Freaked out!!?!

[prozacfree]

oh my goodness, this might be a simple explanation and I apologise in advance but I need someone to clarify it with me.

So I sent an email at work today to a company who is quite obscure and nothing I would ever google whilst at home. My colleague also had a jacket delivered to work and showed me. It was quite unusual but probably from a high street store.

I've come home from work and have just now logged on to facebook and the company that I emailed has come up as an advert and the exact jacket has come up as an ad further down. Is google spying on me?

@ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia

Yes this is normal. What you do and say digitally is commoditised! Your whole digital footprint is of value to the right company for marketing opportunities. This is very difficult to technically prevent as I think even next level end to end encryption using strong VPNs are useless. Possibly "dark web" may help but that is way beyond my technical ability and in any case supposedly a place for illegal activities.

On the positive side - at least the government can spot potential trouble makers and prevent the next serious religious hate crime atrocity and other serious national security concerns. This is why they (government big brother) proactively knows when and where the next Covid illegal mass raves and protests etc are going to take place etc.

Very true. It certainly has its positives.

I bought a Victorian oil painting of a fat pig from an antique shop recently. When I looked at Pinterest that evening, it was showing me oil paintings of fat animals (cows, sheep, pigs).

Your phone definitely listens in. No doubt about it.

@PleasantVille

Whenever these threads come up there always seem to be posters who don't accept that devices listen and suggest adverts but if definitely does happen, I've had more than one instance and I think it's a pretty well known thing

I've had a quite convoluted one happen to me recently and I still haven't worked how it came about.

Yep, definitely happens.

I told my husband I’d bought some hedgehog food in the pet shop. I’ve never searched for it online.

What appeared in my Facebook feed? An advert for the SAME hedgehog food!

@hastingsmua1

I think it’s just a coincidence and you’re bending over backwards to justify it otherwise. It sounds like a conspiracy theory frankly. Apple devices do not monitor your conversations.

Haven't apple admitted that they have actual people listening in to conversations?

Anyway I don't have any apple devices so it's not relevant to my experiences.

One example - I had a commercial radio station on in my car and a particular advert came on, not something I would ever be interested in and the next time I went on Facebook that was the first advert that came up.

There was no demographic reason for it to be there, nothing that would explain it other than sheer randomness or my phone had “heard” the advert and I don't believe that Facebook advertising algorithms work on a random basis.

Surely just get an adblocker then you won't get the ads or maybe people want the ads.

It's Siri that listens with Apple and if you don't want it you can just switch it off

Why don't the phones just not listen to us by default? You can switch it on if you want it. It's a breach of privacy. It really annoys me.
Instead, it's down to the user to try and work out how to stop it listening to and spying on you and that's not easy. I've tried lots of adjustments on iPhone but stuff keeps popping up, related to conversations I've had.

I now WFH, but use the work VPN, so anything I google for work definitely doesn't show on my social media.

Did you know that if you have Facebook on your device then Facebook tracks every website you look at?

Netherlands made it illegal and forced Facebook to change how they work there.

Even if you are logged out of Facebook it still tracks every thing you search.

A lot of people on here saying that this has happened to them do seem to mention Facebook, I won't use it or WhatsApp which is part of FaceBook because of the lack of privacy

Yep all your electronic devices are listening to you in your house and out and about. Your phone, Alexa, hive, your TV, your computer etc. Security is very rarely at the forefront of a manufacturers designs either, so when you're reading out your card details on the phone, someone could easily be listening.

You don't read out card details nowadays though do you, I have always had to type them in on the phone for the last couple of years or so

You don't read out card details nowadays though do you, I have always had to type them in on the phone for the last couple of years or so

If you're talking on the phone and paying for something, generally yeah you'd have to read them out.

If you're talking on the phone and paying for something, generally yeah you'd have to read them out.

I have recently been on the phone and had to type them into the keypad, I haven't read them out for ages, I don't use the phone much for payments though, the last one was insurance as I queried the cover and I definitely typed them in to pay

I have recently been on the phone and had to type them into the keypad, I haven't read them out for ages, I don't use the phone much for payments though, the last one was insurance as I queried the cover and I definitely typed them in to pay

I don't either, generally do my shopping online, but some people still like phoning into call centres and placing orders to actual people, and there they'd have to read it out. If you're on a payment call to just a machine, then yeah you'd type them in and some companies have that in place to leave the 'human staff' to deal with more complex matters, the 'robot staff' take your card details when you type them in.

If you go into your FB settings and get to this screen. Click on Off-Facebook Activity you will see that FB has a record of pretty much everything you do on your phone.

@Oysterbabe

If you go into your FB settings and get to this screen. Click on Off-Facebook Activity you will see that FB has a record of pretty much everything you do on your phone.

Brilliant. Thank you for posting this. I have cleared my off FB activity history, and turned off "Off Facebook Activity".

This was caravan insurance and I was speaking to the operator about it and it came time to pay and she told me to enter the long no. and other details on my keypad etc, I think I did that with another purchase somewhere else also. Maybe this is the way forward as it would be more secure especially if you are at work and other people are around rather than reading stuff out for all and sundry to hear.

Thank you so much Oysterbabe. I have done this too.

Coincidentally a company I was talking about with my husband last night popped up as an ad just now. He has looked them up online, I haven't.

You can click on the three dots and ask why you are seeing the ad. It gives generic info and not a specific reason. I suspect it's because they know I am married to and in the same location as someone who looked at this product. It says they use location data and 'Lookalike Audiences'. They know my husband likes it so think I might too. They are wrong

I've turned Siri off as that helps reduce it but it still happens. Sneaky bastards.