IGX

Sitting w/my wife at Starbucks today and she said that she had to go to the market. I asked her to pick me up some meal bars. I forgot the name but described the wrapping to her. 20 minutes later she sent me a text asking about the bars. I texted back that the name might be Rx bar or something similar. Then I did a Yahoo search on Safari with my iPhone to make sure I got it correct.

My iPhone searches are supposed to be private but I see that "Do Not Track" was turned off on one update or another.

5 minutes ago I go on Facebook for the first time today and the second thing on my wall is an advertisement for RXBAR. One of the ones pictured was my favorite flavor (which my wife purchased today). I've never seen an advertisement from them ever before.

I don't know if Starbucks and/or Yahoo tracked my search or if my credit card, grocery, and Facebook share purchasing info but fuck me, this isn't a coincidence. I wonder what other meta data trails I'm leaving.

I'll bet in some ways, the internet knows me better than I know myself.

Use DuckDuckGo as your main search engine.

It's no coincidence that Shape's Facebook sidebar shows advertisements that most people will never be able to "unsee".

With the proliferation of social media and smartphones privacy is an oxymoron. I now regularly get cold marketing phone calls on my cellphone. My phone provider offers the service to block such calls... for a fee. They are probably the ones who sell client databases to the telemarketers.

I'm 95% certain my phone is hot-mic'd for advertising purposes. I had a conversation with another person in a car who referenced a product I hadn't heard of and didn't search subsequently. It started showing up in Google ads shortly thereafter. 6 mos later it happened again

Grandpa's Spells wrote:I'm 95% certain my phone is hot-mic'd for advertising purposes. I had a conversation with another person in a car who referenced a product I hadn't heard of and didn't search subsequently. It started showing up in Google ads shortly thereafter. 6 mos later it happened again

A few months ago my wife went to Marshall's and saw a deal on dog beds. She didn't talk to anybody about it, she didn't web search or text about them, she didn't buy one, she just stopped in the aisle and looked at them for a bit. As soon as she came out of the store she started getting ads for dog beds.

Sangoma wrote:With the proliferation of social media and smartphones privacy is an oxymoron. I now regularly get cold marketing phone calls on my cellphone. My phone provider offers the service to block such calls... for a fee. They are probably the ones who sell client databases to the telemarketers.

Any mobile phone (and I'm talking about the real ancient ones, the Nokias 3310 and even older models) is a real-time tracking device. Your operator's network needs to know where the fuck you are in any given moment so you can place and receive calls.

So anybody's privacy was already a joke waaaaaaay before the smartphone was even invented.

Borrow your friend's phone, and do a quick 100 google searches for feminine hygiene products.

I have a free account on a financial site and today was looking at a comment I made yesterday on an article. Somehow they put a pic of my smiling, naked 1 y.o. grandson getting a bath as my profile pic. That had to come off my phone or my google email account.

I used to work in advertising and designed/sold some of the tech that does all this. It can be creepy to find out this stuff but it's pretty easy to combat it.
Clear your cookies and reset your apple ad ID before you log into any sites (Facebook or otherwise) on the same browser. Check the limit ad tracking button in ios.
Never allow an app to use your location unless you absolutely need it (google maps is an example).

A lot of companies have ways to share cookie data (like search engine) and once it gets tied to a login (like you login to Facebook) then you're kinda screwed since it's connected to a real name and they know you anywhere you login to FB

You wouldn't believe the amount of advertisements I get for fly fishing gear companies, not just on Facebook, but on websites which have nothing to do with fishing LOL the little ads in the ad panes just pop up with deals from Orvis, Allen, Sage... Yet another reason why I'm not allowed to surf the Net while drunk. It's so easy for them to pop deals up in my face and the next thing I know, Sober Kenny X is checking the mail, and discovering Drunk Kenny X bought him a brand new Allen Fly Fishing Atlas reel. And these days I can't afford any of that nonsense.

I did a google search about gas mileage about old Honda CRX's that got something like 50mpg.

Now I get spam about Hondas...

I love the internet, but I lived before the internet and I could live without it again - a lot of spam would be enough to make me severely curb my usage. I realize that won't make anyone shake in their boots - just sayin'.

Kind on the same topic (pain-in-the-ass-marketing): I've threatened to never donate blood again if the freaking donation center doesn't quit calling me....

If you ever decide to give to a charity- do it as anomalously as possible - those assholes will call back every single day wanting more money.

climber511 wrote:If you ever decide to give to a charity- do it as anomalously as possible - those assholes will call back every single day wanting more money.

I've regularly given modest donations to Police and Firefighters' charities and the boys in blue are now calling me from cities in several different states now. Calls from early morning to 9 p.m. at night even weekends.

DrDonkeyLove wrote:

Grandpa's Spells wrote:I'm 95% certain my phone is hot-mic'd for advertising purposes. I had a conversation with another person in a car who referenced a product I hadn't heard of and didn't search subsequently. It started showing up in Google ads shortly thereafter. 6 mos later it happened again

A few months ago my wife went to Marshall's and saw a deal on dog beds. She didn't talk to anybody about it, she didn't web search or text about them, she didn't buy one, she just stopped in the aisle and looked at them for a bit. As soon as she came out of the store she started getting ads for dog beds.

Foursquare

Grandpa's Spells wrote:I'm 95% certain my phone is hot-mic'd for advertising purposes. I had a conversation with another person in a car who referenced a product I hadn't heard of and didn't search subsequently. It started showing up in Google ads shortly thereafter. 6 mos later it happened again

Facebook messenger does this (I think)

DikTracy6000 wrote:I have a free account on a financial site and today was looking at a comment I made yesterday on an article. Somehow they put a pic of my smiling, naked 1 y.o. grandson getting a bath as my profile pic. That had to come off my phone or my google email account.

That's really creepy. How do you think they knew which kid on your computer was your grandson?

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:

DrDonkeyLove wrote:

Grandpa's Spells wrote:I'm 95% certain my phone is hot-mic'd for advertising purposes. I had a conversation with another person in a car who referenced a product I hadn't heard of and didn't search subsequently. It started showing up in Google ads shortly thereafter. 6 mos later it happened again

A few months ago my wife went to Marshall's and saw a deal on dog beds. She didn't talk to anybody about it, she didn't web search or text about them, she didn't buy one, she just stopped in the aisle and looked at them for a bit. As soon as she came out of the store she started getting ads for dog beds.

Foursquare

Turn off your GPS and location services for any and all applications unless you absolutely need it.
Some stores have installed beacons in strategically-valuable locations, which some apps on your phone will automatically check-in with. An app detecting a beacon in the dog bed aisle will have you checked in the box for "dog bed hand-raiser".

climber511 wrote:If you ever decide to give to a charity- do it as anomalously as possible - those assholes will call back every single day wanting more money.

That's why I never donate to this place.