Is this weird?

[MarionC]

A few hours after I posted a response on a thread where a PSer mentioned Kataoka jewelry, I started getting sidebar ads from Kataoka. Is this weird or am I just being paranoid?

 

[missy]

A few hours after I posted a response on a thread where a PSer mentioned Kataoka jewelry, I started getting sidebar ads from Kataoka. Is this weird or am I just being paranoid?

That happens to me too. "They" are watching us...

 

[Slickk]

A few hours after I posted a response on a thread where a PSer mentioned Kataoka jewelry, I started getting sidebar ads from Kataoka. Is this weird or am I just being paranoid?

Reminds me of when I looked at a purse in a mall Michael Kors store, a burgundy cross body. I didn’t look it up online or anything. When I arrived home an hour later, there were advertisements for That. Exact. Purse!

 

[MamaBee]

A few hours after I posted a response on a thread where a PSer mentioned Kataoka jewelry, I started getting sidebar ads from Kataoka. Is this weird or am I just being paranoid?

You’re not being paranoid..I’ve had this happen @Jimmianne. I’ve had it happen on Facebook too. I’ve mentioned things here on PS and it would show up on Instagram in ads..How is that even possible?!

 

[MamaBee]

Reminds me of when I looked at a purse in a mall Michael Kors store, a burgundy cross body. I didn’t look it up online or anything. When I arrived home an hour later, there were advertisements for That. Exact. Purse!

Now that is creepy!

 

[Slickk]

Now that is creepy!

They must track us through our devices, I am convinced.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

We are constantly tracked online (Google, Facebook, Instagram etc). I became aware of how freaking creepy Facebook is when I was talking about drinks with a friend and no lie an hour later I had all these FB ads for the exact alcohol we were discussing, down to the brand. Didn't have the app open or searched it on Facebook at all. I don't have an account anymore. Too damn creepy for me.

I started using GoDuckGo as a search engine but still get all kinds of ads when I go on websites, thought it would be better than Big Brother Google, guess not!

 

[MamaBee]

They must track us through our devices, I am convinced.

I agree..

 

[JPie]

You're not paranoid. That happens to me all the time. I look at Moda Operandi a lot and their ads "follow" me around the internet.

 

[MarionC]

I understand better that they would track us when we do searches, but to be tracked for mentioning a brand name on a forum. I would say YIKES! But that is nothing compared to the KORS purse event!
Ah well...I mean what else can you say??!!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

You know given that we are being tracked, listened to, advertised to constantly it boggles my mind that people have Alexa in their house. Why pay for and make it even easier for all the above?

 

[MarionC]

You know given that we are being tracked, listened to, advertised to constantly it boggles my mind that people have Alexa in their house. Why pay for and make it even easier for all the above?

I kinda wonder about my little Vector robot. When I am not playing with him, he wanders around my house looking at everything.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

I had to look up the Vector, even if he is a spy he's pretty darn cute!

 

[Tekate]

cookies! that's how.

 

[AGBF]

Having a device one talks to-and that hears everything that is going on-really bothers me. A "Lexa" for example. It can listen to what is said in your house all day.

I do not happen to have a smart phone. I have a flip phone. I didn't do anything to disable GPS tracking so I assume I am being tracked. I don't talk to it, though. I leave the phone in the car at all times, however, so the car is being tracked, not me. My daughter's fiancé has it a lot of the time nowadays.

I do not shop on my phone since I cannot, although I can be tracked shopping on my computer unless I employ all the tricks mentioned above.I can also be tracked browsing unless I follow those protocols.

 

[telephone89]

Smart TVs are also listening. It's all very creepy! I definitely feel like I need my tinfoil hat these days, everything is listening and tracking.

 

[rainydaze]

Yes to all of this. And it got even creepier when a friend and I were just TALKING about bras... while standing in a parking lot... no Alexa or smart tv around... just our phones in our cars... and less than an hour later we both started getting bra ads on our IG feeds.

 

[MarionC]

Yes to all of this. And it got even creepier when a friend and I were just TALKING about bras... while standing in a parking lot... no Alexa or smart tv around... just our phones in our cars... and less than an hour later we both started getting bra ads on our IG feeds.

I’m doing some experiments talking about and/or searching for unusual items to see if ads turn up. Might whisper a few things to my robot too to see if he is spying on me.

Anybody here put tape over their device cameras?

 

[missy]

I’m doing some experiments talking about and/or searching for unusual items to see if ads turn up. Might whisper a few things to my robot too to see if he is spying on me.

Anybody here put tape over their device cameras?

Yes. I have tape over my iPad and MacBook lens.

 

[asscherisme]

Reminds me of when I looked at a purse in a mall Michael Kors store, a burgundy cross body. I didn’t look it up online or anything. When I arrived home an hour later, there were advertisements for That. Exact. Purse!

That is super creepy. Much more creepy that writing about or looking up something online.

 

[asscherisme]

You know given that we are being tracked, listened to, advertised to constantly it boggles my mind that people have Alexa in their house. Why pay for and make it even easier for all the above?

I agree. Alexa or other type devices creep me out. I think George Orwell was ahead of his time when he wrote 1984. Except what he got wrong was that we would all allow ourselves to be listened too and report on ourselves through social media, devices, etc.

 

[asscherisme]

I’m doing some experiments talking about and/or searching for unusual items to see if ads turn up. Might whisper a few things to my robot too to see if he is spying on me.

Anybody here put tape over their device cameras?

I put tape over my laptop camera and only remove it if I need to video chat. Then, right back up it goes. I don't put tape over phone camera though.

I have read that laptop cameras (so I assume others as well) can be vulnerable to viruses that turn them on without the light turning on.

I also read that Bill Gates and Marc Zuckerberg cover their web cameras when not in use. Don't know if its true.

 

[kenny]

Read what you sign.

If you read the 748 pages of fine print in Terms and Agreements when you sign up for FB, Google, Twitter, IG, SC etc. you GAVE THEM the right to record your every keystroke, 100% of your content.
They learn about you, you agreed to let them sell everything they learn to third parties to send you ads.

When a service is free YOU are the product being sold.
Welcome to our new world.

If they're not doing it already, I'm sure it's only a matter time before B&M stores will have cameras everywhere with face recognition software to identify us.
Then they'll sell the info to TV manufacturers, that I was in a Best Buy looking at TVs.
I'll probably get ads on my phone WHILE I'm in Best Buy looking at TVs.

As always, all that matters is big corporations make more and more money.
They just have creepier ways of doing it now.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

See, the problem I have with facial recognition in stores is at least online there is a disclosure and agreement (even if most people don't read it) but people have no choice but to go into a grocery store and then they are the product by no choice of their own. Same applies to drugstores, how about when they start doing this in waiting rooms of doctor's offices, you go to a urologist and suddenly you are getting ads for the latest medication. Yeah they say that will never happen HIPPA etc but THEY do what they want, WE are the experiment and as we become more accepting of technology we lose more and more of ourselves.

I'll say it, I hate all of this. We were better off without the high tech phones, without the creepy Smart tv's and when we at least had some sense of privacy.

 

[kenny]

IMO the creepiest product today is those Alexa things.
Their microphones listen to everything said in the house.

I wonder whether these recordings will ever be subpoenaed by law enforcement.
Perhaps by a divorce lawyer or private investigator seeking for evidence of a cheating spouse.

 

[OboeGal]

You know given that we are being tracked, listened to, advertised to constantly it boggles my mind that people have Alexa in their house. Why pay for and make it even easier for all the above?

I've been saying this for a while. None of this in my house. I don't want an "internet of things" in my house, either.

I've had similar experiences to those others have shared. Of course, by this time, I expect to get bombarded by ads for anything I search for or go to a forum for. A couple weeks ago, though, my husband and I were discussing an item that neither of us had done a search on - just talked about - and I started getting ads for that exact item when I never had before. We're wondering which device "gave us up" - the conversation took place in the same general open area of our house that our phones, my tablet, our laptop, and our smart tv were in. At the time, we tried to reassure ourselves that it was just a weird coincidence, but it made me very uneasy. After reading this thread, I don't think it was a coincidence at all.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

@OboeGal, question since you have a Smart tv, do you unplug it when you're not using it or do you just figure nothing you saying in front of it is of any real interest to anyone else?

 

[CHRISTY-DANIELLE]

My friend and I were texting about her new Volvo. Texting! And I'm getting Volvo ads.

Yesterday my husband and I were talking about calling Amazon, like "I wonder if there's an 800#", I put in my search "Is there an 800" and immediately the option popped up "Is there an 800# for Amazon". (Now that I think about it, this was in a room with a Fire stick in use, so Alexa probably heard us...)

These kind of things happen all the time, sometimes I'm flabbergasted! How do they know???

It's becoming the norm, but we are seeing the death of privacy.

 

[missy]

Thinking about this you know sometimes Siri comes on when I didn't activate her (I never activate her) and now I am thinking she is listening all the time to us.

FWIW I have no desire to get Alexa or even a smart TV but I fear there is no safe place to go...we are being listened to everywhere and with all things possible.

 

[AGBF]

IMO the creepiest product today is those Alexa things.
Their microphones listen to everything said in the house.

I wonder whether these recordings will ever be subpoenaed by law enforcement.
Perhaps by a divorce lawyer or private investigator seeking for evidence of a cheating spouse.

I couldn't agree more. I would never have one of those voluntarily! They are very frightening to me.