Just about everyone who uses popular social media apps like Facebook and Instagram can tell you an anecdote about advertisements popping into their feeds that are so acutely targeted to them it’s like the apps are listening to their conversations.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called it a ‘conspiracy theory’ that the app accesses the microphone on a person’s phone to listen to conversations and, in turn, target news feeds with related ads.

But it happens so often to people that it gives even the least conspiracy-minded pause, people like WWL-TV Photojournalist Adam Copus.