Targeted advertising on social media is so incredibly effective that people have long believed that their apps are secretly recording their conversations. It’s not true… and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri posted a “myth-busting video”. Wednesday to meet the myth head on.
Mosseri says so Instagram is listening To you this would be a “severe invasion of privacy” and you would notice this as it would drain your battery significantly and the microphone notification would appear on your phone. (It is also prohibited by Federal Wiretapping Act and under various state laws).
Instead, Instagram’s CEO cites a number of reasons, including “pure coincidence” that makes it seem like ads appearing on the social media app come directly from your private conversations:
Instagram and other social media apps don’t need to listen to your conversations: they already know every move you make in the apps, what you click, and which profiles you interact with. This does not take into account advertisers or data brokers who already have your data. Also, Instagram knows everything about you and your Likes from your Facebook and threads accounts, as they are all owned by Meta.
In most cases, we share our information voluntarily by agreeing to use platforms that clearly indicate that they track our behavior while using those platforms. Your patterns, interests and interactions are processed and ads are presented to you with astonishing accuracy. There is no reason to listen.
