Are they spying on us?

[Kaylla]

Ever notice that after discussing something like a product - you then get advertisements for it on your smartphone?
Are they listening or is it just conincidence?

[scotthouse]

Yes they use COOKIES to do this....... Your cookie gets the value of what you saw and then that info is sent to your smart phone for bascially spamming purposes.....


I dont have a smart phone and will not ever have one.... I prefer my privacy.....

I avoid facebook as much as possible..............

[ska8er]

They/Whomever know a lot more on
you than you think. I look for products
on EBay or do a Search on Bing and then
get advertisements on all kinds of things.
Sometimes it get scary.

[Kaylla]

Yes they use COOKIES to do this....... Your cookie gets the value of what you saw and then that info is sent to your smart phone for bascially spamming purposes.....


I dont have a smart phone and will not ever have one.... I prefer my privacy.....

I avoid facebook as much as possible..............

They/Whomever know a lot more on
you than you think. I look for products
on EBay or do a Search on Bing and then
get advertisements on all kinds of things.
Sometimes it get scary.

Yeah but like are they listening - like microphones
Like we have been talking out loud and not long later noticed the kinds of things we spoke about being advertized

[scotthouse]

They very well could be yes...LIVE or just listening to KEY words.....

[ska8er]

Yeah but like are they listening - like microphones
Like we have been talking out loud and not long later noticed the kinds of things we spoke about being advertized

IDK about microphones-Who knows-Maybe
Im sure we are followed online to what sites
we have visited or click on.

[Kaylla]

IDK about microphones-Who knows-Maybe
Im sure we are followed online to what sites
we have visited or click on.

Oh 100% that’s definite

[ESM331]

your google home and amazon alexa are always listening to you! it's creepy AF!! we had the google thing then it freaked my dad out one day so we got rid of it!

[Spooky_Eli]

It's called Data Collection - get with the basics of hand washin' n' you'll be fine��

[Ellsa]

Always assume they’re spying

[Will..]

They probably are, but maybe not in the ways we think of. Lots of different techniques are used, and in the end it's not that hard to find out what you're about to buy.

[Zika]

They're monitoring more than you can imagine. Whether or not it's 'spying' is questionable.

I recently declined a request by my auto insurance carrier to sign up for a text messaging service because the service required I allow them to see the last few websites I visited before using theirs and the following few sites I visited after theirs. Why would they possibly need to know that I was checking out the weather, to forward a text message to my insurance company?

They don't. It's a matter of what they can do with the information.

[ShineintheDark]

Cookies are getting very complex these days and can use very little information about your searches and messages to make a lot of assumptions about your buying/consuming habits. Add that to artificial intelligence units like Alexa always listening in the background to 'help improve her search results' and major tech companies selling data on their users to large companies for millions at a time and you get extremely targetting adverts.

When I first read the title, I assumed it meant technology in general being spied on which is a resounding and well-documented yes - say hi to your personal NSA agent every once in a while, he's trawled through a lot of porn and memes to check you're not a domestic threat

[Clarisa]

Mum says she thinks if she left her phone on and talked about dresses for long enough she’s get Facebook ads and amazon emails showing her the best option for a dress to suit her lol

[scotthouse]

Ya she probably would (uugghh)

[JayZz]

honestly I think internet privacy is a big issue today. To protect my network and keep data safe I started using VeePN (https://veepn.com/). It provides a high level of security and doesn't cost much. It's the easiest way to protect my data from online snoopers.

[MentallyChaotic]

Everything you type on any site can be used to understand who you are and what you look for online and how you behave. And anything you do on your mobile, except the actual verbal words you speak in a call, do the same thing. Even the motion of how you hold or carry your phone is recorded and used.

I love the internet, and it is not necessarily a scary place, but you must approach it knowing that EVERYTHING you do online, even on sites that are not supposed to be recording you, is recording information about you. Most people have permanent third-party cookies on their devices, that track their activities and send the information to the third party (such as facebook, google, amazon, your ISP, your mobile carrier, and thousands more). If you are concerned, make your browser settings more secure, and set the browser to empty the cache and temporary files every time you close the browser. And do not stay logged in to social media sites when you are not actively using them. It's a pain to log off and log back on, but even if you are not on facebook, if you are logged on and then left the page without logging off, they are still actively watching you.

If you use an android phone, google is always watching, because they do not allow you to log out of google services while your phone is turned on. That is how the earn their money, by gathering your data and selling it. This is legitimate, but just be aware that there is no privacy online or on a mobile.

[Katy_]

I’m sure they listen or computer algorithms do anyway