How the hell can Google read my mind???
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Anonymous
| Yes I am freaked out by this. A coworker and I were in my office discussing a very RANDOM vacation destination. I have never been to this place nor ever researched going there EVER. 10 mins later, an ad pops using my Chrome browser for a vacation package to this destination- freaks me out. |
Anonymous
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Last night while playing with Amazon TV for the first time I saw the movie The Final Countdown was listed; The movie came out when I was eight years old and one is one of the first movies I can remember seeing. I started it and about 30 minutes in there was a character named Senator Samuel Chapman.
The movie has some historic references so I started typing into my iPhone SAMU and the auto fill came up with Senator Samuel Chapman, I follow the link and it explained how it was a poorly fictional character. This is a 35-year-old movie and there have to have been so many more modern instances of note starting with SAMU... The prime account is under my wife’s name, our router is acting funny so I was using cellular data on my phone; the microphone on my phone must be live every few minutes or so, that’s the only way I could possibly explain how a really vague start to a Google search could reveal such precise results to a 35-year-old movie reference. |
Anonymous
Did your co-worker do any research on their phone or Google the destination? If both of you use Google maps from your Google sign-in, most likely Google determined from the GPS that you were both in the same place and may have tracked his/her question, then associated you with them because you were in the same place as they were. |
Anonymous
This one is likely easier. If you ever use Google Maps or location services, Google already knows that is your home. It's got that linked as as a frequent location. Even if you were on cell and not WiFi, it's already got the location cached. And Google already knows that the Amazon TV is on your home account. So it tracked that activiti. The thing that most people don't realize or remember is that computers don't forget information unless they are told to forget information. Even if you haven't done something this session, the computer has a history. You've access the home WiFi on your phone in the past. It keeps that information on you. You were using an account linked to your home, that WiFi that you've used in the past. And you were physically there (which location services can tell it, even if you aren't on the WiFi at the moment). The Google database has all the information to track your watching of that movie. |
Anonymous
| I normally search for topics on Google on my personal cell phone at night. When I log into FaceBook or DCUM on my work computer, I get ads for the various places I was looking at on my phone. I guess the FB App on my phone may be pulling my search data. |
Anonymous
| DH was out with DD and mentioned that there was a crack in her water bottle and we needed to order a new one. The next day I started getting ads on gmail for the very specific type of water bottle she had. |
Anonymous
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Saw this story today and recalled posts on here about apps “reading minds.” Found this one just as something to think about.
https://theoutline.com/post/3947/wylie-its-possible-that-the-facebook-app-is-listening-to-you?zd=1&zi=j7som5fo
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Anonymous
| Facebook absolutely listens via the app. Once a friend verbally told me about a specific brand I had never heard of, and she spelled the name. I promptly got ads for the brand on my Facebook. Deleted the app that day. |
Anonymous
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Want to add to this.... in the last week or two, I've been thinking about my DNA results. I took the test a few years ago. They are slightly different from my sister's. I have 2% african DNA and she does not. I wrote it off to, non twin sisters are not identical, so, no big deal.
My mom won't take a DNA test, says she "doesn't want the government to have her DNA". I've only recently been idly wondering if maybe I am not my dad's bio-child. I've thought about how to ask mom if there is any chance of this... Well lo and behold, what comes up on my facebook today but a story about DNA revealing that a child is not the Supposed-dad's, and how this is becoming a more frequent discovery in families. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/dna-test-divorce/571684/ OK it could be a coincidence, but still... This happens often. I'll just be thinking about something and google knows. Weird. |
Anonymous
| Your phone is also listening to you. |
Anonymous
| It knows where you live and what your job is and that you eat. |
Anonymous
| one time i THINKING about being thirsty, and an advertisement for a water fountain popped up on my Instagram. It tripped me out |
Anonymous
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Here's a creepy one. I have an old fold-up futon in my office. I wanted to lay down on it this morning. It wasn't working properly - it should have the ability to fold down all the way flat, but for some reason it was stuck in a half folded position. I sat on it and read emails on my phone. I didn't complain, I didn't ask for help, I didn't talk about it, I didn't google it.
Just now on facebook I got an ad for fold up/fold out futons. Never saw one before today. |
Anonymous
| I was recently singing a song in my head and I went to YouTube music (run using googles algorithm) and when I went to satisfy my thirst for a sweet beat the exact song I was singing in my head came up as the first song on my recommended playlist. What was even more strange was that the song that I was singing in my head, which is the song no it recommended to me wasn’t liked by me! Which means that the algorithm got the data that I enjoyed that song from some other source than myself! |
Anonymous
See, this shit pisses me off. Total violation of privacy. |