WTH levels of cybersnooping ?

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Mark

1653 posts

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#252778 11-Jul-2019 13:53

This is either a case of freaky timing, or someone is watching over my shoulder and it's tinfoil hat time :)

I just bought some bike lights from Torpedo 7 (paid via NFC linked card on my phone) ... just drove back to work, opened Slashdot on my laptop and right there in front of me is an advert for bike lights.

I've done no Googling for lights on my laptop or at home, I just walked in and impulse bought them.

Anyone know if Google Pay data is used to do targeted adverts ?

tyronne

33 posts

Geek

#2274621 11-Jul-2019 14:05

Yes, they do. Just logged in and here are the options under settings>privacy:

Allow Google Payment Corporation to share third party creditworthiness information about you with other companies owned and controlled by Google LLC for their everyday business purposes.

Allow your personal information to be used by other companies owned and controlled by Google LLC to market to you. Opting out here does not impact whether other companies owned and controlled by Google LLC can market to you based on information you provide to them outside of Google Payment Corporation.

Allow Google LLC or its affiliates to inform a third party merchant, whose site or app you visit, whether you have a Google Payments account that can be used for payment to that merchant. Opting out may impact your ability to use Google Payments to transact with certain third party merchants.

networkn

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#2274626 11-Jul-2019 14:14

That's nothing. We were talking about something the other day in the car, and when I got home, my facebook feed had related adverts :)

mentalinc

3226 posts

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#2274632 11-Jul-2019 14:22

Go to https://pay.google.com not from the app to change the privacy settings.

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floydbloke

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#2274637 11-Jul-2019 14:46

Mark:

...

I just bought some bike lights from Torpedo 7 (paid via NFC linked card on my phone) ... just drove back to work, opened Slashdot on my laptop and right there in front of me is an advert for bike lights.

...

Anyone know if Google Pay data is used to do targeted adverts ?

tyronne:

Yes, they do. ..

I can't get my head around this. There's obviously some very smart algorithms around the interwebs because it knows your man Mark has bought some bike lights, yet they bombard him with adverts for more bike lights.

Why don't they apply 10% more smartness and think 'Hey, Mark has bought some bikelights. He won't need any more of those but he obviously has a bike so let's show some tyres, pumps, drinkbottles, helmets, Tour de France posters...."

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

Mistenfuru

198 posts

Master Geek

#2274638 11-Jul-2019 14:49

floydbloke:

Why don't they apply 10% more smartness and think 'Hey Mark has bought some bikelights. He doesn't need any more but he obviously has a bike so let's show some tyres, pumps, drinkbottles, helmets, Tour de France posters...."

Aliexpress is really good at this, working out what you've looked at and what you've purchased and offering related suggestions rather than the same thing

wellygary

8312 posts

Uber Geek

#2274652 11-Jul-2019 15:03

networkn:

That's nothing. We were talking about something the other day in the car, and when I got home, my facebook feed had related adverts :)

Did anyone say OK in the conversation, ?

Google assistants apparently start listening on that keyword.. they close off if they don't get a "Google" within 20 secs, but according to this story that snippet is sorted and filed and used for marketing

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11909186

networkn

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#2274657 11-Jul-2019 15:21

I'd imagine I would say OK about 100 times a day :)

I use OK Google quite a bit now for navigation and setting timers.

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richms

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#2274660 11-Jul-2019 15:28

Mistenfuru:

Aliexpress is really good at this, working out what you've looked at and what you've purchased and offering related suggestions rather than the same thing

I find they usually show you the same thing that you just paid for but at lower prices from other sellers on there :(

Richard rich.ms

tyronne

33 posts

Geek

#2274706 11-Jul-2019 15:43

I wonder what the privacy policies for Visa and Mastercard are like. Surely they would have so much more data on us considering their market position and tenure.

ANglEAUT

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#2275622 13-Jul-2019 02:20

Mark: ... Anyone know if Google Pay data is used to do targeted adverts ?

tyronne: Yes, they do. ...

Mark: ..., opened Slashdot ...

I think the fact that you still read /. is more amazing 🤓

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

ripdog

548 posts

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Inactive user

#2275704 13-Jul-2019 10:25

I wouldn't believe that rubbish about android listening on "ok" for a second. A wakeword as common as that would be an incredible drain on battery as it would wake your phone up so often, and it would generate a tonne of network traffic. It took a while for google to even roll out "hey google".

The biggest bit of evidence is simply that I tried it - I said "ok" as clearly as I could with my android phone in front of me, and it never registered any network activity of note. (I have a numeric network activity counter running.)

The amount of effort involved in bypassing kernel networking monitoring APIs to do this spying clandestinely would be ludicrous. It's not happening.

In general, the persistent rumor about facebook/google "always listening" to your conversations is bullsh!t. The whole operation would be utterly impractical for a number of reasons, namely the battery drain and damage to people's mobile data caps. Most importantly, someone with actual technical skill would notice and document the spying - there's a reason that every report of 'always listening' has been from non-technical folk seeing coincidences.

Dial111

978 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2275781 13-Jul-2019 13:30

I had a similar situation yesterday, I was looking at battery powered Milwaukee impact guns on my work PC, opened up Facebook on my personal phone and immediately I'm seeing ads for Milwaukee products. The two devices are not linked in any way at all and I have never looked into Milwaukee on any of my personal devices.

PolicyGuy

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#2275910 13-Jul-2019 16:55

Dial111:

I had a similar situation yesterday, I was looking at battery powered Milwaukee impact guns on my work PC, opened up Facebook on my personal phone and immediately I'm seeing ads for Milwaukee products. The two devices are not linked in any way at all and I have never looked into Milwaukee on any of my personal devices.

That's because Facebook is tracking you, not the devices you are using.
Though FB probably keeps track of all of them, just because it can

"Tell me Mr. Zuckerberg, what do you think of Privacy?" ... ... "Ahh, this 'privacy' thing. I can't say I'm familiar with that term, could you put it in context maybe?"
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Mark

1653 posts

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#2275918 13-Jul-2019 17:20

ANglEAUT:

I think the fact that you still read /. is more amazing 🤓

It's still OK for some interesting stories ... just have to ignore the massive bouts of nerd rage that boil up in threads.