They are listening to us . Internet Ads

[Tennessee Boy]

You should expect that when you visit fishing sites and watch fishing videos on YouTube that the advertising world will label you as a fisherman.  This is actually a good thing since most of us prefer to see fishing ads over ballet shoe ads.  
 

I heard a story about a man that figured out that his teenage daughter was pregnant when she started getting stuff in the mail trying to sell her pregnancy products.  The marketing world knew his daughter was pregnant before he did.  I assume she was looking at pregnancy related stuff on the internet and if so she might have expected this to happen.   Now if the world figured out she was pregnant by listening to her private conversations.  That would be very wrong.

[A-Jay]

 

 

A-Jay

[MN Fisher]

44 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

A-Jay

This is what I got at the top right now

[J Francho]

Take a look at what apps are using location services on your phone. That stuff def gets scraped for marketing. 

[MN Fisher]

John...this is on my desktop...

[J Francho]

That advice wasn't directed at you, just general. Also, keep in mind that if you use one browser on PC, and the same for mobile they often share history and location data. 

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Also, keep in mind that if you use one browser on PC, and the same for mobile they often share history and location data.

 While I do sync logons and passwords between the desktop/netbook/tablet and phone...I've got History sync turned off...ya, I can pick and choose what syncs.

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, J Francho said:

What's really weird is that anyone thinks that advertisers need to listen in to accurately market to you specifically. You all realize this is a highly developed science? They don't need to listen in. 
 

And yes, it weirds me out too. 

I’m guessing if they didn’t need to they wouldn’t 

[Scott F]

If you’ve got Alexa, you asked for your computer to listen to what you’re saying. 

[softwateronly]

The "internet of things" is just as insidious.  

 

scott

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

On 11/19/2023 at 9:17 AM, MN Fisher said:

That's what ad blockers are for - except BR now has a little popup if you're running one that nags you about it....

 

And yes, I've seen 'sex' ads here....and I don't visit sex sites, so it's random.

No pop-up with the blocker I use 

[J Francho]

The adult stuff you see marketed to you.is definitely NOT random. You've identified yourself as a CIS, white, male. It's a no brainer for that crap. I report all of it as offensive to Google Ads. Funny thing, I don't that junk anymore. 

[GRiver]

If ya have Alexa…….it’s listening too, Google and all the others too.

[Skunkmaster-k]

As much as I complain about being broke, my phone doesn’t even bother showing me ads. 

[bowhunter63]

It’s weird but the other night at work we were talking about John Wayne , Then some John Wayne clips popped up on YouTube. One guy talks about bikini girls and they popped 

up on his phone , But I think they pop up on his phone all the time 

[Glenn]

2 hours ago, QUAKEnSHAKE said:

No pop-up with the blocker I use 

You realize ads are why this site is free for you, right?  Seems like a minuscule price to pay for something that doesn't affect you at all.

------------

If you have an Android phone, then you have a Google account. Yes, it can hear what's being said, and Google ads can then target you regardless of what device you're on as long as you're logged into your Google account.  OH!  And Google owns Youtube too, so the ads will appear there too.

 

That explains a lot fer y'all.

 

[slonezp]

9 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

This 100%! Snoop through my phone, listen to my conversations I don’t care, you will for sure be asleep from boredom in no time flat! 

I can vouch for that

[DogBone_384]

On 11/19/2023 at 9:17 AM, scaleface said:

My son told me that the internet listens to us when we talk

Every keystroke you've ever hit is in some database SOMEWHERE... don't sweat it.

 

😉

[slonezp]

11 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I worked as a software developer before retiring to spend more time reading Bass Resource 😀.  I saw a lot of this stuff and heard war stories from coworkers about what was happening at other companies.  I don’t believe the crazy conspiracy theories you sometimes hear.  The only thing I’ve seen that you might not realize is how often companies get hacked.  In my experience most companies do not notify customers that their private information may has been compromised.  For every notice you get about your information being hacked there are many more hacks that are either not detected or not revealed.  
 

I never worked for a company that restricted my access to any information.  They made me sign documents acknowledging that I was bound by privacy laws which made me not them criminally liable if I revealed any private data.  So yes a telephone worker might be able to listen to your phone calls.  Google can and does read your emails.  I had access to very private information on millions of people but I never snooped because 99.999% of people’s private information is very boring.  
 

There is big money in targeted advertising so companies like Facebook and Google work very hard to know as much about you as possible so they can better target ads to you.  This concerns me and I do take steps on my devices to limit this.   In the end it’s a losing battle.  
 

It's quite amazing how hackers get in to databases. I'm in the HVAC business and hacking into building automation systems is a popular means to steal customer data. One of the brands I rep, their engineers developed the first firewall. They claim they are unhackable as the system only has outbound communication. 

1 hour ago, GRiver said:

If ya have Alexa…….it’s listening too, Google and all the others too.

I have Alexa at my store. She gets quiet sometimes when she's listening. 

[slonezp]

41 minutes ago, Glenn said:

You realize ads are why this site is free for you, right?  Seems like a minuscule price to pay for something that doesn't affect you at all.

------------

If you have an Android phone, then you have a Google account. Yes, it can hear what's being said, and Google ads can then target you regardless of what device you're on as long as you're logged into your Google account.  OH!  And Google owns Youtube too, so the ads will appear there too.

 

That explains a lot fer y'all.

 

It goes both ways

[Glenn]

6 hours ago, GRiver said:

If ya have Alexa…….it’s listening too, Google and all the others too.

 

Well, not unless you're logged into your Google account on a device that can listen while you also have Alexa turned on.  Alexa is a competitor to Google Home. They are not the same nor are they connected.

--------------------------------

Funny y'all haven't conjured up conspiracy theories about chatGPT yet, because, yes, it uses everything you enter into it - everything.  It's all public.  So if you're uploading spreadsheets to do analytics, all that data is now in the public domain.  Just one example.  But I know people are uploading confidential company data without realizing it becomes public immediately.  There's a real risk your private data could inadvertently become public this way.

 

Speaking of chatGPT and OpenAI, what a blowup over the weekend!  Holy smokes!  And it looks like Microsoft is making a major power move to take it over.  Which means, if successful, Microsoft will own all the data in chatGPT.  Think about THAT!

 

Confused yet?  I get it.  Just know this: when people don't understand technology, they jump to conclusions and make up stuff so it makes sense to them.  So beware of the random statements people make.  There's plenty of misinformation to go around.

 

[slonezp]

I mod a trade forum and it gets blasted with AI. The AI stuff is pretty easy to figure out. 

[GRiver]

7 hours ago, Glenn said:

Alexa is a competitor to Google Home. They are not the same nor are they connected.

You’re right they are not the same. I don’t know the tech stuff, all I know is, I have Alexa in the kitchen. I use it mostly as a timer, music and converting measurements. 
Anyway….. a friend came over and he was asking about different cordless impacts, since I used them on the job all the time. That evening, I was flooded with adds on impacts.

   My point was that everywhere ya go, someone is listening.

They have for years and years, went off key words that would trigger more listening. First is was for security reasons, now is used advertising. It’s just they way it is.

[J Francho]

18 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

ya, I can pick and choose what syncs.

That's a funny joke!

[MN Fisher]

10 minutes ago, J Francho said:

That's a funny joke!

No joke