Airplane Mode

[Taem]

So I'm curious what you guys think Airplane Mode does, and how it works. Reading this site, it explains it as the following:

There are sometimes slight differences between devices in what Airplane Mode does, but the main thing it always does is disconnect your cellular voice and data connection.

Quick information share: I hate Windows 10 automatic updates, literally loathe them, so with my phone, whenever I get a notification to commence with an updated download, I immediately put my phone into Airplane Mode, then ensure my wifi and Bluetooth are both shut off so I can let my phone update when I'm not doing anything, preferably when I go to bed.

What I find very bizarre is the last three (3) times I've done this, I come back from whatever I'm doing to find my phone has already updated... Keep in mind I never hit the "CONTINUE" button to download the update, and am disconnected from cellular data, wifi, and Bluetooth in all three of these instances. The first time this happened, I tried to figure out how it occurred after doing more than a week doing research and came up with nothing... I won't count the first time because I can't be 100% certain I was completely "off the grid" in terms of data connection, but the next three times, I am absolutely 100% certain. The next three times I got the notification for an update to download, I made sure I was bereft of data connections, and yet each time my phone managed to download the update without my consent and supposedly without a connection. Does anybody have any idea what's going on here? Is there something in the TOS agreement on cell phones that says during an update, your phone will use whatever methods are available rather you've disabled them or not, rather you consent or not or receive an update? Are there any cell phones on the market nowadays that legitimately don't allow data? I find it very odd...

[Taem]

One other curious anomaly IDK if any of you are aware of, but there have been numerous times I have seen my microphone pickup what I'm talking about on my cell phone, then witness custom tailored ads or content based around what I'm talking about. I heard of these stories before and watch YouTube videos showing it happen in real time, but it's always hard to believe what you read on the internet so I took it with a grain of salt. Then, using the app TopBuzz (or BuzzFeed), I noticed while talking about my Jack Russell Terriers that I started seeing a ton of videos showing dogs, and specifically JRT's, and if that weren't strange in and of itself, my ads were showing pet store-type goods with a JRT as the main face of the ad.

I don't consider myself a paranoid type, and I don't do anything illegal so I'm not exactly fearful for what I do or say, but I do expect some level of privacy! These things I'm telling you, I don't use my phone to do web searches because it pisses me off smashing my finger on a tiny screen and jumping between multiple tabs on a phone so I do most of my searching on my computer and have never researched JRT before on my phone. In regards to the app, sure enough, it had permission to use the microphone and camera, so I removed ALL permissions. It didn't matter, I got adds once again for what I was talking about; my gf was looking into being a surrogate, and I started getting ads on BuzzFeed for surrogate related stuff, and videos showing pregnancy and child related things. I understand the possibility of clicking videos like this because of what you're thinking at the time and suddenly, you are inundated with this type of feed, but this is not the case I assure you. It was her interest, not mine, and I don't click on videos like that because they simply don't interest me. I have several more examples but I'll stop there.

So, tying this in with my original post, I feel, although I could be mistaken, than phones have become a new source of ad revenue, and just by using a wireless network, you've agreed somewhere in the TOS to accept having your phone updated without your consent, having your conversations listened to, and having ads custom tailored to these conversations. Strange times.

EDIT: And I wanted to post - before someone else does - that I use Firefox in Privacy Mode with Ad Blocker Plus, No Script, and Ghostery and I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine so, I find it highly unlikely I'm being tracked from my PC based on my searches. This is strictly a phone thing.

[Alram]

Every time I hear something like this it makes me feel good about not owning a cell phone.

[GhastMaster]

I used to set my phone to notify me, then I would download at night when connected to wifi. I have never had your issue. Maybe a factory reset will remedy the problem?

I have completely turned off updates.

In windows 10 I use stopwinupdate from baltagy.

The mydigitallife.net forums have other options you can find. Some just use simple batch files that you can enable or disable, with no .exe doing things you may not trust.

[FireIceTalon]

I have an iPhone, so none of these are issues for me.