On a recent Sunday I decided to have a snack. I filled a bowl with hint-of-lime tortilla chips and sat down in front of my computer. As I popped a chip in my mouth, I navigated to a site about vintage books. As is usual these days, an ad popped up. Here’s where it got spooky: It was for hint-of-lime-with-sea-salt tortilla chips.
At first I thought, what a strange coincidence. Like all internet users, I am accustomed to the creepy feeling of seeing ads pop up for items I’ve searched for on other sites. But I hadn’t searched for these chips. I found them in the grocery store and then stored them in my pantry. So, coincidence, right?
I’m not sure anymore. See, the thing that makes conspiracy theories so compelling is not only that they often contain multiple threads of truth, but some of them turn out to be true! Intelligence agencies usually feature. Like the one where the CIA was doing mind-control experiments with LSD. Or the Gulf of Tonkin explosion that never occurred.
What about one of those most oft-repeated conspiracy theories — that the government listens in on its citizens? This may still sound like classic paranoia, but as technology has advanced, it has become reality. Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency, under a program called MYSTIC and a sub-program called SOMALGET, records nearly all phone calls on mobile phone networks.
Siri, the Apple “assistant,” listens to everything you say, even if you’re not actively using it.
This data is stored and is accessible by Apple, though after a 2019 brouhaha the company said it would longer actively listen to these recorded conversations. But the whistleblower in that case claims Apple hasn’t changed its practices.
Getting back to my tortilla chips: The brand in the ad wasn’t the same as the one I bought, and my laptop doesn’t have Siri. So maybe it really was a coincidence. The other possibility is that my grocery store is sharing my buying habits with a marketing company that can geo-localize my laptop. Sounds nuts, right? Maybe, just nuts enough to be true.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
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