Big brother IS watching us..

Thanks Elegran for the tip, I've found it very annoying but didn't know how to turn it off!

I ordered a Cinema ticket online, but on the day Orpington High street was awash with Gypsy mourners causing trouble (you may have read about this in the paper) so my daughter thought it unsafe for me to go. I asked for a refund yesterday, and they took my name and phone number and the ticket. Later I the day I had a phone call that it would be refunded to my bank account. Very nice but how do they know my bank account details. Does this mean that every ticket that is handed in gives access to people's bank accounts?

I prefer to have a PAYG phone and often shop online. However, I get really irritated when a company I have purchased from sends me multiple unwanted ads and that say 'just text no/stop if you wish us to stop' which will of course incur a charge which I resent.

I google hot tubs yesterday just having a look ? today my email was full of hot tub Company’s trying to sell me one ? I can’t remember filling my email address in at any time and asking for a quote ? how’s that work????

Nanabilly It's true that google scans your emails and can pick up dates and enter into your calendar unless you have disabled this.
What may sound more creepy is that our emails are scanned by some means or other (I'm not clever enough to know how or by whom) by a "higher authority". So theoretically what we say or do in them is not private and could, if you are paranoid, be used against you. However, I am glad that "someone" does this tedious scanning because it is how "they" sift out terrorist activity. So it is a security measure, I believe, and worth the loss of privacy. I feel sorry for the people who have to do this job in fact.

Milly If you paid for the tickets online then they have a record of the transaction, and to refund your money they refer back to the card details you gave then.

23may1992 Is yours a Gmail address? If so, Google use that.

23may1992 You could try disabling cookies. It probably is how google makes money. A key word links to all the advertisers with the same word.
"They" will tell you they have "personalised" your computer so as to provide you with a service that is particularly suitable for your likes etc. I find this really annoying as I do some charity work advising about traumatic experiences and relationships with bullies, narcissists and psychopaths. I often need to research some grizzly information. The weird things that google or whatever think I "like" following this sometimes makes me sick!

Luzdoh That only happens when someone is suspected of criminal activity and their computer has been seized by police and investigated. Their email provider may have copies of their emails somewhere, and those can be read too.

If every single email sent by every single person were to be read all the time, there would be as many people checking them as there are sending them - it would take most of the population.

That refers back to your previous post, Luzdoh, about someone sitting reading boring emails, not your latest one..

It is not surprising that Google seems to know what everyone is doing. They get input through:-

Their search engine (Google Search)
services designed for work and productivity (Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides),
email (Gmail/Inbox),
scheduling and time management (Google Calendar),
cloud storage (Google Drive),
social networking (Google+),
instant messaging and video chat (Google Allo/Duo/Hangouts),
language translation (Google Translate),
mapping and turn-by-turn navigation (Google Maps/Waze/Earth/Street View),
video sharing (YouTube),
note-taking (Google Keep),
and photo organizing and editing (Google Photos).

The company leads the development of the Android mobile operating system, the Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system based on the Chrome browser.
On March 15, 2016, Google announced the introduction of Google Analytics 360 Suite, "a set of integrated data and marketing analytics products, designed specifically for the needs of enterprise-class marketers." Among other things, the suite is designed to help "enterprise class marketers" "see the complete customer journey", generate "useful insights", and "deliver engaging experiences to the right people" Wikipedia, About Google

Ordinary web users like us can edit how our details are stored and used by all these inter-connected utilities, but if we do nothing we continue to be overwhelmed by an avalanch of advertising "tailored to our interests" So it is worth taking a bit of trouble to adjust the settings.

It's a bit disconcerting, isn't it?
I Googled hand/wrist supports due to a nasty fall and also mentioned my visit to A&E almost two weeks ago in an email.
Every time I go online a 'pop-up' of a hand in such a support appears.

Today we tried to book a hotel by phone which DiL had recommended but it was fully booked. Half an hour later got an email from booking.com saying X was full but how about staying at Y? How did booking .com know as we hadnt gone through them?
I had told my DiL on whatsapp that it was full , thats all? Whatsapp is supposed to be encripted though!

Creepy is one thing selling our demographics is another. It's all about the money! What appears as a money saver or convenience is basically a nice way of saying "yes we want your info because we can profit from it".
Which again is not so bad because you do get convenience and or discounts for said information.
However it starts crossing the line big time when it's your health information like Fit Bits or other exercise appss, and even health apps.
Here is America we have HIPPA laws which protects us from our Hospitals giving out info however if yo put it on the web in an app or apparatus like Fit Bits you are handing over really personal info.
Just remember this if it's too convenient or they are "buying" it from you it might not necessarily be in your best inerrest.

I think we are many who worry about how safe information is if stored on a computer that has access to the internet, and you would be hard put to it, to find one that doesn't these days.

I may be paranoid, but I don't keep passwords and other confidential information on my computer any longer, but only on a file that is stored on an external hard-drive, or in an old fashioned paper notebook!

Does this mean that every ticket that is handed in gives access to people's bank accounts

they can reverse the transaction without ever knowing your details

There was a news article yesterday reporting that a senior judge, in a lecture for the Law Society, has suggested carrying a mobile phone with GPS switched on should be compulsory in order to cut crime.

that would be a nightmare for women and children escaping domestic violence?

or witness protection

I read the thread and when I got to the bottom of the page there was an advert for something I just ordered. Seriously!

I was browsing flights to New York last week. A couple of days later, I had a call on my mobile from someone who said he believed I was looking for flights to the US. None of my personal details had been used, I was purely looking at prices. I would much rather use my landline, and do, but unfortunately nowadays, mobile numbers are mandatory sometimes.

I don't have a google Mail email account so my iPhone does not synch to emails but it can read my texts! I had sent a text to my daughter confirming some lunch arrangements and when I went to add the details in my diary, I found them already there! My mum, who has mild Alzheimers and heard my cry of astonishment, now thinks that my phone can listen in to our conversations as she does not really know what texts are! She insists that my phone is switched off when I visit her!

My Mum likes me to switch my phone off when I’m visiting with her too!

She has my old iPad (which I have to update occasionally) so she can see what her greatgrandkids are up to so she’s warming to technology.

Syncing or Google synchronizing our texts with our calendar is a bit scary at first but now I find it very convenient.

I am, however, not letting Google track my location unless I’m using Google maps. In retaliation, perhaps, Google searches often give me results from the USA.

Gabriella, I was a bit bemused by your comment re spreadsheets: "What a mad world when people talk about using spreadsheets for their income and outgoings".
Everyone needs some means of recording income and tracking outgoings - how else would you budget, or fill in your tax return?
I've been using spreadsheets for this since I first had access to the software 30 years ago. Before that I used a cashbook & calculator, and I have to say it is much easier on a computer. I was an early adopter because I encountered the technology at work, but surely by now most people are doing it electronically. Far from being a sign of a mad world, it would be madness not to use technology for this!

I haven't checked on my Windows 10 laptop (Microsoft browser, Edge or Windows Explorer defaults to Bing as its search engine) if there is a private browsing mode but you don't have to use Google anyway. You can either use a browser other than Google (I use Duckduckgo on Apple Mac) or turn on Private browsing on the iPad or Secret mode on an Android phone. That way Google doesn't really know what you are doing. There are other options too. You just have to find them and use them.

Sorry, mistake in my post - Google in this context is a search engine, not a browser. I should have said you can use a search engine other than Google or turn on private browsing, then use Google to search in private.

If you want connectivity between your technology then you will have to put up with this otherwise you pays your money and you takes your choice!