Ever get the feeling you are being watched?

Fashionista1

Someone mentioned algorithms earlier. My son works in Music and when a song/album is released or they advertise it on Social Media, they just input the target age range/gender/interest etc. from a computer generated interest list and it will auto-send an advert to the targetted audience. Can you imagine going though lists of people by hand? Nobody does that anymore. So the answer is, yes you could loosely say your details are available, but most 'mail' is just automated and nobody really reads your data - it being just a quick way to reach the targets.

Best tell your son about data mining. They're not doing it by hand

Adverts for running shoes are targeted at people with FitBits who have done a lot of running. "They" forecast when you might want to buy new running shoes.

They really do read your data. But "they" are a data mining system, not somebody with a pencil and paper....

There is a large slice of irony in being on the internet and complaining about lack of privacy.

What creeps me out - daft I know since it’s all automated and not some Big Brother watching - is when I’ve been looking at something online and then decided not to buy.

But later there will be an email (I’m looking at you, Joules!) to say, ‘Why not take another look at what caught your eye earlier?’

I turn off "personalised adverts" so they don't seem to bother me much.

My husband is inundated with adverts for things I've looked at if I use his phone/laptop - so obviously his are targeted.

They’re called “ burner phones” cheap disposable pay-as-you go ones that are difficult to track. Drug dealers use them.

Someone mentioned algorithms earlier. My son works in Music and when a song/album is released or they advertise it on Social Media, they just input the target age range/gender/interest etc. from a computer generated interest list and it will auto-send an advert to the targetted audience. Can you imagine going though lists of people by hand? Nobody does that anymore. So the answer is, yes you could loosely say your details are available, but most 'mail' is just automated and nobody really reads your data - it being just a quick way to reach the targets.

We are being watched and targeted! I was so bored with the lead-up to Brexit! My son and I joked that puppies and kittens on Facebook were preferable to going down the road to Brexit. We clicked on a few kitty/puppy pics and ended up inundated, so, being more of a dog lover (cat allergy) I imagine I clicked less on kittens because soon it was almost all puppies. Next thing I know it's streams of cockapoo and cavapoo puppies.... Yes, they could see which ones I liked and targeted us and now we have a lovely little dog, just celebrated her 3rd birthday. One of the best things we ever did was to click on an ad for cockapoo puppies! I must say I am a great deal more circumspect when it comes to politics and money, but the same algorithms apply and the internet shows us what we appear to be most interested in and confirm our biases. Can be fun if you you understand that it works this way, but can alsos be very dangerous in limiting our exposure to a balanced view of the world.

This can surely not come as a surprise to anyone here.

For years if you use a free e-mail service such as hotmail, which ages ago changed its name to outlook or gmail, or google anything this has been the case.

If we feel apprehensive about this, we can limit the amount of information others can access by restricting the use of cookies on homepages, etc.

A good firewall and anti-virus program will give some level of security as well.

The only way to completely restrict others from watching us is to not use the Internet, as someone has already said.

This not being practical, you might want to keep truly sensitive information on a computer or at least an external hard drive that is not connected to the Internet at all.

I always specify what cookies I will accept, and have something called CCleaner on my computer - it's free and does get rid of some of the cookies if you remember to run it regularly.

MerylStreep

Liz46

How do people manage to have an affair? If my husband looks at anything, something pops up in my Facebook account. He took a few photos on his phone yesterday and they popped up on my phone.

They have another phone that can’t be linked to yours. Simples
?

I must be very innocent because I didn’t think of that!

If there have to be ads I would rather they were tailored to me rather than just random.

I've often thought that, M0nica. You go away for the weekend and then get a million ads for the same city and the same hotel. Surely most people would go somewhere different, and anyway, you have the details of the hotel.

Similarly, when you have just bought a household appliance, you don't want another one immediately afterwards.

What I cannot understand with ebay, is that you BUY an item, say a lawnmower or carpet and you are immediately inundated by adverts for - lawnmowers and carpet -. Surely they realise that some items are of the 'bought now no longer interested' variety.

Liz46

How do people manage to have an affair? If my husband looks at anything, something pops up in my Facebook account. He took a few photos on his phone yesterday and they popped up on my phone.

They have another phone that can’t be linked to yours. Simples
?

All websites must now give you an opportunity to refuse to co-operate with targetted advertising etc. You select choices when the privacy page comes up the first time you look at the page, and you get the cookies you choose. If you don't bother to do that, you get 'em all! It is your decision, or it was when you looked at the page.

The other thing you can do is to set your device to delete all cookies on closing the browser (selecting certain sites as exceptions if you want to keep them) Then it won't remember to show you stuff from one session to the next.

If you share an email account, your devices share all info, photos etc.

Hehe, I never thought of that Liz46. They would be able to use blackmail wouldn’t they ?

How do people manage to have an affair? If my husband looks at anything, something pops up in my Facebook account. He took a few photos on his phone yesterday and they popped up on my phone.

I’ve tried duck duck but it doesn’t work very well here. I also have a cookie blocker but they still manage to get through. Not on gransnet,though I am pleased to say.

It's not electronic voyuerism that bothers me quite as much as the jerk that lives two doors away from me. Whenever I'm in my front garden or checking the levels on my car engine he is standing in his own front garden watching me!

JaneJudge
You searched for garden bars and put up a link about them.
That’s why you are ‘targeted’
This makes me look nerdy, I’m not ? It’s just that I’ve been interested in the subject for years.

If you turn off Siri on an iPhone it will stop conversations being heard. Go to settings, choose ‘Siri and search’ and toggle everything off.

There will be a similar setting on Android phones - is it Google?

You can use Duck Duck Go. British search engine, stops all tracking.

It’s scary, my plumber, my daughter and I were standing in the kitchen discussing a very specialised valve, within minutes an advert for one had popped up on my phone.

I am aware of it all but still find it unnerving.
A couple of years ago just walking through a shop that stocked a a certain label that I’d never seen before, and all I did was browse...touch and look at a few items. Sure enough this brand kept popping up on my smart phone....as if I’d been having thought transference ?