Is google secretly listening to me?

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richms

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#2755651 5-Aug-2021 13:29

I constantly see big ad pushes for things I have not been talking about, but is the sort of thing that other people may have been talking about.

Then people talk about things they have seen ad's and you talk to them about the ad and then you see an ad and you thing the phone has been listening to you to hear you talk about it, when infact the conversation came from someone else seeing the ad.

Your conversation is driven by the ad's, not the other way around.

Richard rich.ms

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2755664 5-Aug-2021 13:48

richms:

Then people talk about things they have seen ad's and you talk to them about the ad and then you see an ad and you thing the phone has been listening to you to hear you talk about it, when infact the conversation came from someone else seeing the ad.

Your conversation is driven by the ad's, not the other way around.

While I don't think other people talking about ads fully explains this phenomenon, it has merit. There is one very important aspect which people seem to be overlooking. Someone is paying for these ads. You're not going to see targeted ads for some extremely obscure product you are thinking of buying and not researching, because chances are nobody is paying to advertise it. Products which are popping up without ever searching for them are far more likely to have broad appeal. The fact that they are noticed after a conversation is more likely a confirmation bias, based on the belief that Google et al. are spying on you.

Kiwifan

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#2755667 5-Aug-2021 13:51

I read an article on Flipboard last week that explained this in some detail. Basically as richms said it is about other folk in your circle of friends and what they have searched for that then tags you. The article described the use of inserting tracking pixels in webpages from search engines that then gave them a a database to “share.”

Sadly like a lot of articles on Flipboard it seems to have disappeared so I can’t link it.

Fred99

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#2755733 5-Aug-2021 16:08

As far as google goes, a couple of rare quotes from Larry Page:

I think as technologists we should have some safe places where we can try out some new things and figure out what is the effect on society, what’s the effect on people, without having to deploy kind of into the normal world. And people like those kind of things can go there and experience that and we don’t have mechanisms for that.

The other thing in my mind is we also haven’t built mechanisms to allow experimentation. There’s many, many exciting and important things you could do that you just can’t do because they’re illegal, or they’re not allowed by regulation, and that makes sense, we don’t want the world to change too fast.

Maybe we should set aside a small part of the world …

So many questions about what he's actually trying to do...

Maybe facebook and other social media companies are worse, but those kind of comments scare the bejesus out of me - especially when they're coming from people who know more about me than I know about them.

SJB

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#2755741 5-Aug-2021 16:23

Fred99:

As far as google goes, a couple of rare quotes from Larry Page:

Maybe we should set aside a small part of the world …

So many questions about what he's actually trying to do...

Maybe facebook and other social media companies are worse, but those kind of comments scare the bejesus out of me - especially when they're coming from people who know more about me than I know about them.

Let's set aside a corner of another world for him and his cronies. How about Mercury?

Fred99

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#2756056 6-Aug-2021 10:40

SJB:

Let's set aside a corner of another world for him and his cronies. How about Mercury?

Well apparently he comes with an "entourage" that requires upgraded accommodation.

This whole system of commoditising the entire human condition by stealth for the benefit of a few dozen modern pharaohs sucks big time, and should be seen for what it is. And people claiming that criticism of these monsters is "rich people envy" need to get a grip - they're pawns protecting their kings, nothing new.

Was probably better when they sought immortality by building pyramids.

(semi-sarcasm tag could be needed, but plenty of truth there too IMO)

SJB

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#2756080 6-Aug-2021 11:29

The funny thing is that I never notice any ads that appear when I'm surfing the interweb. I don't use any form of social media apart from GZ so maybe I'm not bombarded by it.

Does advertising on the internet actually influence anybody to buy something or are the funders of the ads being monumentally conned by the ad carriers?

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Kiwifan

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#2756097 6-Aug-2021 12:04

SJB:

Does advertising on the internet actually influence anybody to buy something or are the funders of the ads being monumentally conned by the ad carriers?

Well I was going to buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner for $2.99 as per “their” FB ad like hundreds of other folk but then thought “nah”. Seems like lots of folks were duped here and in Aussie with their credit cards suddenly showing $60 to $70 subscriptions for some dubious schemes. Sigh. Pricespy shows the model retailing for over $1000.

Fred99

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#2756101 6-Aug-2021 12:15

SJB:

The funny thing is that I never notice any ads that appear when I'm surfing the interweb. I don't use any form of social media apart from GZ so maybe I'm not bombarded by it.

Does advertising on the internet actually influence anybody to buy something or are the funders of the ads being monumentally conned by the ad carriers?

I'm sure it works.

The old saying used to be "I'm sure that half the money I spend advertising is wasted - I just don't know which half".

Tracking and data matching and targeted ads won't be 100%, but the old days of almost pure guessing are pretty much over.

If you're in business that advertises, what are you going to do? Take some moral stand about privacy and sit back and watch your competition devour your market? It won't ever "self regulate" - so needs to be either be regulated to protect privacy - or accepted.

frankv

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#2756120 6-Aug-2021 12:38

Fred99:

If you're in business that advertises, what are you going to do? Take some moral stand about privacy?

Uuuummmm. Yes.

Unless you believe that your desire for money outweighs other peoples' rights.

SJB

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#2756123 6-Aug-2021 12:48

Fred99:

I'm sure it works.

The old saying used to be "I'm sure that half the money I spend advertising is wasted - I just don't know which half".

Tracking and data matching and targeted ads won't be 100%, but the old days of almost pure guessing are pretty much over.

If you're in business that advertises, what are you going to do? Take some moral stand about privacy and sit back and watch your competition devour your market? It won't ever "self regulate" - so needs to be either be regulated to protect privacy - or accepted.

Putting aside the privacy issues, if I was a business owner I'd want some convincing metrics from an independent source that I was getting value for money. I definitely wouldn't be asking the ad agencies or ad providers for that sort of information.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2756395 7-Aug-2021 08:54

For those of you thinking of making the move to Apple...

Next step, scanning computers on your network too?

smidon

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#2758103 10-Aug-2021 17:46

I asked Alexa the other day whether she was listening to us. She said "I only listen when I hear the wake word". F me ... Tui's Ad

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