Are our mobiles listening in !!! just coincidence!! [hmm]

While on a walk I casually mentioned to my son that I had heard an interesting radio programme about setting up your own business (no-one in the family is planning to do this). Within two days I had an email from a university offering a course on setting up a business.

More strange however, a couple of months ago I was sitting on the toilet thinking I really need new doors. The next day there was an advert for .... guess what.... interior doors among my emails. I didn't even say that aloud so please don't tell me they can read our thoughts as well!

I'm absolutely certain that this does happen. I delete as much as I can, but it can't be coincidence that if I mention amythest earrings ( for example) to someone I'm bound to get endless adverts for them.
Recently I was saying in an email how much I miss my best friend who has moved 200 miles away. Now I keep getting messages from "Hot Russian ladies" and "Very friendly gals" etc.

The collection of our personal data has become big business. See here how your loyalty card information is profiled:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43483426

Data collection can, and does, cross the line of legality. This is a very ominous report. www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election
UK law does permit you to access your profiled data, the problem is, you have to find out first who is storing it, and there a quite a few, so you might think that having found one, that's it. Not so.

Years ago, when telephone exchanges were manually operated, someone I knew was ringing her mother, who said she had something to tell her about a mutual friend, but would wait until they met in person as the operators listened in to conversations. A disembodied voice on the line broke in, "Oh no, we don't!!"

They all do this. My daughter swears it is their Alexa but I think it could be laptop, phone any of them. They were discussing going to a restaurant when visiting Australia and the next day a voucher for a discounted meal appeared in an email. I tried it out on my laptop. I said I really wanted a green dress. Not long after green dresses appeared. I have a habit since old age hit me of speaking to myself so I am now making a concerted effort not to verbalise my credit card number as I type it in.

Oopsadaisy4 Tue 15-Sep-20 09:20:35
^Spangler so that means that you have to log into each website every day?

I wonder if any of the websites remember your IP address?^
Thanks for that heads up. Deleting everything has become such a habit that I can now do it quite quickly.

An IP address serves two main functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing. Really, I wouldn't know if my IP address is logged & remembered, I like to think not because when I log on I always get those pop ups requesting agreement to harvest my personal information, although they don't exactly word it like that.

What really annoys me about listening in is the way it's profiled and then copies sold on. I guess there really is no such thing as a free lunch.

?

(Not original)

My friend said he was told that our technology eavesdrops on our conversations. How we laughed — so did Siri and Alexa. ?

Simply put, device activity is constantly monitored-

When you share information via text, the program "sees" /detects anything with a "link"-

Having read on here a while back about how our devices 'listen', OH and I decided to try it out by having a made-up conversation about wanting to take a trip to St Petersburg, or something like that.
We fully expected to start getting travel ads popping up on our phones, but nothing happened.

On the other hand, last week we had a one-off conversation about something (though I can't actually remember what it was now), and you've guessed, I had ads for whatever it was later that day!

It seems that our smart phones are just that, and know when we are trying to fool them!

It isn't a coincidence and nobody is "listening"- Your data is being tracked and then "shared"- Two major trackers of data are Amazon and Facebook- Sites and apps also collect data, including geographical location, and use algorithms to generate ads-

When you Google a subject, Google selects the results it wants you to have -- sites that generate income-

(back in the day, the best search results were their priority)

Alexa "hears" you as do other programs on your devices including smart speakers-

And apps and other programs track your "spending" activity which is then "shared"-

Yes, it definitely happens. Been the subject of much discussion in the family. Grandchildren talking about visiting Australia and how they planned to eat at a particular restaurant. Next day a voucher appeared for a discounted meal at that restaurant. We have tried experimenting with saying things like “I really want a green dress” and in a short time photos of green dresses appear in adverts.

Spangler so that means that you have to log into each website every day?

I wonder if any of the websites remember your IP address?

Firefox has a ‘private browsing ‘ app, if you use that it doesn’t appear on your Computers history , you have to log in each time to every website, but it might save you some time deleting everything each day. Might be worth a try.

Oopsadaisy4 Mon 14-Sep-20 15:50:07

The only way around it is to disable all cookies, but you will find that a lot of websites won’t allow you to go onto them.

My computer is set to delete cookies when it's switched off, but I don't trust it. I call up history and delete all my browsing, then I click on clear data and finally on internet options I get rid of cookies and unwanted web information.

It's tedious to do every time but the benefit is that the computer never runs slow and you are not tracked. My mobile phone has never been connected.

This morning I said to DH, I must ring X, when I have got my coffee I will do so. At that point the phone rang - and it was X.

Co incidence, telepathy or what? these things have always happened, it is just if it happens on the phone we automatically get suspicious.

I find it a bit creepy to think of powers listening in to my conversations but they would find nothing of any interest. But on the other hand if they have the capability to listen let’s hope they use it to catch the terrorist that may plan to blow up or maim my darling grandchildren and from that point listen in as much as you like I have nothing to hide

PS forgot to say that most phones microphones are always on, ditto the Amazon Firestick and Alexa device, you also might have Siri or Cartona on your device, these are on unless switched off, not very likely on a phone.

Every time you log onto the internet, or if anyone in your household uses the same WiFi address, the site leaves a cookie, ( unless you disable the cookies)
These track your interests and send up adverts.
Cookies mean that you don’t have to log in all of the time, but they track you.

Remember the GN consents that were recently put up? As we can’t disable them they are tracking everything that you or people in your household are looking at. On your phone, PC or iPads .

The only way around it is to disable all cookies, but you will find that a lot of websites won’t allow you to go onto them.

I thought I remembered this thread from back in June - glad it's been revived.

Sometimes I think the laptop and/or phone are psychic. I clicked on the thread here about vinyl flooring and there was already an ad (in German) for vinyl flooring planted in the middle of the thread!

A helpful site. There are other sites with privacy advice, too.
mashable.com/article/google-privacy-setting-you-should-enable-now/?europe=true

The first thing you see when you open this site is their own privacy options. Don't just click on "I consent", go to "other options" , Read what they other options are, and then click on "Opt out of all"

Then you can read how best to set your Google and Gmail accounts for privacy.

My phone doesn't listen in as it's just a basic one with no internet access, chosen so I am free from that sort of surveillance when I'm out and about. My laptop, however, watches me all the time- the price of using the internet- and sends ads to me but I often tell it lies!!!

I'm not aware of my phone listening in but I certainly get adverts linked to google searches I have made.

I'll see what happens today, I spent two hours on the phone last night chatting to a friend and we discussed loads of things, including some very personal matters! Could be interesting!

Turn off the microphone on your laptop until you are about to use it to speak to someone - and turn it back off when you finish.

Are your photographs kept on online or cloud storage? Have you checked the privacy settings for that?

Go to the privacy options on every device you use and every site you use regularly and really pay attention to the choices you can make. Google in particular has links to a lot of devices, so whatever you set your Google privacy to is reflected in what happens on other things. That means in the detail as well as the overall settings.

Google signs sites up (and gives them a small fee per ad or per click on the ad) to funnel the ads that they have sold to advertising firms to people viewing the site. Gransnet uses this service to help fund the site.

You will probably find that you have given permission for ads to be beamed to you that reflect your Google searches, the websites you visit, and your posts on social media!

The other thing you may be doing is signing into websites using your Google identity. That can allow the site to send you ads related to what is mentioned on that site.