Woah.. My online searches popping up on DHs laptop almost immediately!

[Chocchops72]

So we talked about changing our son's bedroom furniture. We were both sitting near each other, using separate laptops. I'm browsing on Chrome, he's doing the same. I searched for single beds, IKEA. Within 30 seconds his advertising banners had filled up with single beds from IKEA. I then searched for room dividers.. and lo and behold seconds later his advertising changed from beds to room dividers.

We've had a bit of overlap in the past, but always explained it as coincidence, or we had genuinely searched for the same thing at some point.

Is this normal? How do we stop this? I'd like a bit of privacy in my online life - and I'm sure he would too! We use separate logins, separate laptops and rarely / never use each others.

Help!

A work colleague set up her DS’ iPad so that everything he searched for appeared on her iPad - she did this as a safety check as he was vulnerable (this was about 10 years ago so it’s not new).

Sounds to me like this has been set up intentionally but I could be wrong. I have no idea how to fix it either sorry but I’m sure it can be done and someone could advise.

You are a shared contact with each other and you are also using the same ip address so they know you are in close proximity so the tailored advertising is being thrown at both of you.

I think it’s because you’re using the same Wi-Fi and therefore the same ip address, but I could be wrong.

I assume the shared Wi-Fi is the issue.

It will be tailored ads, I usually know what DH has been shopping for / researching before he tells me and vice versa thanks to those.

Happens to us too. God knows what’s going to happen with the children get to that age where they’re searching for inappropriate material. Hopefully they’ll use a private browser!!!

And is there any way to prevent it? Not that I have major secrets to hide but...

These ads are usually run by companies like Google Adsense so you won't usually get porn ads. Unless you visit dodgy websites yourself which host their own nasty pop up ads

Happens in our house all the time but also when we have just had an actual in person conversation about a subject. Google is obviously recording our voices somehow but I don't know how.

Same. Hate it.

Same here. I think it's Alexa listening. Every once in a while she pipes up with a straight up offer to do an amazon order for whatever me and dh have been discussing over dinner.

Cookies and tracking. You log in to something on one device and then log in to the same site on another device and the two devices are associated until you clear the cookies.

Do all your browsing in incognito (or 'private') mode and it won't happen. Or just clear your cookies after every session - so you have to log in again all the time.
Lol

This shit used to be a conspiracy theory that people on here vehemently argued against. It was always self evident but people whinnied on about confirmation bias. Wonder what else is in the process of being creepily normalised

A few weeks ago I lost my shiz because DS was shouting "Alexa! Set a timer for 5 minutes.....ALEXA pause the timer.....Alexa unpause the timer" - and he got angrier and angrier as she misheard him.

It was at that moment when I went around the house and unplugged 3 Google Homes and 1 Alexa. I told everyone to use their watches for timers and books / wiki / Google for answers to random things (like what's multicolour in Japanese!) and to try and engage brains rather than shout at an AI thing.

Everyone agreed. I replugged in one for access to Spotify.

It's out of the way from general chit chat and we've had much less targeted advertising.

It was definitely a little odd before. Joking I'm broody and then getting IVF ads. We once had an argument and then adverts for online divorces!

I'm not saying that Google Home / Alexas are the full cause but definitely some (somehow)

Alexa or Siri are listening in and they are linked to accounts on your laptops.

or

You have a joint Amazon Prime account on both devices and therefor the cookies on one device are updated on the cloud and synchronised with your other devices.

If you share devices or you share accounts, or you set your smart TV or Echo Dot up to listen to everything you say, then it wall all be send to all your shared devices, and stored in a big database online which all your other accounts can see too. Supermarkets pay a subscription to companies so they can see what you are doing on the Internet, what you look at in the Amazon store, what you search for on Google. Have you seen the list of companies that monitor what you type into MN threads? Did you just press Agree or did you press Reject All in the cookie box?

I find this working from home. I have a personal phone that I use for searching for things and a work phone/laptop which is solely for work use, set up with different emails and Microsoft package. Yet I can search for wellington boots or something on my personal phone and adverts pop up on the work stuff. It must be IP related but it's very worrying.

I noticed this, but only when my other half was signed into his Google account on my device.

It may be the IP addresses are linked through your WiFi router and that may be why.

I would imagine it would be an absalute pain in the nether regions if you were searching for gifts online.

However, searching incognito and not saving cookies may be your best option wether you wish to see if this solves the issue or not.

Its the power of advertising, its like flu but there is no vaxine for adverts yet😁

You have a joint Amazon Prime account on both devices and therefor the cookies on one device are updated on the cloud and synchronised with your other devices.

Hmm DH recently ditched his Prime account to save money, and used mine this afternoon by logging into my Amazon account on his laptop. he's logged out since, and logged back into his own account.. but would this do it? He also logs into both Amazon acounts to check our budget / spending. He's always on Safari though, and I use Chrome.

We don't have Alexa and don't use Siri but I guess it could be listening anyway.
But we did some trials of things we haven't mentioned out loud and they still pop up so it's definitely whatever is being typed rather than spoken.

Bloody hell.

It’s cross device marketing - you can stop (or reduce) it if you regularly clear cookies and use incognito browsing.

Do you have any listening devices in your home?

You are using the same IP address, therefore get the same ads. Try using a VPN or incognito browsing.

Or Alexa is eavesdropping.

It's nothing to do with spies or listening devices or linked computers. Honestly guys!!!

You're using the same wifi so have the same IP address. The targeted adds can't tell whose is whose so they appear on devices connected to the up address that searched them.

Just use incognito mode or private browsing if you don't like it

ladymacbeth but part of the point of Alexa is to generate leads and revenue from listening.

uk.pcmag.com/smart-home/140107/a-new-report-reveals-how-amazon-uses-alexa-voice-data-for-targeted-ads

Use an incognito session

Use a VPN. On your computer rather than the router.