Is Big Brother watching? Or listening in..

[StephenB]

I spoke on the phone to my walking buddy last night, about our weeks trip to the Lake District in March. We are renting a cottage.

We talked about taking bikes and racks, we talked about (or at least I did) photography and the gear 'I' was taking, and we talked about walks, cycle tracks, maps and guide books for planning on the hoof each day. He told me he was chased by two terriers whilst out on his road bike. Yoga wasn't mentioned!

An hour after our call had ended he had an email from Pinterest, this may be just a coincidence..

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[Ross the fiddler]

You might have been talking but was he browsing with Pinterest using tracking cookies on his computer. Nothing strange here as Google Chrome & ebay etc does the same.

 

[StephenB]

You might have been talking but was he browsing with Pinterest using tracking cookies on his computer. Nothing strange here as Google Chrome & ebay etc does the same.

I'll ask him, I am pretty boring so people do tend to use their pads in between yawning

 

[ijm5012]

I've seen this same sort of thing myself. Pretty concerning when you think about it...

On a more uplifting note, my wife and I will be traveling to England this summer, and will be spending 5 days up in the Lake District. We haven't booked our accommodations yet, but at this time are planning on staying in/around Keswick, since it seems to be pretty central.

I look forward to your images from the Lake District, my wife and I are looking forward to visiting in June.

 

[StephenB]

I've seen this same sort of thing myself. Pretty concerning when you think about it...

On a more uplifting note, my wife and I will be traveling to England this summer, and will be spending 5 days up in the Lake District. We haven't booked our accommodations yet, but at this time are planning on staying in/around Keswick, since it seems to be pretty central.

I look forward to your images from the Lake District, my wife and I are looking forward to visiting in June.

Keswick is a good place to stay. I hope you have some good weather windows. I've been in June and it was awesome, I've also cycled through in March (when cycling the C2C, Whitehaven to Newcastle) when the weather was horrendous, although outdoorsy people can embrace any weather as long as there's somewhere warm and dry at the end of the day.

 

[ijm5012]

Keswick is a good place to stay. I hope you have some good weather windows. I've been in June and it was awesome, I've also cycled through in March (when cycling the C2C, Whitehaven to Newcastle) when the weather was horrendous, although outdoorsy people can embrace any weather as long as there's somewhere warm and dry at the end of the day.

Yes, from what I've read, late June is about as good as it'll get. Weather should be good, kids aren't on holiday yet, etc.

I too am hoping for good weather, but if this summer is anything like last summer, I'm sure there'll be people begging for some rain.

 

[StephenB]

Just heard from my buddy. He wasn't Googling as we spoke, nor after. Maybe I'm being paranoid, maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it's FA. The only one of the attached snipped subjects we didn't speak of was yoga, something he's into and I'm not.

We talked road cycling, arts and craft movement, photography, the Lake District, cottages and the local scenery re photography. Oh food shopping was mentioned, so maybe a supermarket will get in touch, LOL.

 

[Deleted member 20897]

In order for the live assistant functions in phones to work, they have to always be listening and the data needs processed.

Unless the smart device is physically off, it is listening and reporting and AI algorithms are putting together habits for suggestions and recommendations.

Unless you are truly off the grid... You are on the grid.

Welcome to SkyNet.

 

[StephenB]

In order for the give assistant functions in phones to work, they have to always be listening and the data needs processed.

Unless the smart device is physically off, it is listening and reporting and AI algorithms are putting together habits for suggestions and recommendations.

Unless you are truly off the grid... You are on the grid.

Welcome to SkyNet.

We were both on landlines. It's nothing sinister I'm sure, it does make a good conspiracy theory though

 

[Deleted member 20897]

We were both on landlines. It's nothing sinister I'm sure, it does make a good conspiracy theory though

Doesnt matter, honestly. If any smart device is within earshot... It records and reports. Alexa, Google home, Siri, Cortana...they all are full on all the time if they have power .

I'm not implying anything sinister, just level setting the reality of the situation.

 

[StephenB]

Doesnt matter, honestly. If any smart device is within earshot... It records and reports. Alexa, Google home, Siri, Cortana...they all are full on all the time if they have power .

I'm not implying anything sinister, just level setting the reality of the situation.

I'm sure you're right. I have both Cortana and Google in front of me. I also have my voice activated phone and motoring apps - a shame I didn't think to use them when I took the wrong turning after a road closure last week after a RTC, I could have used Android Auto - but in true old-fart fashion I just ploughed on for miles until I saw a landmark I recognised.

 

[Robstar1963]

I just told my wife about this and she is convinced she has had a similar experience where conversations have preceded Facebook pages coming up with content relating to her conversation despite not having done any related searching
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss this as an innocent coincidence

 

[Linh]

I'm not fully convinced Google/FB/Amazon are listening in and recording 100% and advertising based on that (even with my multiple Google Homes). However, there's probably a ton of data that can easily reference things, between yourself and everyone else you know sharing stuff. We already know anonymous metadata isn't all that anonymous. With the right cross referenced information, it's probably more valuable than the risk of recording everything, for now.

 

[DanS]

They aren't listening, but looking at all the cookie and other forms of tracking data coming out of your devises.

 

[pondball]

Good thing these gizmos aren’t olfactory equipped yet!

I can’t imagine the “Pins” they’d be suggesting here... especially after beers and pickled eggs!

 

[ralf-11]

the computational bokeh of Sauron's Eye has focused on YOU

 

[StephenB]

They aren't listening, but looking at all the cookie and other forms of tracking data coming out of your devises.

Pinpointing 5 out of 6 of multi data searches is the coincidence.

 

[DanS]

Pinpointing 5 out of 6 of multi data searches is the coincidence.

You' be shocked, how much data you send out and don't realize it. You don't have to be browsing Pintrest so send Pintrest tracking data. Anything that gets loaded from a Pintrest domain guarantees they get tracking data. For example every page that you go to that has social sharing buttons means you are sending each of those sites tracking data.

Soon even disabling cookies and JavaScript won't prevent them from tracking you, as the entire web is slowly going ssl for everything. You send so much data when you initiate an ssl handshake that they can pretty easily fingerprint you.

 

[gwydionjhr]

Doesnt matter, honestly. If any smart device is within earshot... It records and reports. Alexa, Google home, Siri, Cortana...they all are full on all the time if they have power .

I'm not implying anything sinister, just level setting the reality of the situation.

These assistants are only (supposed) to be listening for keywords to be activated and then they start actually listening. If it was sending a constant stream of data you'd see it on your bill. I only use Cortana and I've never seen any ads come up that could have been generated from listening to conversations.

My father has an Essential phone that runs pure Android. He started seeing groups of 5 texts messages going out that he couldn't explain. Turned off all the permissions he could find, still didn't change anything. He finally blew the phone away, did a clean install and left it bone stock, made sure all the permissions were turned off, and it's still sending out the text messages. So it's either something Essential has installed (which I doubt) or it's a core function of Android that can't be turned off.

For now I'm continuing to get by with my trusty Lumia 950, but when it comes time to get a new phone, I'm seriously considering seeing how far I can go just using the web for as much as possible.

 

[Reflector]

They're probably listening in and certain words are tied into probably tripping the phone off to send off a small part of your conversation (with your consent from the click through EULAs) that then goes to the same server used to process voice commands.

You're not the only person that experiences this. Usually it happens when you have location enabled as well since it gives them enough data to do location specific marketing as well. Some Youtubers have noticed (and mentioned jokingly) that they've had a conversation in their car with a friend about some obscure subject and the next day they get ads for said subject since they had their phone with them.