To be freaked out a little by Amazon?

[GinNeeded]

I'd heard that smart phones listened in to conversations to target advertising but dismissed it as tinfoil hat territory. People must have googled stuff, browsed etc

I popped on Amazon last night and random stuff I had chatted to the kids about in the day was in the 'recommended for you' section.

Including but not limited to:
*Old fashioned fly sticky strip, liked I'd hung in the kitchen (whats that?
isn't that cruel mummy?)

*Bug zapper ( can we get an electronic fly trap, like a tennis bat)

*Chlorine filter (could we put our pet fish in the swimming pool on holiday?)

*Muffin cases (What can I use to make a rosette?)

*Plastic Sapphires (What are those blue jewels on the real plastic gold pirate treasure?)

None of the above was searched for at all.

I understand targeted adverts, I realise that when I actively go online I am leaving a foot print, but chatting crap with the kids?

Now I am concerned about what else it hears and where that information goes!

We don't have an Echo or voice activated thing-a-me bobs either.

AIBU to not have realised this?

@PatriarchyPersonified
You're out of date. It happens and companies (I think it was Amazon I read about) explained the details in patent applications. A human isn't listening and serving up ads of course. But it 'wakes up' if triggered by keywords. Enable your microphone and test it for a week. Please come back and let us know.

Also all the people with stories along the lines of:

i was talking about milky bars the other day, then got loads of adverts for them, this proves it

ignore the fact that they talk about literally hundreds of things every day around their devices that they then don't see adverts for.

Humans have an evolutionary bias towards seeing patterns and noticing coincidences.

Please do a test on random items!
If you come back and say it happened it will be useful.

We were chatting about this sort of thing a few weeks ago. Then last week I said “Alexa, ok, what do I think?”, pretty much as a joke, meaning that hopefully Alexa would agree with me when DCs wouldn’t. Alexa then suddenly played me a recording of what I’d been talking about earlier, including background noises in the room of other people speaking, so a good quality recording! I jokingly call her my friend, but now I think she believes me and is ready to talk with me all day 😂

Cobwebs

Of course your devices are vulnerable to exploitation, but the reason that Mark Zuckerberg tapes I've this webcam is because he is a high profile target for corporate espionage and exploitation.

I'm not sure the groups that carry out that kind of activity are that concerned about Sharon from Hull's shopping habits.

My example was the specific camera...

I buy IT systems and software. There's a shitload of software out there that does a shitload of stuff.

Me and DD were watching a box set off a popular children's tv series when she was ill the other day. The female actress keeps popping up as a "someone you may know" on Facebook now.

Did you see that article about the woman who was on her sofa then an ad popped up and the woman was wearing the excat outfit. This happens to me! And the conversations it's SO freaky! And wrong!

Diana

Citation needed I'm afraid.

Vice News did an article about this a bit ago that apparently 'exposed' this (spoiler alert, it did nothing of the sort.) It's just confirmation bias and the algorithms they use.

Why would the big companies risk legal action costing billions to blatantly lie about something that is trivially easy to uncover by anyone with even a passing knowledge of computer science?

Didn’t Samsung reveal that their smart TVs ‘listened’ and recorded what is said? It was a few years ago, I’m sure its only if it’s connected up to the wifi. The data is just stored electronically somewhere.

every time a thread like this comes up I have to go and double check I've disabled microphones!

PatriarchyPersonified you changed my milky bar story! I said it was a striking coincidence, you changed it to 'this proves it'. I never said that.

Last week we had a conversation about the fact we'd seen a rat in the house and DP asked me if we had any poison left. I went on Amazon straight after the conversation and recommended items were all rat poison and traps

And I've got microphone permissions turned off for Google, FB, Messenger and Amazon!

Disable mic in every app that would require one. You can go into your settings and scroll through each app and do this.

Thanks for mansplaining explaining that for us Patriarchy

Happily

Apologies! Just an example... 😁

Cobwebs

I apologise for the unforgivable crimes of being a man and knowing something...

Thanks :)
I do know that my milky bar story doesn't prove anything I just thought it was an uncanny coincidence relevant to the discussion.

I agree with Patriarchypersonified

One-in-a-million chances happen to 7,000 people every day.
¯\(ツ)/¯

This is not proof of anything but it's interesting anyway

People denying this are very naive. This is 100% a thing, and it’s happened to me a few times with things that were way too obscure to be a coincidence. Mine were instagram ads.

I apologise for the unforgivable crimes of being a man and knowing something

Where are your references, Patriarchy?

I tape over my camera too. They can be enabled remotely. Ugh

My ads were for a specific brand of camera, a certain tourist attraction, and a service you would hire someone for.
All things were spoken about a few hours before the advertisement appeared.

@PatriarchyPersonified
As said, have only read discussion of the patent technology filed which was reported in national newspapers. Amazon admits the possibility, but not that they are doing it currently. You'd need to do your own test to know that other people's experiece is anecdotal.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-43725708

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/amazon-alexa-patent-listening-to-me-facebook-phone-talking-ads-a8300246.html%3famp

My mic is off for all apps and I'm not a big user of Amazon/FB. My boss had all his mics on (unknowingly) and buys stuff from Amzon almost every day. He's a big spender with them. He kept mentioning freaky coincidences that he hadn't searched for. Specific brand of tennis equipment mentioned and showing, stuff for his kids etc. I saw a thread on MN and suggested he turn the mic off for each app. I might ask him to test again though. Interesting!

@PatriarchyPersonified
Why would the big companies risk legal action costing billions to blatantly lie about something that is trivially easy to uncover by anyone with even a passing knowledge of computer science?

Mmmm, yes those technology companies haven't been caught out at all lately...where have you been?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/alexander-nix-facebook-scandal-boss-accused-of-lying-a3822346.html%3famp