Phones abaolutely do listen, but not to audio via the mic. When Apple and Google tell you they respect your privacy, they mean they don't harvest data directly from a live feed of the mic nor camera; they still scan your files in some cases, and they harvest your browsing history, and read your text messages metadata, and check your youtube watch history, and scan your contacts, and check your location, and harvest hundreds of other litttle tiny data points that don't seem like much but add up to a big profile of you and your behavior and psyche.

So your friend was at a pub quiz with a couple dozen other people, and his phone knew where he was and who was nearby. A statistically significant portion of the people there were not privacy conscious and googled "Lord of the Rings runtime" or something similar. All that data got harvested by Google and Apple, and processed, and then the most recent and fitting entry from some master list of customers' sites' articles was pushed to all their newsfeeds.

Humans don't understand intuitively how much information is being processed through nonverbal means at any given time, and that's the disconnect large companies exploit when they say misleading things like "noooo, your phone isn't listening to you."

But it's totally not privacy invasive, because at no point along the line did a human view your data (/s)

Please charge your phone

Phones listen but not on the way you think, I'd say they just listen for keywords the same way it listens for "hey Google" also who knows maybe he searched it beforehand or is a fan

Phones are spyware by definition

Other folks in the area searched it, and bluetooth nearby as well as wifi tracking put them all in the same place. Same as old mate with the Spanish comment, he was hanging around in an area with folks who regularly look at stuff in Spanish.

What you think might be spontaneous isn't.

I'm an Android/Google/Pixel person. I have a Google Home speaker at work (self-employed barber/stylist) and was playing old classic country music a few weeks ago. My client mentioned that her husband's favorite artist is Porter Wagoner and his favorite song is Cold Hard Facts Of Life. Well, guess what the very next song was? And now, ever since then, I've been inundated with that song. It plays constantly.

Phones absolutely listen. But they probably process the speech locally, unless there’s a trigger word flagged, and send mostly text.

But then it was found Google would upload the audio when a zipper sound was heard, so who knows how often your triggering spy conditions.

If you think your Apple phone isn't listening to you, I have some seaside real estate I'd like to sell you in Montana.

wasn't there a thing recently where it became clear they do listen?

yes, they listen to everything

I am convinced they do listen. I have had 2 instances og this. Once I was talking with my mom about some new bedsheets and covers. She later went to the store and sent me a picture to see if it's okay. I later got an add for the exact same bedsheets and covers.

Had another similar thing when I got an add for some stuff we were just talking about with some people. Cannot remember what specifically.

No no, they listen. How do you think the "Hey Google" feature works? It has to listen for the key phrase. Might as well just listen to everything else.

I spent some time with a friend and his mother and spoke in Spanish for about two hours while YouTube was playing music. I had Spanish ads for 2 weeks after that.