We all have had the experience of having ads in our Facebook feed that appear to based on conversations we’ve had. It doesn’t surprise me that my smartphone is likely listening to me. It is a little creepy when my landline seems to be in on the conversation.
A couple of months ago my wife said she was going to Giant because they had a couple of things we needed on sale. While she was gone our landline rang. The caller ID said it was Giant Food and had a local area code. I immediately thought something bad had happened to my wife and they were calling to inform me. I leapt off the couch and ran to the phone, heart pounding. It was spam call that just happened to be using the place she was on caller ID.
Recently, we were watching Cobra Kai. In the episode, Daniel was tracking his daughter’s location on Find My iPhone. He sees where she is and says “Reseda? Why would she be in Reseda?” Soon after that scene our landline rang. The caller ID said the call was coming from Reseda. Not quite as weird as the first story, but still a little odd.
We only have the landline because it comes with our Verizon package with our TV and Internet. Also, it’s the number my mother in law calls every Sunday. Are our Verizon devices listening? Is there some weird Verizon thing that pipes our conversations to some place that uses that for spam calls to the landline? Or are these just two weird coincidences? Has anyone else had this happen with a landline? Does anyone else even have a landline anymore?
The World's Common Tater 
That’s creepy and yes, it happens to us too. Makes me very uncomfortable.
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You know I love a good conspiracy theory…
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Creepy. I don’t have a landline any longer and haven’t for years. I will need a landline when I move out to “the country” in February because cell service is nil. I can sometimes get calls on my cell phone, but the call usually gets dropped. Texting and WiFi are fine.
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I didn’t realize you had a move to the country coming
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It’s a very recent thing. Since I stopped working part-time, I’ve been feeling the pinch. I can eliminate and/or reduce a lot of expenses by moving into the guest cottage on my sister’s property out in Linden. I’m hoping to alleviate some of the stress and anxiety I’ve been living with.
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Not had the landline thing but my iPhone – all the time. I’ve had conversations with my wife about holidays and not done any research into them before seeing ads about that destination pop up on my social media channels. Even random conversations with friends have seemingly effected the ads on my media channels. It definitely feels like an invasion of privacy. It’s very hard to believe it’s a coincidence…
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Yeah. I’ve definitely had verbal conversations I’ve had pop up in ad form on my iPhone. Now way that is a coincidence
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