We've all been there - your phone is in your pocket, you're chatting to your girlfriend about a band you saw in Galway in 2004 and suddenly you're seeing this group's upcoming gigs being advertised and suggested for you. It's unsettling, right?
The theory is popular, with many convinved that some ominious person is listening in on private conversations while our phones are nearby.
Well, phones are not listening to users, according to Apple.
But, apps still could be.
Apple have been speaking about the theory that technology products use their microphones to spy on their owners and it's constantly suggested that data is being collected for relavent ads.
The response from the company comes after US lawmakers examined how technology companies collect info on their users.
Responding to a letter sent by leaders of the House's Energy and Commerce Committee seeking answers on how the tech giant safeguards privacy, Apple said they purposely designs their products to collect as little data as possible on their users.
In the letter, Timothy Powderly, director of federal government affairs at Apple, said "The customer is not our product, and our business model does not depend on collecting vast amounts of personally identifiable information to enrich targeted profiles marketed to advertisers."
The company have said they would not allow a third party app, (like Facebook or Instagram), to listen in to their users, but added that it is unable to monitor what developers do with the data that they collect.
The US lawmakers got in touch with some of the biggest tech firms to ask if they had ever listened into their users, also questioning what was done with any data that was collected by their voice assistants.
