I don't have much of a social media presence, so its somewhat humorous what ads google ad services puts together for me. It seems relatively convinced that I work with heavy equipment (I do not), and that I am interested in meeting seniors in my area (though I am single, that's hardly my demographic). I do really wish it would figure out that I decided at 7-years-old that I would never consume alcohol, never have, and all the catchy microbrew commercials they show me aren't going to change my mind.

Crap like this reminds me of why I'm thankful I got on the ad-blocking train over 20 years ago and never looked back. If a site's worth my time, they'll get my business.

Still can't accept this. Husband's FB routinely shows adverts on exceptionally random and specific points of CONVERSATION. Sod all to do with location, browsing history, contacts, email or purchases. I mention a leaky tap and suddenly adverts for plumbers appear. I declare I'm making fajitas for dinner and the ads reflect that. I find a hole in my sock and socks are the lastest thing on sale. Happens waaaaaay to often for me to accept it's just an algorithm.

It reminds me of the time about 20% of the dutch shared the same supermarket 'fidelity benefits' card, after they noticed you could just photocopy it. So that dataset contained one superhuman eating 20% of the country's food at many places at once, with a preference for exactly the average of relatively young affluent dutchies.

We are our own worst enemy. And there are people willing and ready to take advantage of this, (Us being our own worst enemy) The things we have just come to accept and justify as okay. Truly is not okay and I just wish more people would admit that. Admitting to ourselves that things aren't what they seem. And maybe just maybe admit that we are all being fooled by the system and establishment. It will not get better regarding any issue. Until we admit what's going on. Because things can be fixed and better for each and everyone of us. But denying it all makes it impossible. Just trying to share some wisdom.

I'm still trying to figure out how Google knew I made a joke to my husband (verbally in person) about getting a coffin for our son to sleep in and then I got targeted ads for caskets for the next week. You can't convince me that Amazon's Echos aren't listening and sharing what I say after that. No, I did not look up coffins or caskets. It was just a passing joke.

The more time passes and the more I realize the amount of bullets I dodge by simply not owning a smartphone. I still have a cellphone and therefore could be geolocalized and tracked whenever someone would feel the need to (but my daily life is pretty regular and dull, they'd get bored very soon). But I'm certainly less involved in mass data collecting than a smartphone owner.

Advice: Consumer surveillance is real. Data brokerage is big business. These guys pimp access to you. So: Don't use voice command devices. Turn them off or disable them. Check all app permissions that want access to your personal info they don't need; ie contacts, camera, photos, location, email. Turn off location on your phone, tablet, PC except for emergencies. Use a browser that blocks trackers. Avoid giving your email address out to anyone on line or a business. Don't forward email with blocks of emaiI addresses in them. Google email accounts don't legally need your birthdate. Use private Windows 10 logins, not the 'easy access from anywhere' cloud based admin login. When going away for 3 or more days, unplug your internet cable modem for that time, to reset your "dynamic" IP address to actually get a new IP address. Email your elected government officials to express your view of consumer surveillance, after all, you are paying for it. Business gets all income from one source, you.

*gets a porn ad* I know what my neighbors are into.

The irony that BoredPanda currently has 5 trackers blocked for me

This is my argument with the antivaxxers who claim it's to get a chip in you to track you- like you've been tracked FOR YEARS without any chips. I work in the CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry, and the amount of data we have on shoppers would astound you, and that's just from the credit cards. They don't need to put a tracking chip inside you, you already willingly give them everything they need.

I was looking up a local historical wine farm on Google, now I keep getting ads for wines from all the local wine farms, so I can blame Mr Google.

There is a site called mylife. I accidentally stumbled on it when I was looking for some info for a friend. It lists people's addresses and birthdates as well as some other info (religion, political party, friends, family, previous addresses) for free. If you want actually dirt, you have to subscribe. I started looking up people just to see who was on there. Everyone in my family - even my 88 yo MIL who has never used a computer. They say they are getting the info from FB, Twitter, TikTok, IG, SC, etc. but clearly, they are getting it from other places. I'm guessing she has a loyalty card from some grocery store and they sold her info.

Janelle Collard

Janelle Collard

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This is why I have a 10-yr-old 3g tracfone.

i keep location on my phone turned off unless i need map functionality, and i keep all personalized stuff on google turned off. also i VERY rarely see ads at all, and when i do i only note that they're there and annoying, not what they're for. ad blockers exist, people! things that block trackers are also excellent.

Sorry, but I, too, work in tech and this guy is COMPLETELY wrong when he says they don't listen. They don't *only* listen, but yes, they listen too. Samsung, Amazon with things like Alexa, various phone makers, Facebook, etc. all use everything they can and have acknowledged they listen at times as well.

This has most likely been mentioned before but one factor for many of these cases would definitely be that ads are noticed now after being highlighted in real life. The same thing happens with newly favourited actors - going back to watch older movies and noticing for the first time that they are in it and then wondering how you never knew before.

Targeted ads is a fun thing, but here in EU it's a bit less invasive. But still after googling some powder foods i see huel ads everywhere lol! But it's always something i personally googled before lately

AI is going to be the death of us all. Hunger games sounds like a reality.