# So, is anyone else getting paranoid about strange coincidences in their social media advertising feeds?



## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

My ads in my social media are full of music gear, and that's not surprising. However, sometimes I see stuff that seriously makes me wonder about how Big Brother is connected to me. This week at work I went to Subway for lunch for the first time since COVID (no cafeteria, too hot for burgers and fries) and paid with credit card tap. Next day I get a Subway advertisement in my FB feed for the first time ever.

This is even crazier: a few years back, I was having lunch with friends at work and we were having an oddball conversation about Bailey's Irish Cream. I do not have a smartphone but one of the folks on the table has one and is a FB friend. Within a week I see FB advertisements pop up about homemade Irish Cream drink recipes. Coincidence, really? Do you ever read those confidentiality agreements?


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

I get ya, and it is creepy. Plain and simple,., we are being tracked. last evening I started getting ads for dildo lube, but I don't use lube


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

vadsy said:


> but I don't use lube


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Yes, its creepy. I once had a short conversation with a coworker about to retire. He told me about the RV he was buying... in the next few days I started getting RV ads for the exact model he bought. 
They either heard us talking, or knew that our phones were withing talking distance long enough that we knew each other well.
This was 2 years ago too...


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

Facebook has tons of agreements for tracking your activity across apps and websites. Web searches, Amazon products you view…it’s everywhere. Also, many apps have location enabled, so it’s good to check that, too. If you check out a product or a friend sends a link to something they like, if there is that Facebook handshake, then the ads start. Even some forums have Facebook tracking.

I’m not sure about Canada, but I think some places also have beacons for mobile ads based on proximity, so if you pinged near Subway, then it could be through that.

Usually, there are some privacy features embedded in apps tracking location, such as a unique device ID that is not linkable to your information because it is only used to ping your location. Our regulations are actually pretty solid around this vs. the US, although not as tight as Europe, yet. But privacy protection regulations are getting better (or worse, if you’re an advertiser, I suppose). Thing is, there are lots of organizations that don’t fully comply.

Also, our devices are listening to us, at least to a certain extent. The “Hey Siri” or “Alexa” commands work via the device listening. I think that can be turned off on most devices, but not sure if that fully kills listening or how much listening they do. It’s a ton of data to sift through for ads, but maybe keywords? Listening to billions of conversations to serve ads doesn’t seem totally realistic, but I don’t know how capable the tech is on that front.


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

Personal data is the new oil....


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

There's many resources on this. I found a great twitter thread on it.

Iirc, it's not just what you look at online, it's where you shop and what people around you shop for as well. Everything is data mining you.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

I had yet to post a response to a thread here (the Crap-Tone one) and I was getting ads for toilets. I had one for Irish tourism... how does it know I'm Irish?? 

Without question, we are tracked, scanned, spied on, and _*rated*_. 

They already know what you do... don't be surprised when you don't get the text with the location of the transport ships.


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## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

Data mining seems to be quite popular with everything now...not an expensive investment today by most standards and ethical values are changing.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)




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## NashvilleDeluxe (Feb 7, 2018)

I got an ad promising 10% more length on my hoo-hah. I'm Irish, so 10% of not much is...negligible.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

If I murder someone while on a day trip you suggested using the survival knife you thought I'd like after eating at the 2 star shawarma joint you mentioned was near by.... you can go ahead and use my info against me...fair game.


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## DaddyDog (Apr 21, 2017)

Permanent Waves said:


> having an oddball conversation


It's this listening that gets me. I've never seen a social media company admit to it. And for some reason, the privacy warriors don't rage about it.

Last night, my wife and I were browsing through Cameo (a celebrity messaging service) on my iPad's browser. Two minutes later, my wife's Facebook app on her phone was showing Cameo ads.


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## FatStrat2 (Apr 7, 2021)

That chart above on Tom is completely true, and all of that data can be retrieved at any time.

A few months back, Telus went on the cheap and outsourced all their mail servers to Google. My emails were then scanned and suggestions of my discussions came up on YouTube. I've more or less dropped my Telus addresses and the suggestions stopped. For years, I've been using parasitic search sites that use the Google search engine, but no info goes back to Google. That helps a bit, but high tech/big brother has a long arm.


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

Don't forget the constant IR face shots on new iPhones. But don't worry, Apple says it's a "feature"









Yes, your iPhone is taking ‘invisible’ pictures of you


A video showing a mobile device snapping infrared images of an iPhone user is circulating around the internet and is catching many by surprise.




wgntv.com


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

crann said:


> Don't forget the constant IR face shots on new iPhones. But don't worry, Apple says it's a "feature"
> 
> 
> 
> ...


and now with all the vaccine trackers finally going into service theyre stealing our DNA and we're going to be bombarded by perfectly tailored information


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

Yeah, I accept that everything I do online is tracked - it's the cost of using these services, and I try to keep the footprint small. Besides, I'd rather have ads for guitars rather than dildos in my feed. What really freaks me out is when these improbable coincidences happen even though there is no way the dots could have been connected. I do not own an iPhone or any kind of device that can track or listen, yet I see this stuff happen more and more. Tomee2's story about the RV conversation is a scary example.


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

vadsy said:


> and now with all the vaccine trackers finally going into service theyre stealing our DNA and we're going to be bombarded by perfectly tailored information


The cost of genome sequence is ridiculously low now. The first human genome to be sequenced took a multinational coalition, $2.7 billion and a competing Dr. Evil type bad guy to motivate the group. Now it's under $1k. I wouldn't be surprised to see DNA sequence as part of a routine checkup for personalized and predictive medicine within the next decade. Which to me sounds great but I see a vast segment of the population not down with that.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

DaddyDog said:


> It's this listening that gets me. I've never seen a social media company admit to it. And for some reason, the privacy warriors don't rage about it.
> 
> Last night, my wife and I were browsing through Cameo (a celebrity messaging service) on my iPad's browser. Two minutes later, my wife's Facebook app on her phone was showing Cameo ads.


Someone on your network was browsing Cameo and then another device in the same network got Cameo ads? That’s not that far-fetched.


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## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

I delete social media apps from my devices because I don't use them, and I dont like the information they gather even passively. You aren't able to delete Facebook, only "disable".


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

The device companies are also beginning to add more privacy features. Apple has now allowed for disabling cross-app tracking. Ads have become increasingly invasive, but there are tools and methods for reducing that. The data are out there and it’s almost impossible to avoid having at least some of it collected about you. That said, most of us are not really very important or interesting, so most of our data is junk, anyway.


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

I keep getting ads for amps and have no idea why !?!


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## polyslax (May 15, 2020)

DaddyDog said:


> It's this listening that gets me.


Same. I've accepted for years that our electronic trail is being tracked, sorted, filtered, mined and manipulated, but the first time I noticed a clear connection between a phone conversation and a series of ads was last year. It really shouldn't be shocking, I suppose, but it's that eavesdropping aspect to it that somehow makes it more creepy for me. What's next? The Dream Police?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Did the listening thing not get thoroughly debunked?


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

Budda said:


> Did the listening thing not get thoroughly debunked?


I don't think so, but it's easy to test. Pick a random product, make sure there's no search history of that item on your home network. It can be as specific as iPhone or as vague as humidifier. And then say it a bunch around your phone and see what happens. Then post your results here.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

crann said:


> I don't think so, but it's easy to test. Pick a random product, make sure there's no search history of that item on your home network. It can be as specific as iPhone or as vague as humidifier. And then say it a bunch around your phone and see what happens. Then post your results here.


Is one person considered a conclusive test?


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

Budda said:


> Did the listening thing not get thoroughly debunked?


I honestly haven't read up on it too much. As I said, devices are listening to a certain extent based on keyword activation (Hey Siri, Hey Google etc.), but whether they listen actively and collect what is said to serve ads or just get activated by the specified word sequence is something I don't know.


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## crann (May 10, 2014)

Budda said:


> Is one person considered a conclusive test?


Definitely not, but I'd be hard pressed to explain a bunch of targeted ads for tonka trucks if you've never searched for them and only talked about them a bunch around your phone. @jdto brings up a great point about the "hey Siri" stuff. If they activate by voice command, why wouldn't they auto translate everything we say with Google/YouTube's amazing speech to text algo that only gets better with more data, e.g more listening.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

jdto said:


> The device companies are also beginning to add more privacy features. Apple has now allowed for disabling cross-app tracking. Ads have become increasingly invasive, but there are tools and methods for reducing that. The data are out there and it’s almost impossible to avoid having at least some of it collected about you. That said, most of us are not really very important or interesting, so most of our data is junk, anyway.


Create the disease and then create the cure?


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

So another FB ad for some specific sunscreen I just bought for the first time ever just popped up next to the ad for Subway, where I went to eat for the fist time in years. Both items were paid by the same credit card and I do not own a smartphone, however I realize that I did pay for advertising for my band on FB with that credit card. Info from my credit card purchases is passed on to Facebook.


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## Ricktoberfest (Jun 22, 2014)

bolero said:


> Personal data is the new oil....


And to bring it back around...

Social media is the lube that takes away the sting. 

“Have a great chat with auntie, don’t worry about what info we sell of yours, it’s not important!”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

allthumbs56 said:


> Create the disease and then create the cure?


In some ways, yes. It's often the case with humans and technology. In our excitement for what we CAN do we don't always ask whether we SHOULD.


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## polyslax (May 15, 2020)

Budda said:


> Did the listening thing not get thoroughly debunked?


Here's my, admittedly, anecdotal experience. I spoke briefly on my mobile with a colleague last year. He mentioned he was looking for an air conditioner for his cabin. So, you're looking for a window air conditioner, I said, and we spoke briefly about it. Now, I've had central ac for 30 years or so, so I know I've never looked at or searched for window air conditioners. Never texted or emailed anybody about such a unit. But within 2 days I was seeing "window air conditioner" ads on some pages. When I saw it I just went wtf?
I contacted a couple of well connected IT dudes I know, and while neither had anything definitive, they had both experienced similar events.
I mean, I saw somebody interviewed perhaps 10 years ago and even at that time he said every conversation you have, by phone, by text, by email is being analyzed and sorted at some level.
Within the last year or so there was an interview released with Edward Snowden. He said the first thing he does with a new phone is remove the mic. He reconnects it if needed, but otherwise no mic.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

All of the companies I've worked with are very concerned about being privacy-compliant and most don't have the level of data required to track individuals and deliver one-to-one targeted advertising. The capability is not available in Canada due to our privacy regulations and all of the big players follow those. The Facebook and Google handshake stuff is where a ton of this gets passed along, especially via websites and apps. And you do have a fair amount of control over this, if you are willing to spend some time with settings and privacy options in apps and on devices. As far as listening goes, it may or may not be happening, but anecdotal stories are just that. In all of the time I've worked with big data, I've never seen someone offer this as a service (eg. "we can serve your ads to someone based on their verbal conversations"). The public reaction would be unfavourable, to say the least.



polyslax said:


> Here's my, admittedly, anecdotal experience. I spoke briefly on my mobile with a colleague last year. He mentioned he was looking for an air conditioner for his cabin. So, you're looking for a window air conditioner, I said, and we spoke briefly about it. Now, I've had central ac for 30 years or so, so I know I've never looked at or searched for window air conditioners. Never texted or emailed anybody about such a unit. But within 2 days I was seeing "window air conditioner" ads on some pages. When I saw it I just went wtf?


Is it at all possible that you just hadn't noticed AC ads before, but they were on your mind from the conversation so you started to see them everywhere? This is not an unheard of thing to happen to a person. For example, my sister-in-law just got a Jeep recently and suddenly I swore to my wife that I was seeing Jeeps everywhere, but it was obviously just that it was on mind and I was noticing them.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

So,


jdto said:


> I was seeing Jeeps everywhere


I'd say that your theory is correct. It happens to me every time I've acquired a different vehicle during my life.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

On a side note, there have been several times over the last few years where someone has complained to me that they were looking at a serious site, and they were upset that there were ads for porn sites on the sidebars. 

I tell them to clear their history lol.


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## polyslax (May 15, 2020)

jdto said:


> Is it at all possible that you just hadn't noticed AC ads before, but they were on your mind from the conversation so you started to see them everywhere? This is not an unheard of thing to happen to a person. For example, my sister-in-law just got a Jeep recently and suddenly I swore to my wife that I was seeing Jeeps everywhere, but it was obviously just that it was on mind and I was noticing them.


I'm familiar with this phenomenon. It has happened to me as well with vehicles in particular.
I'm sceptical myself of unsubstantiated claims, and I would never say I'm 100% certain without definitive proof, however I can say I'm a person who takes notice of things going on around me, and I see few enough ads because of how my browsers are configured that I generally notice any ad I do see. Also, unlike the Jeep story, this was a short conversation that was of no consequence to me... I certainly wasn't consciously thinking of window air conditioners all of a sudden.
In any event, I'm sure if it is happening on a larger scale now it won't be long before we know about it for sure.


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## mawmow (Nov 14, 2017)

I do not mind : I just swap ANY ad !


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Looked at a post on here about some guy wanting to buy a champ kit. Now there’s ads on my Facebook page for building your own champ.

Gonna try saying some product name in front of my phone over a day or two and see what happens.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

Wardo said:


> Looked at a post on here about some guy wanting to buy a champ kit. Now there’s ads on my Facebook page for building your own champ.
> 
> Gonna try saying some product name in front of my phone over a day or two and see what happens.


I would not be surprised if there is some sort of Facebook tracking on VerticalScope properties.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

I never use my wife's tablet, but she gets guitar related ads all the time.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

polyslax said:


> Here's my, admittedly, anecdotal experience. I spoke briefly on my mobile with a colleague last year. He mentioned he was looking for an air conditioner for his cabin. So, you're looking for a window air conditioner, I said, and we spoke briefly about it. Now, I've had central ac for 30 years or so, so I know I've never looked at or searched for window air conditioners. Never texted or emailed anybody about such a unit. But within 2 days I was seeing "window air conditioner" ads on some pages. When I saw it I just went wtf?
> I contacted a couple of well connected IT dudes I know, and while neither had anything definitive, they had both experienced similar events.
> I mean, I saw somebody interviewed perhaps 10 years ago and even at that time he said every conversation you have, by phone, by text, by email is being analyzed and sorted at some level.
> Within the last year or so there was an interview released with Edward Snowden. He said the first thing he does with a new phone is remove the mic. He reconnects it if needed, but otherwise no mic.


This is similar to my experience about talking to a coworker about RVs, then getting RV ads. Your friend had been searching for window AC units, and your phone conversation triggered a 'connection' and poof you now get AC ads. But what makes me think they're listening, maybe just for keywords, is you only see AC ads, not ads for all the other stuff your friend was looking at.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

Wardo said:


> Looked at a post on here about some guy wanting to buy a champ kit. Now there’s ads on my Facebook page for building your own champ.
> 
> Gonna try saying some product name in front of my phone over a day or two and see what happens.


Looks like this site doesn't show up as having a Facebook tracker.









Firefox has a "Facebook Container" feature which detects Facebook trackers on websites.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

You know, it used to be creepy, but now it's just weird/pathetic cuz Instagram seems convinced I am a woman (I get a lot of feminine product ads, like for those tear resistant pantyhose and diva cups).


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Too far!!! 

I work in an office. I don't wear "dress shirts" but I do wear collared, buttoned shirts. No ties. I was on the phone with my brother in law yesterday. We were chatting about a few things, but the topic of dress code in warm weather came up. I joked and said I was going to go "_full Michael Douglas from Falling Down, with the crisp white short sleeve shirt & tie"_ 

And today in my suggested vid on You-Tube?? 










How can they say they aren't listening?!?!?!? I do not have a "Hey Google" or Alexa. There is not one thing that is "always on the ready and _supposed_ to be listening". 

Insanity!


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

vadsy said:


> I get ya, and it is creepy. Plain and simple,., we are being tracked. last evening I started getting ads for dildo lube, but I don't use lube


I see a lot of targetted ads on our android tv box for not just me but things i can tell my wife has been shopping for....just sayin'.


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

OK, this is just creepy. I'll reiterate that I do NOT have a smart phone or any type of tracking device, all I do is pay for drive through purchases by tapping my credit card (same one I used to pay for Facebook advertising years ago). Got a breakfast wrap from Tim Hortons on Tuesday, now seeing FB ads for the breakfast wrap from the A&W a few blocks away. Credit card company knows how much I spent where and when, but they don't know WHAT I bought - Tim Hortons has to make that information available, tie it to my credit card number and pass it on to Facebook. That's 3 separate entities who seem to care a lot about what I had for breakfast on Tuesday - even Orwell would be impressed.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

Permanent Waves said:


> OK, this is just creepy. I'll reiterate that I do NOT have a smart phone or any type of tracking device, all I do is pay for drive through purchases by tapping my credit card (same one I used to pay for Facebook advertising years ago). Got a breakfast wrap from Tim Hortons on Tuesday, now seeing FB ads for the breakfast wrap from the A&W a few blocks away. Credit card company knows how much I spent where and when, but they don't know WHAT I bought - Tim Hortons has to make that information available, tie it to my credit card number and pass it on to Facebook. That's 3 separate entities who seem to care a lot about what I had for breakfast on Tuesday - even Orwell would be impressed.



OR, they can infer by amount, time of day, demographics etc. Also maybe A&W is targeting middle aged white dudes because survey says they like breakfast sandwiches and they don't even know your personal early morning purchase history at all. Occam's razor applies. Take it from an IT guy - there's a lot you can figure out without explicit information. I really doubt they have all their shit linked up like that; would probably violate a few privacy laws.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

It’s not your phone. It’s the chip they injected with your “vaccination”.


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

Granny Gremlin said:


> OR, they can infer by amount, time of day, demographics etc. Also maybe A&W is targeting middle aged white dudes because survey says they like breakfast sandwiches and they don't even know your personal early morning purchase history at all. Occam's razor applies.


Yeah, I am a big believer in Occam's Razor as well - simplest explanation is usually the best. If I'm spending $9 every morning at the same Timmie's, I'm probably getting a breakfast combo and I might be interested in trying the same up the street from there, I get it... What freaked me out is that they were specifically advertising the same wrap just I had a Tim's. That struck me as far too coincidental considering A&W offers 4 breakfast sandwiches but only one wrap. Of course, I had to google that and I will be inundated with it now .

Funny about the vaccination comment - as we can see, there are far easier ways to track people than injecting microscopic chips in their bloodstream. It's everything else we really need to worry about - Occam's Razor applies again .


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

It's not legal for them to share individual purchase data with Facebook without your permission, not to mention companies are very protective of their sales and transactional data. I'm with @Granny Gremlin on this one. I work in the data-driven marketing industry and I help companies build detailed profiles of their customers and their target market segments. They can target you on Facebook using some very fine parameters offered by Facebook advertising tools.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

jdto said:


> It's not legal for them to share individual purchase data with Facebook without your permission, not to mention companies are very protective of their sales and transactional data. I'm with @Granny Gremlin on this one. I work in the data-driven marketing industry and I help companies build detailed profiles of their customers and their target market segments. They can target you on Facebook using some very fine parameters offered by Facebook advertising tools.


They tell you they share your information, but it's buried deep in legal lingo that no one bothers to read or can fully understand unless you're a lawyer yourself.


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

butterknucket said:


> They tell you they share your information, but it's buried deep in legal lingo that no one bothers to read or can fully understand unless you're a lawyer yourself.


Express permission is required to share personal information. Same with location-enabled tracking, where you have to give the app permission to use your location. “They” may include some sharing of what we call non-PII (Personally Identifiable Information) data in T&C agreements, but privacy protection around PII is quite strong in Canada. Most data can only be shared if it is anonymized and cannot be traced back to an individual. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to check what privacy settings are for apps and websites you visit. And even if you don’t read the whole T&C, skim them and see if there is anything there about your data or information.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

butterknucket said:


> They tell you they share your information, but it's buried deep in legal lingo that no one bothers to read or can fully understand unless you're a lawyer yourself.


Oh the irony.... just this past Friday I was visiting my dad. One of his buddies pops over for a New Castle Brown. At one point his phone (still hanging on to his BlackBerry) is acting squirrelly. 
“What’s up?”
“Oh it’s this stupid Twitter, (or Facebook, or some other nonsense app) setting that’s always asking for my location”. 
“Can’t you turn that off?”
I’m sure it’s in the legal jargon somewhere and I didn’t catch it”. 
We all laughed.... cause he’s a lawyer.


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## polyslax (May 15, 2020)

Maybe I'm overly cynical, but I always figured the VPN business could really be the ultimate data gathering enterprise. Come on in, totally safe here, completely anonymous, you've got nothing to worry about...


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

Do you ever wonder if you actually cease to exist if you delete your Facebook account?


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

Sorry to keep harping on this, but this is just too weird. Over the weekend we were having supper on a terrace overlooking a marina and we were commenting on how boaters were having a hard time reversing their big speed boats into the tiny slips because of the wind, and they kept helping each other so that their boats would not bang against each other. Yesterday Facebook fed me a video of an experienced boater doing a perfect 180 in a narrow channel in a high-powered "Miami Vice" boat. Cool.

The only problem is, today Facebook started feeding me ads for cemeteries and I am scared shitless.


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## polyslax (May 15, 2020)

Permanent Waves said:


> The only problem is, today Facebook started feeding me ads for cemeteries and I am scared shitless.


It's been great knowing you...


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

polyslax said:


> It's been great knowing you...


I'll be sure to nominate a successor and have him post details of my estate sale on this forum, it's all guitars anyway.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

I had an interesting conversation with a coworker about the COVID tracking chip that I had injected in me. Yet he is a twit, bookface, imgur and chatsnapper every second of waking life. Apparently I am being tracked?


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Okay Player said:


> I delete social media apps from my devices because I don't use them, and I dont like the information they gather even passively. You aren't able to delete Facebook, only "disable".


Does that matter if you don't have a Facebook account?

What if you don't have social media at all?

I just got a new phone and I don't see any social media apps (nothing to delete). Are they usually automatically there?

I've opted out for so long now that I'm really (blissfully) ignorant on the subject.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

@Milkman if you go into your app list (apple/android doesnt matter) you will see if twitter/fb/insta/etc is pre-loaded. I dont think they are.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Budda said:


> @Milkman if you go into your app list (apple/android doesnt matter) you will see if twitter/fb/insta/etc is pre-loaded. I dont think they are.


Sorry...App list? Where is that? It's a Apple phone.

Edit.

Ok I looked in settings and in the list of apps, I see none of the social media apps.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Milkman said:


> Sorry...App list? Where is that? It's a Apple phone.


I havent had an iphone since the 4S but there should be a settings icon somewhere?


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## polyslax (May 15, 2020)

Social Media apps are not normally pre-installed. Any app on your iPhone will have an icon on the screen. If you have an app store account you can easily see what apps you've ever downloaded/installed. Just go app store, account, purchased and you'll see every free or paid app you've downloaded.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

polyslax said:


> Social Media apps are not normally pre-installed. Any app on your iPhone will have an icon on the screen. If you have an app store account you can easily see what apps you've ever downloaded/installed. Just go app store, account, purchased and you'll see every free or paid app you've downloaded.


My apps folder in settings shows all apps on the phone, including the background ones. Not sure if its the same for apple.


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## polyslax (May 15, 2020)

Budda said:


> My apps folder in settings shows all apps on the phone, including the background ones. Not sure if its the same for apple.


You can see and control what apps can refresh in the background... similar I guess.


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## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

Milkman said:


> Does that matter if you don't have a Facebook account?


It can. You're often signing up for them to record you by just purchasing the phone.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Okay Player said:


> It can. You're often signing up for them to record you by just purchasing the phone.



Well, I'm hoping my complete absence from social media will help, but a person can only do so much.

I try to balance being prudent with avoiding paranoia.


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## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

Milkman said:


> Well, I'm hoping my complete absence from social media will help, but a person can only do so much.
> 
> I try to balance being prudent with avoiding paranoia.


It's a greasy game they play where they aren't mining your personal data because you aren't on them. Instead they just record you all them time.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Okay Player said:


> It's a greasy game they play where they aren't mining your personal data because you aren't on them. Instead they just record you all them time.


I won't deny that. I guess I 'm only willing to spend so much thought on protecting myself from such things.

Rent in my mind is not free (it's not real pricey, but not free).


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## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

Milkman said:


> I won't deny that. I guess I 'm only willing to spend so much thought on protecting myself from such things.
> 
> Rent in my mind is not free (it's not real pricey, but not free).


That's fair. I turn everything off which makes it as difficult as I can reasonably make it and go about my life. From what I've been told, they don't generally bother going after those who put up any resistance.


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

MarkM said:


> I had an interesting conversation with a coworker about the COVID tracking chip that I had injected in me. Yet he is a twit, bookface, imgur and chatsnapper every second of waking life. Apparently I am being tracked?


Reminds me of something I saw years ago... I was having breakfast in a restaurant and this young couple walks in with an infant and grandma in tow. They are led to a table but grandma checks the airflow from a vent above the table and decides it's not good for the baby. Waitress moves them to a different table and once they are satisfied with the seating, they all settle down... and all three of them proceed to light their cigarettes... I just about fell off my seat.


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

MarkM said:


> I had an interesting conversation with a coworker about the COVID tracking chip that I had injected in me. Yet he is a twit, bookface, imgur and chatsnapper every second of waking life. Apparently I am being tracked?



Did you see the stories about the schematic for that alleged chip that those paranoid morons were sharing all over the web as "proof" that the chip existed? Turns out it was the schematic for the Boss Metal Zone pedal.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

@colchar I thought it was a blues driver? In the 80's I wished I have a a metal zone in me!


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## ZeroGravity (Mar 25, 2016)

I’ve noticed a marked reduction in targeted ads since I start using DuckDuckGo as my browser rather than the data harvesting Chrome, Edge, or Firefox


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

MarkM said:


> @colchar I thought it was a blues driver? In the 80's I wished I have a a metal zone in me!



No, it was the Metal Zone.










Conspiracy theorists share schematic for “5G chip” they claim is implanted in COVID-19 vaccines – only it's actually for the Boss Metal Zone


As soon as it's your turn, you'll have op-amps and 1n4148 diodes injected straight into your bloodstream, apparently




www.guitarworld.com














The creator of the COVID vaccine/Boss Metal Zone pedal hoax reveals all: “There ain’t a lot of sane people in this world”


The Croatia-based individual created the schematic, which employed a Boss pedal diagram as evidence of the vaccine’s 5G tracking capabilities, to combat conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers




www.guitarworld.com


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

colchar said:


> The creator of the COVID vaccine/Boss Metal Zone pedal hoax reveals all: “There ain’t a lot of sane people in this world”
> 
> 
> The Croatia-based individual created the schematic, which employed a Boss pedal diagram as evidence of the vaccine’s 5G tracking capabilities, to combat conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers
> ...


_he also received messages about others “stealing the text and the schematic and presenting them as their own ‘discovery’.”

“Their followers ‘jizzed’ in the comments,” he says, “finally having the Holy Grail of proof against the evil vaccine and the ruling lizard Gates elite!”_


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Data brokers are tracking you — and selling the info


And Canadian privacy laws offer little protection




financialpost.com


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

Old thread but I have more to ad to it anyway..
I have no FB Twitter Instagram snapshot at all. My phone has browsers and text messaging.
The most used apps are probably kijiji and chrome.
So...
I was chatting with my wife about building a fire pit using stones and a metal insert. I say we can get one custom made, a shop "can use a metal brake to bend it up and then weld it up" no Google, no texting that phrase, said it around the fire once at night with the phone probably sitting on the chair arm.

I did not Google search those terms.. we only talked about it.

I got ads for sheet metal bending brakes the next day on kijiji. !!! 
I got those weird industrial supply ads for about week.

Related, and more obvious...
We Google about saunas, looking to get one. We research Toyota trucks, thinking of buying one...
I get adds for a Toyota Tundra with a picture of it pulling a trailer with a barrel sauna on the trailer! Showed the wife this and she basically wants to live in the bush with just a radio.

And we have no social media! Just android and iPhone phones, browsers, and apps like kijiji, and credit cards.


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## Thunderboy1975 (Sep 12, 2013)

I was getting bug out supply ads on my feed, army rations and field water purifiers.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Activated my TD renewed credit card from the phone at my office yesterday. A few hours later I get texts supposedly from banks that I don't use saying my cards have all been cancelled - call now .. lol

As an aside, hilarious article by murphy in the post called "night of the long honks."


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Wardo said:


> "night of the long honks."


Ah yes, the threat of bouncy castles destroying democracy.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

laristotle said:


> Ah yes, the threat of bouncy castles destroying democracy.


And when Ottawa is upset, everyone is upset.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Wardo said:


> And when Ottawa is upset, everyone is upset.


Being second to the center of the universe, of course.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

The history channel ... lol


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