Is big brother watching?

My granddaughter and I were in the hall chatting. When I looked at my phone a few minutes later there was an advert for something which we had just discussed!

That's a bit alarming, I've had similar happen!

That’s cookies.

You can remove them from your devices.

But I had never searched for cleaning advice.

Do you have a smart speaker or voice activated TV? They are listening to everything that happens in your house.

shysal

Do you have a smart speaker or voice activated TV? They are listening to everything that happens in your house.

And have been for years.
Does everyone know that the information on your loyalty card is sold on and it’s perfectly legal.

Well, selling lists has gone on far longer than we have had computers. I can remember, after my MiL died in 1986, that we were receiving advertising mail for her for years after.

She had ordered a knitting kit in the three months she lived with us and the company involved had sold the list on and on and on.

Yes that's why I no longer sign up to these cards or other things that are avoidable. Someone was asking if I'd keep the netting oranges are bought in as they wanted to use them to hold growing melons off the ground. Next thing, up pops an item on my phone about oranges netting. Too random to be a coincidence. Read that even smart fridges have inbuilt spying. Frightening.

That’s the thing about all these smart devices and applications. Whether you know and like it or not, we give so many of them actual permission to listen in to our mics when we agree to the terms and conditions. Some apps we give permission to access contacts, track location, camera, sell our data etc. It’s all there buried in the tiny print of tens of thousands of words they know we won’t read. Such is modern life. Big Brother today is the tech companies. They know us as well as we know ourselves.

I find this all very scary. I recently re-read 1984 and although it was still quite a long way off in the actual year 1984, we seem to be frighteningly closer in the 2020s.