Big brother IS watching us..

How did this one work:

bought some moisturiser in boots. not a trendy new brand an oldfashioned brand. I didnt search it online at any point. Used my debit card but no loyalty card and do not have a banking app linked to my debit card on my phone. Didnt mention it to anyone via text or email etc as it was quite a boring purchase

All my pop ups on my phone that evening were for that brand.

How? I'm mainly curious as to how it linked up?

For reasons best known to himself my husband was looking at motorised cycles at work the other lunchtime - on his works pc which has no connection to his own laptop. That night he received a personal e-mail from Halfords - about motorised cycles! How is that even possible?!! Big brother watching indeed

Lilyflower You speak of Blair and “comrade Corbyn” but it was Cameron and TM who forced through the Investigatory Powers Act which Corbyn voted against!
This Act gives internet service providers the legal duty to store our emails and web activity for 12 months to allow HMG to go through them!
It is also used by local authorities to catch parents trying to lie about address for converted school places

luzdoh It’s not done by people shifting through all your emails but by a computer algorithm. You can reduce this by selecting the disable cookies on your security settings. The idea is that your “shopping experience is enhanced” or to put another way they can flog you more stuff? even if you disable cookies it won’t stop GCHQ etc with their search for terrorists as they use very sophisticated soft ware

I have just bought a smart phone. Should I be worried about Cambridge Analytica?

Oh notanan2 I’m so glad I’ve been retired from my office manager post for over ten years now, even though a lot of my work was computerised after being a pen pushing job for many years I don’t think I could have coped with what you are speaking of here.

Glitter I prefer paper diaries but its not compatable with my job.

So it would mean I had 2 diaries: online & paper for work & personal...which I tried for a while but it resulted in mix ups.

In lots of jobs now smartphones are expected and all the systems are geared up with that assumption.

Time changes and overtime confirmations all ping into my online calender. If I just transcribed them and didnt use the online system I wouldnt be notified of changes or updates or swaps. Training details get sent that way too (room/time).

Oh dear I’m back in the dark ages, have a cheap old mobile phone that just texts and I can call a taxi etc when we are out on, plus a diary from Poundland that I write every appointment and outing down in for me and OH. Always know where I’m up to and what I’m doing.

Good to know that they were on the ball and helpful.

I spoke with my provider and they were helpful and reassuring. It seems the webcam takeover bid was linked to Cortana and a Windows 10 update. I disabled the webcam and changed all passwords. Also important that I have never allowed my location to be seen or it could be worse. It seems such programmes can see us and listen to us.

Hope no one else has such an experience.

Thank you Elegran. I hadn't thought of that.

Report it to your internet provider. It could be someone wanting to spy on you or your online movements and passwords, and the internet provider could have the means to investigate.

Anyone know why a message popped up on my screen this morning saying it wanted to use my webcam? I've never seen that before.

I've turned the webcam off. It was a bit unnerving. I had just got out of the shower, so it would be difficult to say who would have got the biggest shock them or me.

What is going on?

Totally agree about people being chipped in the future. It could carry medical info and history including doing diagnostics, etc; bank details; criminal record; location of vulnerable people.
All great provided the humans in charge are responsible!

Other search engines are available. I never use google.

Godfather . Does your nephew have an alexa or similar .I've heard that they "listen" to everything being said and react to things.
Don't think I will ever have one of those.

My nephew was discussing a possible purchase with his DW. He switched on his computer and, lo and behold, there were the search results already for him!

Orwell wrote ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ as a chilling warning of the possibility of a brutal surveillance society using elements of oppression already in use and his knowledge of human nature.

He had no idea how technology would advance as it has to make spying on individuals as easy as it is. Neither did it

occur to him that institutions, being slow, uncoordinated and lumbering, would not be able to use the technology to its optimum effect.

Thus the power of Google is used to sell us yogurt; we are exhorted to buy the big ticket item we have just bought and our data is left on trains by nincompoops.

Of course, interconnectedness has given personal venality rocket boosters and so we have porn, internet paedophilia and online gambling but they are not forced on us by a B.B. government.

Still, there is a powerful mechanism in place should any authoritarian regime wish to oppress its citizens. Blair’s spell in power did much to legislate away the ordinary citizen’s rights to privacy and security in their own home, after all. Are we ready for Comrade Corbyn?

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.