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Post by spinifex on Nov 22, 2020 8:46:18 GMT 10
The members of my family have been noticing something quite interesting.
I often have a laptop going while having a morning coffee. I don't have any voice recognition running on it.
And yet ... if my wife and I have a discussion about hayfever allergies on wednesday ... on friday an add for anti-allergy tablets pops up in the site I use to check the weather and tides.
I've been monitoring this type of delayed 'co-incidence' for a month. Baiting it with weird topics. It's never immediate ... but some add always pops up a day or two later.
I've checked every setting I can find to see of I'd accidentally activated some voice recognition - but I haven't.
The laptop is definitely always listening. Even when the likes of Google aren't actively running. Some bit of software is eavsdropping and supplying data back to google adds.
Try it for yourself.
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blueshoes
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Post by blueshoes on Nov 22, 2020 9:29:06 GMT 10
Is it the laptop, or does one of you have an iPhone or Android? My money is on it turning out to be a phone in a pocket
If it's a MacBook or chromebook laptop it would make sense, but if it's a Windows laptop relaying audio to AWS or Google (because Cortana) - and them having that linked - that's a new low
Rob the tech guy on voice AI on phones:
Other videos Rob makes are well worth watching
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norseman
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Post by norseman on Nov 22, 2020 9:44:23 GMT 10
The members of my family have been noticing something quite interesting. I often have a laptop going while having a morning coffee. I don't have any voice recognition running on it. And yet ... if my wife and I have a discussion about hayfever allergies on wednesday ... on friday an add for anti-allergy tablets pops up in the site I use to check the weather and tides. I've been monitoring this type of delayed 'co-incidence' for a month. Baiting it with weird topics. It's never immediate ... but some add always pops up a day or two later. I've checked every setting I can find to see of I'd accidentally activated some voice recognition - but I haven't. The laptop is definitely always listening. Even when the likes of Google aren't actively running. Some bit of software is eavsdropping and supplying data back to google adds. Try it for yourself. When I started to warn my household about weird stuff happening on my laptop i.e. really obscure topics being discussed and then days later directly related advertising and viewing recommendations popping up my family tell me I'm just being my usual "paranoid" self but no I can tell you it's real and "they" are listening!
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Beno
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Post by Beno on Nov 22, 2020 10:19:30 GMT 10
It does happen. We think it’s the phone. So what do you do? THis crap is everywhere and by accepting the myriad of privacy agreements to access anything the devil is in the detail.
So is huawei really the enemy? Hell no it’s all the tech companies. Apple just got fined for powering down old iphones in he US to boost new phone sales. They spread huge amounts of false and unverified info. it’s 1984.
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bug
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Post by bug on Nov 22, 2020 11:18:32 GMT 10
Many people have noticed it. I've had it happen too.
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Post by spinifex on Nov 22, 2020 12:56:30 GMT 10
I doubt its my phone or the wifes phone. Although I have no trouble believing they would be eavesdropping as well!
The reason I think this is that my laptop, as far as I know, has no identifiable electronic links to other devices. That is, no shared accounts and no form of syncing and no email accounts in common (I have seperate email acounts for laptop and phone access). I suppose the only connection is that my laptop and wifes mobile would sometimes share the same home wifi signal.
I'm going to try switching my laptop off while baiting our phones ... and then see if the co-incidental adds still show up on my laptop.
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frostbite
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Post by frostbite on Nov 22, 2020 13:49:12 GMT 10
Ah, so that's why I keep getting adds targetted at Vietnamese backpackers.
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Post by thereth on Nov 22, 2020 17:37:02 GMT 10
I do not have any sources on hand but I remember going into this quite extensively a couple years back. The best answer I could find, aside from "they are always watching", was that the predictive algorithms that Big Tech use are now so sophisticated that they can readily find out what we want or need before we do. Tech companies figuring out when women are pregnant before they do is a very common one, along with cheating spouses and even tax fraud.
They use all imformation available to target advertising and media based on even the most minute details, including purchase information, where you live, weather, socio economic data of your peers and neighbours.
They can take everything you put out there, everything people put out there about you and apparently can determine what we will look at before we look at it.
Now personally I find this far more believable and even more terrifying than the standard "the are watching us", as it is only a small hop skip and a jump from using a predictive algorithm for advertising to using it for predicting behaviour and acting on it.
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frostbite
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Post by frostbite on Nov 22, 2020 17:49:30 GMT 10
The Thought Police are already here
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Post by spinifex on Nov 22, 2020 18:03:36 GMT 10
I do not have any sources on hand but I remember going into this quite extensively a couple years back. The best answer I could find, aside from "they are always watching", was that the predictive algorithms that Big Tech use are now so sophisticated that they can readily find out what we want or need before we do. Tech companies figuring out when women are pregnant before they do is a very common one, along with cheating spouses and even tax fraud. They use all imformation available to target advertising and media based on even the most minute details, including purchase information, where you live, weather, socio economic data of your peers and neighbours. They can take everything you put out there, everything people put out there about you and apparently can determine what we will look at before we look at it. Now personally I find this far more believable and even more terrifying than the standard "the are watching us", as it is only a small hop skip and a jump from using a predictive algorithm for advertising to using it for predicting behaviour and acting on it. I'm sure the predictive algo's are doing their thing too. However, when you bait a listening device with some random topics bearing no connection to anything else you are doing in your life ... and the adds roll in ... you know exactly where that tip to google came from. It is beyond doubt. Speaking of algo's ... the ones in phones that recognise what is in the images being taken with its camera are alarming. I'd say that getting your phone camera anywhere near anything you want kept private is a risky thing. It would not surprise me if it is basically ALWAYS monitoring what its 'seeing' and if it 'sees' certain things it activates, captures an image and sends it 'somewhere'. I'm not saying people are looking at all these images etc in real time ... but surely every one of us has a digital file being kept on us and the moment we become a 'person of interest' that information can be located and accessed.
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pugs
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Post by pugs on Nov 22, 2020 19:51:00 GMT 10
Ah, so that's why I keep getting adds targetted at Vietnamese backpackers. Pornhub doesn’t count 🤣🤣
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pugs
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Post by pugs on Nov 22, 2020 19:53:52 GMT 10
I noticed it too and went through the same thing with my wife , we also stared discussing things like wallpaper and carpets ( my place is mudbrick and stone flooring ) and of course a few days later ads for carpet companies popped up ... Phone stays in the kitchen if we discuss personal stuff now ...
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bushdoc2
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Post by bushdoc2 on Nov 22, 2020 20:38:38 GMT 10
Just play talkback radio all day near the laptop.
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captain
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Post by captain on Nov 23, 2020 21:51:27 GMT 10
This intrigues me - where are the ads appearing? Is it on Facebook or via the google searching or somewhere else?
I use many accounts on various devices, different browser types, hidden behind VPN and also different operating systems.. I may use Firefox on one device, ms edge on another and I am very strict on myself about what is installed on my iPhone (and that is also hidden behind a VPN). I always make certain the mic is turned off and the camera is covered up on all devices too. On all my devices I block pop ups and also use different names. Facebook is a no-no to me and I always use DuckDuckGo as my search engine. Never use google. All that is SOP to me.
No ads for me. But I am intrigued as to how and where these ads people are reporting appear.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Nov 23, 2020 22:52:55 GMT 10
It is worth watching “The social dilemma” - on Netflix. Doesn’t talk about our phones listening but it is very interesting how everything we do online is used.
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Post by illuminati on Nov 24, 2020 20:42:15 GMT 10
All the voice recognition things like Siri on Apple, Cortana on Windows, Alexa on Amazon, Googles one etc listening 24/7.
The algorithms will connect you if anything is in common like same WiFi, same IP address etc, same login on a site (as practically all sites have trackers). The algorithms will know you better than you know yourself. You’ll think there’s nothing in common between your devices, but there’s probably something you’re overlooking that the algorithm has nailed.
Plus it could be coincidence. You might think of hay fever and then it shows you hay fever later. Maybe it showed you hay fever earlier but you were ignoring it. But subconsciously it was rolling in back of your head and that’s why you randomly thought of hay fever and then it shows hay fever again and you think hang on it’s spying on me.
The short of it is yes it is slaying on you. If you really care disconnect the microphone. Cut the cable or desolder it.
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Post by illuminati on Nov 24, 2020 20:42:28 GMT 10
Spying
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Beno
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Post by Beno on Nov 30, 2020 19:57:39 GMT 10
My Daughter came in today saying that so and so was being a karen. I thought WTF she is only 10 and is talking about karens. So i asked her what a karen was and she gave an incomplete answer which was a relief. Mrs and I had a chuckle and talked about karens for a bit. Then we talked about China and their twitter about the photoshop of the Aussie soldier with the kid holding a lamb. Not long after my son watched a bit of the old malcom in the middle.
so i’m looking at Ausprep and she kicks off youtube. The first 5 things that pop up are about conflict with china, a clip about karens going off and the icing on the cake was a clip of an old malcom in the middle episode.....
Just now the lads from Amberly are playing above......friggen creepy.
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frostbite
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Post by frostbite on Nov 30, 2020 20:14:13 GMT 10
I'm always talking about the same 3 or 4 things, but yet I never get adds for m4 carbines, single malt whisky, cuban cigars or sexy young Vietnamese backpackers. My Google needs to lift it's game.
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Post by milspec on Nov 30, 2020 20:57:14 GMT 10
I've reintroduced some inconvenience in my life. I've uninstalled the facebook & messenger apps, disabled chrome & google search app, disabled mic permission for almost every app other than the phone & camera. Went through the apps list and disabled any permission I didnt see a valid reason for. Location is turned off as is the option to refine location with wifi networks. I use the car inbuilt nav system if needs be. I operate behind a paid vpn. I use duck duck go too. I've strengthened passwords, use a non google & non microsoft encrypted email, added non sms 2fa where possible.
Life feels better in the internet privacy regard and its not really that much more inconvenient tbh.
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