Just tell me my Pixel 3 isn't always listening and I'll be good (very specific search suggestion)

[PaulQ]

Frist - as a rule, I do not accuse technology of secretly listening to me. I have always written off anyone who says, "Google is listening to my conversations!" as someone who probably typed it in a search, sent an email about it, etc.

However, after years of owning Android phones and Google Homes, I was put into a situation today where I am seriously questioning how Google knew what I wanted to search for on my phone. I mean highly specific, perfectly timed, and offered as a first choice after entering only four letters of a 3 word/number phrase.

My Pixel 3 was on the table during a conversation where this highly specific topic was being repeatedly discussed and I picked up my phone to execute the search in the midst of it.

I am 100% positive I have never entered or spoken this information into a previous search or in any email sent or received. It is so specific!

I can come up with a complex link to an email my husband sent to obtain a quote that was not sent to me, but even if I accepted that slightly frightening fascinating connection, it still doesn't explain why the search suggestion appeared as the first one. Is it some crazy connection between his email, my location at the store and.... errr....it made a lucky guess about what aspect of the product we were talking about? And how does Google decide what info from my husband's email is approrpriate to use?

So, humor me when I ask this...

Is there any configuration where the Pixel 3 would be listening while at rest on a table other than the setting to listen for OK Google (which I have off)? You know... like "for my benefit" to give me such a great experience.

I'll probably just write this off but I am wondering what all of you have to say.

This was the search: flexsteel fabric 912-01

 

[N4Newbie]

I've been wondering about this myself.

I like to watch old movies on TCM (Turner Classic Movies cable channel). Oftentimes while doing so I will reach for my phone to learn more about an actor or other aspect of the movie I am watching and it seems like Google Search already knows what I want to find. I enter an innocuous first word like "robert" and right there at the top of the suggestions is "ryan" who just happens to be the actor I was thinking about.

So, either Google is listening to (and analyzing) background sounds at all times, or it's reading my mind. Either way, not good.

Or, is it?

 

[Ravenwjf]

I had a similar experience, I was out at dinner with friends and we were talking about different TV shows, and we started talking about a new show that I had absolutely no interest in before this moment, never searched for it, never talked about it. Well we started discussing this show and I went to look at my Google Discovery feeds, and there was a feed on this show. Only stuff that I had shown interest in or searched for had showed up there....so, we all were like, is Google listening? It was either that or a very very good and accurate premonition, or like was said before, it could be reading my mind!!

 

[mumfoau]

Not with my Pixel but my Google home had responded to my wife and I having random conversation in the bedroom where it is located.

 

[mustang7757]

I remember reading a article awhile back about this with Google home and suppose to be a update or fix on that .

 

[mustang7757]

I remember reading a article awhile back about this with Google home and suppose to be a update or fix on that .

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...Vaw1tpl2ntEcqF4HJE2F80bRF&cshid=1545665377144

 

[anon(10092459)]

Lol! Well, Google DOES know us all really, really well. People really don't do a lot of different things, we just think we do. Our interests and things we do are fairly finite. Our personal universes just aren't that big. Human behavour is predictable.

 

[HyperM3]

I had a situation like this, wasnt necessarily listening, but clearly reading. I had texted someone that I rotated my tires in my garage out of boredom. No more than a half hour later, my assistant popped up with a "Would you like me to create a reminder in 6 months to rotate your tires?"

This kind of freaked me out.

 

[ptkelly]

I've never had any indication that my Google Home Mini, my Pixel 2, or my Asus chromebook was eavesdropping. When my Pixel 3 arrives in January I'll keep this in mind, though.

Actually, I often thought my ex-wife and the government were eavesdropping.

 

[lcneed]

Go to Settings -> Sound -> Now Playing -> Now Playing History

It is listening... at least to your songs anyway. Maybe other things. Heh.

 

[Mike Dee]

Go to Settings -> Sound -> Now Playing -> Now Playing History

It is listening... at least to your songs anyway. Maybe other things. Heh.

That's only listening and comparing to an internal database on your phone

 

[PaulQ]

Not with my Pixel but my Google home had responded to my wife and I having random conversation in the bedroom where it is located.

I can see a Home picking up conversations because it is always listening for its wake words. Not that I want it to be always listening for other things and Google has told us it's not listening for other things - but I can at least see an opening there.

I don't see that opening on the phone unless it's a "defect" like what happened with those Home Minis over a year ago.

 

[PaulQ]

Go to Settings -> Sound -> Now Playing -> Now Playing History

It is listening... at least to your songs anyway. Maybe other things. Heh.

For the record, I have this turned off too.

 

[lcneed]

That's only listening and comparing to an internal database on your phone

Yes, but it is listening and store history on the device. It also store your GPS locations and speed of movement internally on the device even if you never sign in to a google account on an android phone. I think it was a feature article on the news a week ago. Google was not supposed to access those data on the device as you have never opt in to data collection, but Facebook also said they would not share your data.....

 

[PaulQ]

Lol! Well, Google DOES know us all really, really well. People really don't do a lot of different things, we just think we do. Our interests and things we do are fairly finite. Our personal universes just aren't that big. Human behavour is predictable.

As I said in the beginning of my post, I normally write these things off for exactly that reason.

This was related to buying a couch to replace our 12-year-old one. We hadn't been to any couch stores in probably that long until two weeks ago. We referred to the colors by name (e.g., "ash" and "desert tan") not by number.

To be honest, I am terrible at decorating, furniture, etc. I didn't even know couch colors had codes until we went back to the stores yesterday and we had to find a specific color. That further supports the fact that I didn't search for them. The sales person, my husband, and I were sifting through piles of fabric samples trying to find "912-01" - we repeated that number many times.

And.... you know the rest of the story.

 

[anon(10092459)]

As I said in the beginning of my post, I normally write these things off for exactly that reason.

This was related to buying a couch to replace our 12-year-old one. We hadn't been to any couch stores in probably that long until two weeks ago. We referred to the colors by name (e.g., "ash" and "desert tan") not by number.

To be honest, I am terrible at decorating, furniture, etc. I didn't even know couch colors had codes until we went back to the stores yesterday and we had to find a specific color. That further supports the fact that I didn't search for them. The sales person, my husband, and I were sifting through piles of fabric samples trying to find "912-01" - we repeated that number many times.

And.... you know the rest of the story.

Exactly.

So we know that you and your spouse aren't the only ones to seek out that specific color. I'm sure many people have done exactly as you just did, i.e. humans are predictable. The fact that you'd even been to a furniture store and started a query about flexsteel is something that other people have already done. Other people in your exact same situation have looked up 912-01.

 

[PaulQ]

Exactly.

So we know that you and your spouse aren't the only ones to seek out that specific color. I'm sure many people have done exactly as you just did, i.e. humans are predictable. The fact that you'd even been to a furniture store and started a query about flexsteel is something that other people have already done. Other people in your exact same situation have looked up 912-01.

I agree. But.... there have got to be at least 1,000 different colors/patterns. It only suggested one. The one we were talking about. How did it know? It's crazy.

This doesn't even capture the entire wall. Each one of those can have 1-5 swatches on it.



(yes, this is my nightmare)

 

[anon(10092459)]

I agree. But.... there have got to be at least 1,000 different colors/patterns. It only suggested one. The one we were talking about. How did it know? It's crazy.

This doesn't even capture the entire wall. Each one of those can have 1-5 swatches on it.


(yes, this is my nightmare)

First of all, that IS quite the nightmare, bless you for working through it all. But not all of those swatches are from flexsteel, matter of fact most aren't so it looks like a bigger query than what it really is...

So, here's what I mean about people are predictable... I haven't been to a funiture store, as you have, or even heard of flexsteel until your post. But when I went to search it, look what pops up in my choices after just the first five letters... That's because of other people's interest like yours, and the chances that mine are the same ...

 

[Mike Dee]

Yes, but it is listening and store history on the device. It also store your GPS locations and speed of movement internally on the device even if you never sign in to a google account on an android phone. I think it was a feature article on the news a week ago. Google was not supposed to access those data on the device as you have never opt in to data collection, but Facebook also said they would not share your data.....

I have not one worry

 

[anon(10274434)]

I have not one worry

I'm with you Mike. Hell, I wish at my age I could do things to worry about. Memories...