When my wife and I were talking through getting our windows replaced through a company called "Centra," we very quickly started receiving a wack of advertising for the Nissan Sentra.
I am convinced they're listening.
When my wife and I were talking through getting our windows replaced through a company called "Centra," we very quickly started receiving a wack of advertising for the Nissan Sentra.
I am convinced they're listening.
Years ago I was cleaning out a portion of a commercial building and had a few items to get rid of. I called my brother who came over with his Dooley to grab them. Once loaded up we were standing by the back of his truck out of the street talking and one of the locals was pushing a motorized bicycle down the street. It looked a bit interesting, a mountain bike with some sort of small motor strapped to the frame and my brother asked the young man what it was. The guy said it was his "crackhead bike". The type of bike that you can drive legally without a license and I guess it's something that all the local folks with DUI's on their record choose as their motive transportation. We looked at it for a few seconds and then he told me he was heading home to put the chain back on his head popped off the sprockets. That was the end of it as my brother left and I went back to work. That evening I get a phone call from my brother with a frantic tone to his voice. He told me that when he got home that evening and logged onto his computer, an ad popped up on the screen with a picture of a "bicycle motor conversion" that was called a "crackhead bike"! He was freaked out because he said that he never spoke those words in his life and heard it for the first time that day. He proceeded to tape over all of the cameras and microphones on computers/laptops/pads and anything else around the house. For a guy who never hunted or even owned a gun in his life(I still don't know how he could be my brother), he and his home are well armed/stocked with firearms. BIG BROTHER CERTAINLY IS LISTENING and I've experienced it first hand.
In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :
So big brother and the commercial industry is using, collecting and selling our data, what can guns do against a cyber invasion?
In reply to yupididit :
Maybe he's preparing for the drastic part.
I accept that they're watching and just try to throw off the algorithm with a bunch of false leads to screw up their signal-to-noise ratio. And when the ads get annoying, I google lingerie companies so FB delivers me free pics of scantily clad women to my feed.
Being a tabletop gaming nerd who GM's for my group also throws the algorithm for a loop. What do you advertise to someone looking up nitroglycerine, Bohemian royalty, Victorian literature, and out-of-print RPG systems?
I just hope I entertain the agents assigned to my watch list.
SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:When my wife and I were talking through getting our windows replaced through a company called "Centra," we very quickly started receiving a wack of advertising for the Nissan Sentra.
I am convinced they're listening.
They are. We've discussed how your phone/laptop will change product recommendations in our stores based on verbal cues.
It's been this way for years and is heavily documented. Not sure why anyone is surpised.
Toyman! said:In reply to yupididit :
Maybe he's preparing for the drastic part.
I must've missed the part where selling our data results in such drastic measures.
No one is coming. Why would they when they can milk you for 75 years?
In reply to yupididit :
Doesn't matter. First one in, first one down 
In reply to yupididit :
Of course you don't understand. You are a level headed, sane individual.
Beer Baron said:I accept that they're watching and just try to throw off the algorithm with a bunch of false leads to screw up their signal-to-noise ratio. And when the ads get annoying, I google lingerie companies so FB delivers me free pics of scantily clad women to my feed.
Being a tabletop gaming nerd who GM's for my group also throws the algorithm for a loop. What do you advertise to someone looking up nitroglycerine, Bohemian royalty, Victorian literature, and out-of-print RPG systems?
I just hope I entertain the agents assigned to my watch list.
One of my friends is a writer for hire. One day he might be writing a 3000 word article about recidivism among heroin addicts and the next he might be writing paid reviews for lawnmowers. He uses incognito mode for all of his research, and so far his directed ads are not particularly skewed.
I guess the algorithms just threw up their little digital hands and gave up 
Heard about Data Farms?
Supercomputers in remote areas specifically to store the public's data.
And it's more Aldous Huxley than Orwell. We'll ask for our freedoms to be taken, and be lulled into complacency.
I love being watched. I’m fixing up old Tamiya RC right now, then went down a TRX4 wormhole. Also enjoy the prospect of bronze wheels on my S197 Mustang.
Guess what Facebook and Google spoon feed me? I don’t buy much but have found lots in places I never would have. What! A TRX4 with Rover body on Poshmark, WTF is Poshmark.
Somehow I almost always have a Mishimoto add stalking me.
wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) said:And it's more Aldous Huxley than Orwell. We'll ask for our freedoms to be taken, and be lulled into complacency.
Yah, I'm tired of hearing about 1984. Huxley nailed it in 1931 with Brave New World. Heck, we're very nearly there.
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
Facebook feed is the prime example of "Ending is better than mending".
You all should see my ad suggestions. I work for a theater. One of my Amazon orders for props included a 1/2" NPT solenoid valve, 100 cable clamps, a glass bong, a blow up doll, and 5000 black unlubed condoms. Some marketing AI is assuming I'm building a self-inflating blow up doll that I can hang from the ceiling and get high while using the condoms to love on it.
I have next to zero ads that are targeted at me, they're targeted at whatever props and materials I buy for plays.
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