Is your phone really listening to you? A marketing insider explains
By Emma Coochin — 2026-04-06
This article first appeared in the April 2026 CCBG Telegraph.
You've had this conversation. I know you have, because I've had it at least twenty times in the past few months alone.
Someone pulls out their phone, frowns at it, and says, "I swear it's listening to me. I was just talking about buying new tyres, and now every ad on my phone is for Bridgestone."
Their mate nods knowingly. "It's the microphone. Facebook's listening through your phone."
I usually smile and say nothing. But today I'm going to say something, because I've spent my career in marketing and communications, and I've been the person on the other side of that ad. I've sat in the strategy sessions where we decide who sees what, when, and why. I've built the campaigns that follow you around the internet after you look at a pair of boots or your dream car.
So let me pull back the curtain.
Your phone probably isn't listening. The truth is more interesting.
Every time you search for something on Google, like a post on Instagram, click a link in an email, browse a website, or tap "Accept All" on a cookie pop-up (be honest, we all do it), you leave a trail… a digital breadcrumb.
Companies like Meta (that's Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) and Google collect those breadcrumbs. Not one at a time, all of them, all at once, across everything you do online. They build a profile of you that includes your approximate age, location, interests, income bracket, relationship status, what you've bought recently, and what you're likely to buy next.
This is why the ad for that camping chair you googled once follows you around for three weeks. It's not a coincidence, it's a system, and it's very good at its job.
And it goes beyond what you search for. Your phone tracks your location throughout the day (unless you've turned it off, which most people haven't). So the platforms know where you shop, how long you spend there, whether you visited a competitor first, and how far you drove to get there. They know if you went to Mitre 10 on Saturday morning and the pub on Saturday night. They know your routine better than your best mate does, because your best mate isn't checking in on you every four minutes as your device does.
But I only talked about it. I didn't search for it.
Right. This is the bit that really unsettles people, and fair enough. Say you mentioned dog food to your partner over breakfast. An hour later, there's a dog food ad on your Facebook feed. Creepy, right? Must be the microphone. Probably not, but maybe.
Here's what more likely happened. You liked three posts about dogs on Instagram last week. You searched for the Clermont vet's phone number a month ago. Your partner ordered dog treats online using the same home wifi network. One of you has a loyalty card at a pet shop that shares purchase data with advertising platforms.
Side note: the pet shop probably doesn't know they're sharing your data because they are as in the dark as you are about data privacy.
Anyway, the algorithm didn't hear you; it predicted you and connected dozens of tiny signals and behaviour patterns from across your digital life and worked out what you were going to need before you even said it out loud. That's not a bug in the system; it's the whole point of it.
OK, so why should I care?
Here's the bit that most people don't think about. Facebook is free. Instagram is free. Google Search is free. Gmail is free. WhatsApp is free.
But running these platforms costs billions of dollars a year. The servers, the engineers, the infrastructure. Someone's paying for it. And if you're not handing over money, you're handing over something else far more valuable. Your attention, your habits, your preferences and your data. You are the product, and advertisers are the customers.
Now, I want to be upfront about something: this system isn't entirely evil. As a marketing professional, I use targeted advertising to help small businesses reach the right people without burning through massive budgets. A local tradie in Clermont can run a Facebook ad that only shows to homeowners within 100 kilometres who've recently searched for renovation ideas. That's genuinely useful, don't you think? Twenty years ago, the same tradie would've had to take out a full-page newspaper ad and hope for the best.
Targeted advertising has made it possible for small regional businesses to compete with companies ten times their size. That part, I actually believe in. But there's a difference between a system you understand and choose to participate in, and one that operates in the background without you realising it.
So we stopped handing it over
My partner Steve is the Technical Director at Clermont Digital, and he's been in software and systems for over two decades. Between his technical knowledge and my marketing background, we understand exactly how data collection works across platforms. We know what's being tracked, how it's packaged, and who it's sold to.
A few years ago, we made a decision and switched our personal messaging to Signal.
It wasn't a dramatic moment. There was no breach or scandal that tipped us over the edge. We just knew about how these platforms operate, and asked ourselves a simple question: if we wouldn't hand this information to a stranger at the pub, why are we handing it to corporations that profit from selling it?
Signal is a free messaging app, similar to WhatsApp in how it looks and works. The difference is that Signal uses end-to-end encryption (meaning only you and the person you're talking to can read the messages), and it doesn't collect or store your data. No advertising profiles, no data harvesting, and no reading your messages to serve you ads. The app is run by a non-profit foundation, not an advertising company, which changes the incentive structure entirely.
WhatsApp is also encrypted, but it's owned by Meta. The message content may be encrypted, but Meta still collects metadata: like who you talk to, when and how often, plus your location, your contacts, and your device information. That metadata is incredibly valuable for building advertising profiles.
We didn't switch because we have anything to hide. We switched because we understand the value of what's being collected, and we decided we'd rather keep it to ourselves.
Think of it like closing your curtains at night. You're not doing anything wrong in your living room, but you don't necessarily think the neighbours need to watch either.
What you can do (without going full tinfoil hat)
You don't need to delete all your apps and move off-grid. (Although Steve and I are off-grid, but that was more about saving on bills and living on a lovely un-powered property than data privacy.) There are a few small things you can do right now that will make a noticeable difference to your online presence.
Check what Google knows about you. Go to myactivity.google.com on your phone or computer. Have a scroll, it'll probably be an eye-opener. You can pause or delete your activity history from there.
Check what Meta knows about you. In Facebook, click Settings and Privacy, then Settings, then Accounts Centre, then "Your information and permissions," then "Your activity off Meta technologies." This shows you which apps and websites have been sharing your data with Meta. You can clear this history and disconnect future tracking from there.
Review your app permissions. On your phone, go to Settings and look at which apps have access to your location, microphone, contacts, and camera. You'll probably find a few that don't need the access they've been given. This takes about five minutes.
Try Signal. Download it on phone, computer or both, set it up, and you're off. It's free, it works on iPhone and Android, and it does group chats, voice calls, and video calls. You don't need to delete WhatsApp or Messenger. Just start using Signal for the conversations you'd rather keep between you and the other person. Here's the Signal link if you'd like to learn more.
Read the pop-ups before you tap "Accept All." Most websites now show you a cookie consent banner. Instead of dismissing it, take two seconds to tap "Manage Preferences" or "Reject Non-Essential." It's a small habit that adds up.
Switch your default browser for personal browsing. Browsers like Brave or Firefox block trackers automatically without you needing to configure anything. You can keep Chrome for work and use one of these for everything personal. It takes about thirty seconds to install, and it immediately reduces how much of your browsing data gets collected.
The point isn't paranoia. It's awareness.
I'm not here to tell you to quit Facebook or throw your phone in the bin. Social media and digital platforms are genuinely useful tools, especially for people in regional areas where connection matters. I use them every day for work, and Steve builds with them.
But I think you deserve to know how the system works. When you understand that your data has real value, you can make informed choices about where you share it and with whom. Some of you will read this and change nothing, and that's completely fine. Some of you will check your Google activity history tonight and get a bit of a shock. And some of you might download Signal and start a conversation that no one else can read. All of those responses are valid. The only wrong move is not knowing you had a choice in the first place.