It’s worth noting that YouTube, like many other online platforms, collects user data to improve its services and for advertising purposes. This is usually stated in their privacy policies and terms of service agreements, which users have to agree to before using the platform.
When you use YouTube, the platform collects various types of data, including your watch history, search queries, device information, location data, and more. This data is then used to personalize your recommendations, show you targeted ads, and improve the platform’s overall performance.
While this may sound like YouTube is spying on its users, it’s important to remember that this data collection is not unique to YouTube. Many other online platforms, including social media sites and search engines, also collect user data in a similar way.
But yet again, the theory might not always add up with how things really apply when it comes to the practical world.
Does Google know everything?
You might be speaking to a friend about ways to overcome insomnia, and when you want to google it, the whole phrase appears in the search recommendation area as soon as you type “ways to.” If something like that hasn’t happened to you yet, it has certainly happened to at least one of your friends.
The mystery of how our favorite apps deliver on-point ads based on things we never searched for or clicked on has sparked conspiracy theories that they are secretly listening to and recording our conversations through smartphone microphones. However, a study by researchers from Northeastern University that Fudo Security writes about found no evidence of unconsented microphone recordings.
The truth is these apps already have massive amounts of information on us, from contacts to internet searches and downloads, enabling their algorithms to track our every move and serve relevant ads through conventional means. While it’s unknown if these companies are recording us, it would be legally risky and costly to do so when they already have all the data they need.
So, instead of asking if our phones are secretly recording us, the question should be whether it even matters how these companies got our information if they already know everything about us.