Is your phone really listening to you? An expert explains why some ads seem somewhat coincidental!

But rest assured, it's not because your phone is listening to you - in fact, it doesn't need to, it's already getting more than enough information from you.

The same happened to Robert J. Reeve, who shared on Twitter why he received toothpaste ads on Instagram.

The privacy technology expert explained how he started receiving specific ads for a brand of toothpaste he used at his mother's house after he stayed there for a week, despite not talking about or searching for that brand on Google.

He claims that all our smartphone apps collect a huge amount of data from our phones that data aggregators pay to pull from everywhere.

This means that things like our location, demographics, unique device identifier and discount code that we use in a store, for example, is a dataset for sale.

Everything we buy or subscribe to is then linked to your agreement to account for all data sharing in the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

But if your phone is regularly located in the same GPS location as another phone, the data aggregators take that into account.

Then, they start to rebuild the network of people you communicate with regularly and advertisers can look back at your interests, purchase and browsing history with those around you.

Basically - it starts showing you different ads based on the people around you, like your family, friends and even co-workers. The logic behind this is that it will serve you ads for things you don't necessarily want, but only because it knows someone you communicate with regularly who might want it.

This could then spark a conversation about that product - for example in the case of Robert's toothpaste.

So, in fact what we unconsciously give our phones is cheaper and more powerful.

Instead of "listening in" to us on social media apps - which Robert claims is a "conspiracy theory" that has been "debunked over and over again" - it just compares aggregated metadata.

Apple's iOS 14 feature lets you know each time the microphone or camera is turned on.

When your phone's microphone was recently accessed, a small orange dot appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. And if your camera is recording, this will be green instead.

And if you want to make sure your apps can't listen to you, open the Settings app and tap Privacy.

Once there, tap Microphone or Camera and turn off the toggle for any apps you don't use your camera or microphone for.

And if you change your mind and want to re-authorize, just follow the same steps with swapping keys.

And for Android users, you can follow the same steps in your Settings by tapping on Personal, Privacy & Security, then on App Permissions.