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?

Heartsee

Because I'd like the OP to think about how many conversations that she has around her devices that then don't turn up in her recommendations?

Do you get bail money back is 3rd for me......

"Do you get bail money back" comes up first for me too right now in Google search after I typed in "Do you ..."

I didn't watch the TV programme nor had any reason to talk about /nor look up bail in 47 years .

All you are seeing there is most popular recent search starting with those words. Not unusual given a TV programme about it has just aired.

Just been for lunch with my BF. He moved seats because he was being chased by a wasp, then talked about potentially being on gardening leave and that he never does any gardening (pays someone once a year to mow his lawn).

First items up on my Amazon when I signed in just now, wasp nest spray and hose/gardening items.

It’s not fucking random Patriarchy, those two things have no relevance to my everyday life at all.

It also recommended deionised water. My window wash light came on in my car last week and I was asking BF what windscreen wash I needed. He said you can buy it ready diluted, or as concentrate which you dilute with deionised water.

WTF?!

Bail money is on my list too! How many people are really that curious about something that never affects them directly?

I've just looked at mine and that fly trap thing is there too?? Feeling slightly freaked out now. Also pet cooling mats. I've not searched for either, but had lots of conversations during the heatwave about how the dog was struggling with the heat.

Myrelationship

I never said it was random either.

It's targeted. Just not by voice.

Adverts about gardening and wasps, during a hot summer... What an amazing coincidence.

Actually it is possible that one of the kids Amazon fire tablets is the culprit.

Apparently Alexa was added in one of the updates, and they are all linked to my Amazon Account.

Could Alexa have been triggered by the constant questions the kids fire at me?

All of the items listed where in response to questions they had asked.

But moments after a conversation about gardening when neither of us have ever bought anything garden related from Amazon, as I don’t have a garden and he hates gardening! Surely Amazon is brighter than that?!

And recommending deionised water - a week ago I didn’t even know what that was for!

Myrelationship

Targeted algorithms + analysis of everything you text and search for + confirmation bias + coincidence (or some combination of the above) pretty much sums up everything mentioned on this thread, including your example.

I'll ask you again, how many products/services in the last week alone have you talked about that haven't turned up in your ads? I'd suggest probably hundreds.

Like I said, it's trivially easy to inspect all the data your phone and other device send back to amazon/google/apple.

If they were doing what you suggest they are doing, it's be easy to spot.

No I am truely convinced theses where targeted as these were in the 'recommended for you' section and a random recommendation of fly paper would be amusing, and quite understandable but 8 different co-incidents?

Well I’ve just set a trap for Amazon to see! I just talked about something completely random that I haven’t mentioned, searched or texted about, certainly in the past 2 years or so. Will see if it pops up!

Don't bother Patriarchy - it's much more exciting to think you're caught up in some kind of global conspiracy than to listen to rational explanations about all of this.

Another explanation is that if other people use your computer\tablet\phone then it could be basing suggestions off of their searches or cookies.

Seriously though, can you imagine the shitstorm if it was ever proved that Amazon\Google were recording all of your conversations and then data-mining them? Just to place a few better-targeted adverts in your browser (for you to ignore)? We give them more than enough information to do this in all sorts of other ways as it is.

And as Patriarchy has said, it would be easy for someone with fairly average technical skills to prove.

I imagine you'll be seeing lots of adverts for tinfoil in the next few days.........

Well I took my mil for a hospital apt earlier this year for an issue with her heart. Anyway that evening when I went onto Facebook in the recommended list of friends was the consultant who she was under!!

I hadn’t previously heard of the consultant, I had at no point mentioned his name or recall his name being mentioned during the appointment. To this day this still baffles me!

If you disable microphone access to these apps it won’t happen.

Depends ... Google are having a bit of a hard time at the moment, as it turns out that their idea of "do not track" actually involves ... "tracking as per usual".

So for 100% security, I wouldn't trust that microphone off means off ....

Deffo happens. My DC ‘tested’ it by repeating cat food - cat food - cat food. Lo and behold before long they got adverts on their smartphones for a brand of cat food. At no point had they searched it or could it have been any linked selling algorithms as we don’t have a cat or any pets at all.

Feeling slightly freaked out now. Also pet cooling mats. I've not searched for either, but had lots of conversations during the heatwave about how the dog was struggling with the heat

Oh come on. Think about it. Lots and lots of people are having the exact same conversations and are then going to purchase associated products. You will be identified as having a dog. Therefore they’re pushing the products are you. It’s hardly rocket science for the use of a hideous expression.

I believe we are being tracked by our phones.

Had conversation with my mum over the phone re a flat tyre she had this week. Targeted ads within an hour on my iPad for tyre repair shops in my area. I hadn’t googled or searched for tyres

We're all getting ads for garden stuff - it's summer.
I'm getting ads for patio furniture when I live in a flat.
That's the opposite of specific targeting.

gonetolookforamerica if you connected to any wifi while away, the websites you visited (and your apps) will have noticed that you connected from an IP address in the US.
When I'm on my work VPN I get ads that act as if I'm in Ireland when I'm not (but I look like I am, to the internet).

Also turn off location services. Any apps that need to use them, you can instruct to only use location when using the app. Then it won’t be able to track your every move.

When my mum was moving house recently we were chatting about where to buy bubble wrap. Next minute I start getting emails from Argos for items I might be interested in...yep bubble wrap! Never looked at it online in my life. Creepy.

Also turn off location services. Any apps that need to use them, you can instruct to only use location when using the app. Then it won’t be able to track your every move.

www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/13/google_location_tracking/

Google keeps tracking you even when you specifically tell it not to: Maps, Search won't take no for an answer

(contd)

I mentioned this a while ago...i was mocked. But the next day an ad. came up for an utterly obscure item that I had mentioned but never searched for or bought. And not a seasonal product that was likely to be advertised either.

I also had facebook suggest a woman I might know who I happened to be sat next to at an event for an hour. I can only assume the app recognised that we were close to each other logistically and therefore might know each other.

Just logged into Amazon and tbh was slightly disappointed to find only the usual kind of things being recommended, based on items we've already purchased. Not a fly paper in sight.