Post examples that make you think the internet knows too much

FirstWorldProblems

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Spinning this off from the bored thread:

I have one example below in quotes, so does [MENTION=2616]Chester Copperpot[/MENTION], but here's another one that really surprised me:

In March 2012 (back when social media was WAY less intrusive) facebook suggested my dad's old business partner as a friend. He was 35 years older than me, zero mutual friends, I never worked for my dad and therefore did not have any company information in my work history (neither did he FWIW), my dad never had facebook, this guy lived almost an hour away from me, and I did not have his number in my phone.

I literally can't think of a convenient way for even an investigator to link the two of us (using just the internet or paperwork) without going through a lot of tax filings. The company only existed on paper, no website, no social media presence. My dad still spoke to him at the time and mentioned it, and the guy said he hadn't searched for me nor had he been active on facebook in a long time (which was pretty obvious by viewing his profile). Made all 3 of us scratch our heads

More:


Things that make me want to buy a flip phone and disconnect from reality completely and fuck off into obscurity:

Was talking to my GF about wanting to get an electronic drumset so I can jam without all the noise as we went to dinner. I had my phone on me in the truck. When we got home, I loaded up youtube on my iPad to watch some podcasts as I was reloading ammo and the first ad that pops up? Plastic cymbal covers/wall things that reduce noise in the direction you're facing.

Deleted youtube from my phone. Fuck that.

The first time i've ever experienced this was this past weekend. Wife and I were driving and there was a good sounding porsche cayman in front of us. I'm not sure if i said "that porsche sounds good" or "that cayman sounds good"....but when i scrolled through facebook a couple hours later, the autotrader sponsored ad that shows vehicles listed for sale was loaded with caymans.

What
The
Fuck

You should see my edited post. I was in the truck with only my phone when I made the comment to her. Got home later, grabbed my iPad, and the iPad showed the ad. Yes I was logged into the same account on both devices and yes I know how it works.

nope

I quit

fuck this gay earth

when i've been skeptical in the past that something popped up in ads that I had recently spoke about, i was never certain wthat I hadn't also searched something or "liked" something related. But in this case it was so odd. I hadn't looked up porsche on my phone, followed them on any IG pages, liked any photos, nothing.

I honestly believed the social media companies saying that they do not listen in on your convos, seems like it'd be a LOT of work and an incredible invasion of privacy with little to no benefit, but signs do point to the contrary sometimes

I say "little to no benefit" because people search for things they are going to buy. Or "like" photos, or follow pages. And it's obvious you open yourself up to targeted advertisements when you search for something. What's the point of also listening in?

CONSPIRACY

I know, 110% know as a provable fact, I haven't posted anything on TCG about drums, I haven't searched drums on youtube, google, amazon, anywhere, I literally have not even SPOKEN about drums probably in months. I don't have IG to like drums. Don't have Shitbook to post about drums. Don't have twitter because I'm not a mouthbreathing retard.

Mention wanting an electronic drum set to quietly jam out. Suddenly, drum parts for ads 45 minutes later.
 

CMNTMXR57

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We do this to ourselves though. Everyone posts up their latest tech gadget that's all connected to the intertubez. I must've heard 3 commercials this morning on my way to work for Google's Alexa (I think that's it), that you can just tell it via voice command what you want to do/call/etc (are we really that fucking lazy that you can't scroll through a directory on the phone, or more often than not, the person I'm calling is my Wife and she's the last one I talked to anyway, so in my call log, she's right there)... Smart TV's, Kitchen appliances with internet connectivity and TV's in them... Seriously. Then you wonder why when you look up sex toys that when you log into your pad/PC/etc it pulls up rubber dildos.
 

Kensington

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Buddy and I were talking about AutoCAD while in the garage working on one of our cars. We both use it for work, but strictly on work PC's. Both of us hands our phones in our pockets. Loaded up Facebook later that night and had AutoCAD purchase specials plastered all over. Deleted Facebook and Facebook Messenger off my phone soon after.
 

10sec

I haz dat teddy bear smile.
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Do you guys actually care though? You tryinna start using paper cups and rope to talk to people that aren't in the same room as you? Use cash for every purchase? Somehow never talk about things of personal interest around any kind of tech device, including all of the people that surround you with cellphones in their pockets?
 

DanJ

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I care a little. I don’t think my devices should be listening to me when I’m not using a function that requires listening. I have turned microphone access off to a few apps now and will never own any sort of device like Alexa because I think it’s creepy.
 

Flyn

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Do I really need to know that Trump's hair blows in the wind? Business Insider thinks I do. "Business" Insider? More like "Hair" Insider. Thorough coverage. 5 photos AND a video. :rolleyes:

Trump's hair blowing during Thursday's high winds in 5 photos, 1 video - Business Insider

5ac6672d524c4a1c008b47d4-750-375.jpg
 

LikeABauce302

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Lord Tin Foilhat

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either you root and install clean images (no bloatware) to avoid this.

or go to app permissions and turn off microphone/camera etc permissions for the apps that you think dont need it.

Some android images dont even let you uninstall facebook which is retarded.

Root, flash a clean image and live the life where you have administrative control. None of this "disable" and no way to remove apps without rooting.

I honestly don't think ive experienced this unless i was searching for it in google or on amazon. Then you can see them pushing shit like crazy.
 

IDAFC21

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Couple weeks ago I was talking w/ an employee and he was talking about how his son was out in new jersey visiting family, and thats when some of those storms were headed that way, so later on i went to my phone, and looked at my google news feed, and low and behold, an article about how jersey was about to get pounded by storms!

Yup. It knows. It always knows.
 

Dan00Hawk

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In some cases, you may have seen ads or something before that you just didn't consciously notice. Then after you talked about it, you finally became aware of them. You just never noticed before when it wasn't something you were interested in.

Happens to me with car shopping for example. I may not have ever paid much attention to a certain vehicle, but when I start shopping for one, I suddenly see them on the road all-the-time.
 

b4black

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I bought underwear online. For weeks a saw google ads of guy's crotches. No thanks.



When logging into State Farm, it asked me questions to confirm my identity. "Which of the following addresses have you lived at". It knew apartments I rented in college 30 years ago. And way to much other shit I never told them. Creepy.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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had a fun one last night,

had a sponsored ad from Midieval times on my instagram feed pop up telling me that they have discounts for scout troops... boyscouts/girl scouts.

i haven't thought/spoken/typed anything about scouts in forever.

then it got me thinking... as we were going through shit at my old house. I found some boy scout shit from when I was younger. I showed it to my wife, she had her phone on her, mine was charging on another level of the house...

soooo.


so im guessing her phone, because she also has instagram/facebook app/etc... heard me say "scouts", associated my voice with the location of my phone, since it knows my voice from google voice recording shit (well and any other mic permission stuff) and then knew to show me the sponsored ad? on my instagram?


that's not far fetched at all, but something I just hadn't thought of.

sure i could have none of these apps on my phone, or have my phone shut off, but people around me's phones could be listening to us/conversations and then attribute what im saying by voice recognition features.


puke
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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the other "fun one" was i saw a photo of me from junior prom, with my date's little sister, who i don't know her name/where she is now/how old she is, etc... in the photo, i'd guess she is maybe 6-7 years old?

anyways, i said "oh that's _____'s little sister"

yesterday, guess who's in my "hey you might now" on my instagram... first person.

the girl from the picture.

again, my phone was upstairs in a completely different room charging. :eek3:
 
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