Image description: Elon Musk & X @elonmusk • 42m Just bought a new PC laptop and it won’t let me use it unless I create a Microsoft account, which also means giving their Al access to my computer! This is messed up. There used to be an option to skip signing into or creating a Microsoft account. Are you seeing this too? This is not cool of Microsoft.
(Originally published on mastodon.social: 2024-02-25)
allegedly
There are people out there that still believe your phone isn’t listening to everything you say and targeting ads based on that, as well.
Phones aren’t listening, that uses too much data.
Reality is a lot more creepy. They don’t need to wiretap you.
If you talk to someone about a subject. Google knows you 2 have encountered each other, because Google knows both your locations, even if the GPS is disabled.
And if the other person do a quick search on the subject after you left. Then google can associate you with that user and gives you similar ad results. So it looks like you only thought about it.
But it goes further. Because Google has so much data on everyone, they can predict what you want before you even thought about it. Because like it or not, in a population of 8 billion, you aren’t really that unique. There will be at least 10 000 similar people that all react to things the same way. So if they all have this brilliant idea about a subject, then you are bound to have the same idea. So they serve you ads.
My phone is always listening for an “okay Google” it’s not too unreasonable to believe that there are other keywords that it’ll hear to know what ads to send your way
Even this is silly, it’s what Google want advertisers to believe when they buy ads but their tracking is kinda shit in reality.
The reason you often see adverts that apply to you is that we’re all kinds basic and are probably only thinking of things because they’re running an advertising campaign.
I get ads for random shit that I have no interest in all the time.
Maybe Google has learned that sending me ads makes me less likely to buy shit, so they only send me ads for unrelated junk.
I’m one of those. If it were true you’d get targeted ads for everything your phone hears from TV too.
Anecdotal: I had a friend go to New York. When he got back, I asked what he did while there, and (among other things) he told me that he saw a musical on Broadway.
I had heard of the musical before, but I’ve never searched for it or anything. The next day, I got an ad for it on YouTube.
Maybe it’s coincidental. I didn’t get ads for any of the other things he talked about. But I’ve never been to New York. I have no plans to go to New York. Why would I be getting ads for a musical only playing in New York?
They totally have data on who you are spending time with. they know your friend went there and know you saw that friend. That’s enough I think
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Just wanted to say thanks for writing this up. I had a similar experience and figured wifi and location was enough for google to make the connection, but I like the extra part you added about being associated through contacts app too.
I mean, most voice assistants have a way to teach it your voice. I imagine it would be trivial for it to learn your voice vs a TV voice given you are the person around your phone most often and it can eventually isolate your voice in a sea of noise
What they don’t have is the bandwidth. Plus it would be super easy to detect.
Process it all locally and someone will notice the battery hit. Process it remotely and someone will notice the bandwidth hit.
If it came out that they were listening in to every conversation, Congress would have an absolute field day. The Democrats won’t like the invasion of privacy and the Republicans would be happy for any excuse to go after “Big Tech”.
Why be obvious when you can quietly get better data? Why would Apple also play along this whole time?
They don’t actually listen in on you. That would blow through your battery pretty quick and send a lot of data.
They have even better ways, though.
They can triangulate your location using WiFi. Even if the SSIDs are brand new, they can figure out you’re close to someone by comparing the networks and their RSSIs. If you or the person you’re talking with searched for something or went to a website/app very recently before or after the chat, Google is likely to send you relevant ads.
I just have my phone as my designated privacy nightmare because I’m cheap and whatsapp lets me make free phonecalls. My computer and browser on the other hand are so loaded up with privacy measures that if I don’t log into youtube it literally breaks and shows no videos because the algorithm has no data to workt with.
This is not how YouTube works…
Its how youtube says youtube works. It says it can’t find any video history and just shows nothing. The page is still entierly functional and I can directly search things (or login to get suggestions) but it won’t show me anything on its own.
More disturbingly, there are people who believe a thing isn’t happening, until they see proof that it is.
I would hope so. People believing more conspiracy theories based on anecdotes is the last thing we need.
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