps, often times you are giving the software free roam of your device with access to contacts, photos, microphone, camera, etc.

Why I'm highly selective what I put and do on my phone.

We never mentioned the cauldrons by name. Must be location based.

Now I'm trying to get the add to pop up again, and see if I can really buy for $128. I think it's fake.

A while back I did a little experiment with Gmail. My wife and I would sent mock emails back and forth between us, using random key words, such as "thinking about buying a new Cadillac, need a new LG flatscreen" etc...

Sure enough, almost instantaneously, the specified ads would appear on the side. Google really does mine for keywords and uses it.

By selling targeted ads based on the words you type.
Same with Google and Gmail.
This is common knowledge.

I'd rather get ads about my interests than about maxi pads

If you want to educate yourself, you should listen to this
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/z3hlwr

is Facebook eavesdropping on my conversations and showing me ads based on the things that I say? This week, Alex investigates.
NOVEMBER 2, 2017

#109 Is Facebook Spying on You?
by REPLY ALL

I expect that ^this is classic reforming the question (narrowly) to claim it false - and by extension imply all similar claims as false.

BTW, the OP was talking bout LOCATION and a unique product at that location. (not eavesdropping on conversations)