The creepiness that is Facebook

[82_28]

This is weird.

I was sitting here at my work. My iphone6 was sitting on the table in front of me. In conversation I happened to mention Panera Bread. He didn't quite hear me and said "what"? So I repeated, a little louder and very clearly "Panera bread".

A few minutes later I was checking my Instagram feed, and there appears an ad for Panera bread. That I've never seen before on IG or anywhere else.

Are they now using our phone's microphones to send us ads? Well why wouldn't they?

Yes it could be a coincidence.

A few months ago I noticed the same trend with web surfing habits and home phone number solicitations. When I first noticed it I chalked it off to random coincidence. After I started paying attention I could no longer stop noticing the blatant synchronicity of the sorts of phone calls coming to the home phone number. I think Yahoo email openly admits to this sort of marketing and you have to go opt out which is a serious pain in the ass procedure. These were not coming from email though, they came from simply surfing.

I experimented with turning off the wifi and going hardline cat5 connection, and running through proxies. I even went to "task manager" and turned off the "synaptic pointing device helper" because the name "synaptics" was weirding me out and the touch pad worked fine without it.

The phone calls stopped almost immediately. I don't know what that means.

When the landline rings I answer with Bueno? Then they say something and I say Habla espanol? Como se llama? And then they hang up.

[Luther Blissett]

This is weird.

I was sitting here at my work. My iphone6 was sitting on the table in front of me. In conversation I happened to mention Panera Bread. He didn't quite hear me and said "what"? So I repeated, a little louder and very clearly "Panera bread".

A few minutes later I was checking my Instagram feed, and there appears an ad for Panera bread. That I've never seen before on IG or anywhere else.

Are they now using our phone's microphones to send us ads? Well why wouldn't they?

Yes it could be a coincidence.

This was interesting. I scrolled until I found my first three sponsored ads in Instagram -
Blue Apron - I'm getting my first Blue Apron delivery in months today and discussed it in email and then later in verbal conversation with my partner last night.
Scream Queens Fox - fuck that, I hadn't even thought about the show and it was posted 13 hours ago (for the record, my partner did watch it, but after the ad would have shown up. I think this one was just an omnipresent ad push).
Live Nation - nah I doubt it. I talked about some punk shows I wanted to see this past weekend but that was like Perfect Pussy and some other non-mainstream band.

[Pele'sDaughter]

I usually have my phone lying on the desk, so it hears everything. I did experiment by saying certain words and phrases but no ads have shown up as a result.

[Nordic]

My colleague and I tried it later in the day with Burger King but no ads appeared. But I have no idea if BK advertises on Instagram. Also IG seems to limit the number of ads you see in any given day. Thanks god.

[Joao]

My wife and I have both experienced apparently targeted advertising based on conversations conducted in the presence of our phones. I've also seen similar comments on Reddit.

It's almost impossible to believe this isn't happening, but at the same time it's tough be certain. It's almost second nature to websearch any fleeting topic of interest--we could've talked about something and then absent-mindedly searched for it or emailed about it, which would've invoked the marketing demons through their acknowledged channels...

These fucking phones. Anyone here who gave 'em up or never got on the bandwagon? I could live with a regular "dumb" mobile (which still have plenty of issues) except for GPS directions. This surveillance culture is gonna be tough to beat, since it's both the golden child of the security organs and general industry's expected savior from the crisis of demand.

I've been reading a lot lately about East Germany and the German reunification. An anecdotal theme that comes up often is that many East Germans didn't really care about all the surveillance they were subjected to--instead it was economics and the promise of improved quality of life under capitalism that drove people to abandon socialism. Fair enough, but my point is that privacy just isn't that important to a lot of people.

[backtoiam]

I could live with a regular "dumb" mobile (which still have plenty of issues) except for GPS directions.

I have the dumbest phone on the block. Never had an iphone or anything like it. Never used an app with a phone in my life. I push the button and I hear a dial tone. If i get the numbers right it works. I'm happy

[Luther Blissett]

I know a few anarchists around who have eschewed cell phones or deal with older models. I don't know, I don't have a lot of personal paranoia, just paranoia for others. Maybe that's reckless.

Hugh didn't have any cell phone, if I remember correctly. He used payphones a lot.

[tapitsbo]

There's also the idea that surveillance is so pervasive it's best to just ignore it and speak your mind although it does seem unfortunately true that tens of millions can find their voices studiously ignored if not silenced overtly.

[PufPuf93]

I know a few anarchists around who have eschewed cell phones or deal with older models. I don't know, I don't have a lot of personal paranoia, just paranoia for others. Maybe that's reckless.

Hugh didn't have any cell phone, if I remember correctly. He used payphones a lot.

I have no cell phone. There is no cell service where I live. In recent years there are several wifi hot spots by Tribal Offices and a non-profit environmental group where one can use cell phone if have a wifi account.

The landline system came here in early 70s and has no direct ties to phone grid except for a microwave station on the mountain top and a microwave station in the valley that goes to maybe 400 local land lines (all numbers are xxx-31xx, 32xx, 33xx, 34xx).

My phone is old-fashion and requires no battery nor plug in electricity. The micro-wave phone system is extremely robust but the electrical grid fails more often than most.

Internet is only available by satellite (maybe phone modum too but I know no one now using that technology).

I had no phone nor interent from 2012 to Spring 2015. No TV. Lots of books gathered in past life.

Facebook creeps me out. Never had an account until June or so when a high school friend wanted me to see pictures. In the Jeffery Lash thread I posted about (and copied) material from Facebook. I essentially "stalked" friends and family connected to Dawn Marie VadBunker.


I do not use Facebook myself but have 5 "friends' now from past lives: three show essentially no personal information and do not post - like my account - and two live their lives on the Facebook forum. I have found myself looking at Facebook accounts of people in my past. Kind of being creepy myself.

[Pele'sDaughter]

A week ago a family friend brought over this game for my granddaughter. I laid the thing on a side board where it remains.

Just now I pop over the Facebook where I see an add for Amazon that includes the above toy which I have never done a search for and didn't even know existed until it was brought into the house.

Well, never mind. My d-i-l just told me she did a search for the toy on my Amazon account, so that explains it.

[Twyla LaSarc]

I mentioned cancer in a post here a couple of days ago. Suddenly all the sidebar ads are for cancer treatment centers.

i recently had my firefox 'reset' in an upgrade and lost all my script blockers as 'incompatible'. I have reloaded them all and fuck whether some geek thinks they play well with firefox.

I wonder what weirdness in the algorithm my surfing radfem and gender sites the last week has wrought. So far I'm not getting ads for hormones...

[PufPuf93]

I have noticed target marketing as well.

I get spam emails and phone solicitations that appear to be birthed from my internet posts (only post at RI and DU), private emails, or most likely internet searches or site visits.

[backtoiam]

i recently had my firefox 'reset' in an upgrade and lost all my script blockers as 'incompatible'. I have reloaded them all and fuck whether some geek thinks they play well with firefox.

Same thing happened to me recently. I noticed that something had happened to my Firefox. I don't know anything about scripts or how to do all that though. I used to use noscript, guess I will download it. I use Ghostery and it blocks trackers like mad, or should I say it pretends to, I guess it really does, I don't know. I used Adblock too.

Who knows though, they may all be tattle tales in disguise.

[justdrew]

"adblock plus" (and make sure you have the 'real' one, there's bogus versions up there.

in it's options, activate malware blocking and social media button removal, also I'd suggest Privacy Badger, a new plugin from the EFF. both are available for chrome and firefox on pcs and on macs.

[backtoiam]

Ok I will try to check all that. One thing about Firefox that really pisses me off is that it is always phoning home. Always telling me that I have "automatic updates" that could be installed. I always tell it to piss off. But If I shut down and reboot, it kindly informs me that it crawled up in my bed, fixed up with my goodies, and tucked me in.

Supposedly that stuff is turned off.

wtf?