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Author Topic: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?  (Read 5291 times)

Stoic Joker

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Okay, so I was talking to a client, and they were telling me about some rather odd behavior they had noticed FaceBook appearing to be engaged in. That being ads appearing that were relevant to conversations that they had had while in the vicinity of their phone. Not on the phone...just near it. And these were discussions that had zero relevance to any phone or internet activity past or present. These people are non-Millennial strictly business kind of folk. Ya know... Older people (like me) that only use there phones for talking on..

And that struck my as quite odd … But not as something that I could easily dismiss considering the shenanigans going on in our current electronic world.

So when I got off the phone with client X, I casually mentioned it to the guy that works with me here in IT … And he said yeah, he's noticed it too. Conversations that he an I have had here - in the presence of his phone - have resulted in ads relevant to our discussions show up on his FaceBook page at home. He does not FaceBook here at the office.

So... Not to sound insanely paranoid - That's Renegade's job... - But this really does have me quite curious. It sounds crazy... But these days... I just don't know what to think anymore.

Anybody else notice something like this happening?

wraith808

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2018, 02:27 PM »
I have... and just discounted it as I must have done something online.  About seemingly random stuff that I do, but don't have any online relationship with.  And not with facebook- I barely use that.  But ads in strange places.

KynloStephen66515

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2018, 02:37 PM »
Firstly I don't believe for a second that Facebook is "listening to random conversations and somehow turning them into ads".

That being said, your client has likely had those adverts shown to them before, and not really paid any attention to them...but now they are talking about the subject they have become more consciously aware of the subject matter and as such pay more attention to that advert being shown.  I've noticed it myself (and I don't even own a phone) where the mrs and I will be chatting about something random whilst on a walk (neither of us having phones) and then think we have become psychic once we get home and there are adverts on TV for a film we said we have not seen in years, or an advert online for a product we didn't think existed but chatted about. 

Our minds are highly susceptible to taking background information in (the brain is very spongy) but it's not very good at keeping that information in a place where we can make conscious links.

Given the amount of online advertising that people see every day, there is a strong argument that it is pure coincidence - that perhaps the advert has been served before unobserved and is only now noticeable because of an unrelated discussion.
Quote from: http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-41802282




Or...perhaps I'm wrong and the whole world is bugged and listening/recording/serving based on voice-prints :P

mouser

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2018, 03:09 PM »
Wait.. Stephen is making sense? When did that start?

KynloStephen66515

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2018, 03:21 PM »
Wait.. Stephen is making sense? When did that start?

oi!  ;D ;D ;D

Stoic Joker

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2018, 03:56 PM »
Hay, I'm not saying I believe it's happening. I'm just saying it's difficult to confidently discount with some of the current goings on.

FaceBook has been caught scraping information out of Emails and text messages on Android phones.

Voice activated TV's and "electronic assistants" (like Alexa etc.) have been caught recording everything and uploading "telemetry".

So the technology is there, and the necessary contemptuous attitude toward personal privacy by corporations is also available on spades.

And if the most common kneejerk reaction is like Stephen's above … Well... It wouldn't really be that hard to get away with.

rgdot

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2018, 03:59 PM »
Wait.. Stephen is making sense? When did that start?

That and he doesn't even own a phone?  :P

KynloStephen66515

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2018, 04:03 PM »
Wait.. Stephen is making sense? When did that start?

That and he doesn't even own a phone?  :P

Well, technically I own one...it's just in bits in a static-proof bag in the wardrobe cause I broke the screen, took it to bits...and never repaired it haha

wraith808

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2018, 07:15 PM »
And if the most common kneejerk reaction is like Stephen's above … Well... It wouldn't really be that hard to get away with.
-Stoic Joker (May 10, 2018, 03:56 PM)

This.  As I said, I dismissed it as I must have shared it before.  But some of it is inexplainable, like pinterest knowing (without me linking it to other platforms) that it was my anniversary month, and showing me gifts.  And I don't even talk about any family on any platform.  That was creepy.

Deozaan

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2018, 09:21 PM »
This is how I interpreted it:

Or...perhaps I'm wrong and the whole world is bugged and listening/recording/serving based on voice-prints :P
-Stephen66515 (May 10, 2018, 02:37 PM)

Wait.. Stephen is making sense? When did that start?


 :P

wraith808

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2018, 02:01 PM »
Voice activated TV's and "electronic assistants" (like Alexa etc.) have been caught recording everything and uploading "telemetry".
-Stoic Joker (May 10, 2018, 03:56 PM)

More true than you know.

https://www.kiro7.co...om-contact/755507974

4wd

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Re: From the Tinfoil Hat Department - FaceBook Listening?
« Reply #11 on: May 26, 2018, 11:42 PM »
Recent BBC Panorama episode:



Thought it was interesting using the TV to order stuff via Alexa and for those of you with IP cams, it may pay to check access to them.
« Last Edit: May 29, 2018, 07:52 AM by 4wd, Reason: New URL »