this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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Privacy
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I and everyone I know have similar stories. They are listening
Just think about the scale of the surveillance: every smartphone user is being monitored 24/7 in hope to find something to sell them.
If you hate AI because it wastes so much energy, think about the cost for the this: Energy, water, battery life, bandwidth, ... And in contrast to AI the 'users' don't get anything in return.
Just another reason they want to build even more data centers!
I worry that you're making AI out as the good option, but really they are both awful, AI is simply less mature. There hasn't yet been time to inject ads into generated responses (but it's coming), and the users don't yet feel the surveillance of each of their prompts.
And are you saying users don't get any functionality from their smartphones? I find my smartphone more helpful than an LLM that spits out statistically likely responses while destroying our water, air, and electricity prices; stealing intellectual property from small artists who can't fight back; and removing the humanity in peoples' interactions.
AI capacity isn’t being built to serve users. It’s being used to profile their histories, to unmask their anonymity online so their profiles can be made more accurate.
Why do you think they want everything stored in the cloud? For convenience?
No, I am not a AI fanboy. I just compared bad to worse.
Of course users get something from their smartphones, but not from the spyware on it. The spyware is not an integral function of a smartphone.
Conformation bias. You think of something and you see more of it. You don't realize the 1000's of other times you have seen that. Do you honestly remember every add you ever see? No but when you have thought about something you are more likely to see more of it. Or do people purchase more or your colour or type of car after you get it? Or is the fact you see more of them more likely because you are now "looking" for them.
Exactly, you see thousands of irrelevant ads every day and think nothing of it, then when 1 time an ad gets lucky, you will use it as proof "they are listening" forever after.
I had the same thing happen with billboards. I learned about some new thing I have never heard about before, and wouldn't you know it shortly after I saw a billboard selling it. The ad companies must be on top of their game, they are nor only listening to everything I say, they can print and install a whole billboard on the side of a building within minutes just before I go here.