Facebook, instagram, snapchat, all the goodies are installed. Google assistant is off though.

On an unrelated, somewhat related note, I once had a friend's brother see ads that were targeted at my computer. She came by, used the wifi at my house and it probably gave her phone some cookies with my IP attached to them. She took her phone home, they attached her IP to my cookies, and we started seeing ads aimed at each other's households. Ad targeting spreads like a virus!

I've "Hey Google" turned off and haven't really noticed any ads that ever pop up anymore. If it's listening all the time waiting to hear that one voice command it's most likely listening to every single word you're saying and remembering it. I remember at one point I had Shazam set to auto recognize and when I'd go shopping at certain stores I'd hear some decent songs I knew and sure enough they were on my recently Shazamed list.
For knowing where I'm going I'm pretty sure it's all with having your location settings on and noticing patterns in your days. Mon - Fri I leave for work at the same time at 6:40am and there's always a "there's no traffic on your route" message and it'll pop up again at 3:20pm. Only does it on weekdays.
When I go to restaurants I always get a "at X right now? take a photo or write a review". If I look at my daily google timeline it knows where I'm at for how long and what store I was in. If there's ads I'm guessing it's based off that. I THINK it was my Z3 that had an option to group photos by location and faces, so if you're taking photos of something I'm sure it can recognize popular name brands or logos in the background and have ads that are similar to it or from the location of the photo's time/location stamp and know where it was taken and suggest trips there etc.

Add an edit here - As some were saying how your google accounts are all synced up anything I search at my home desktop (google random letters aksjdf adsklfja ;sdnfmlk on your desktop and then type the first couple letters on your phone and it'll bring it up. My work desktop has me logged into through chrome and if I type those same few letters in it'll bring everything up and most likely suggest ads related to whatever it is.

On a somewhat unrelated note -- does anyone noticed how the Google GPS / location service / timeline tracking has become a lot more fine grained in the recent month or two?

I was reviewing my timeline just now, and it seems to me that the degree of accuracy with Google's location tracking is significantly more fine grained / detailed than it used to. From my location / timeline tracking data, it seems to me that I am seeing some very strong evidence that Google Map nearly tracked out my exact detailed route for the whole day on Dec 5, and have more or less been doing the same since then. In the past, the route is far less detailed, and only roughly maps out the locations I've been to and the routes I take. As of early Nov, it was still more or less like that.

Extremely detailed. I was in Metrotown a week ago and was going in and out of shops. I was in West 49 for no more than a few minutes and my phone had the pop up to take a photo and write a review for the place. Only way I can see that happening is long/latt coordinates instead of general vicinity location. Granted it is called GPS for a reason lol but I don't understand how it can tell I'm in that store and not the one below it.





edit - Just looked it up out of curiosity and found this from the nytimes from a few years ago cell tracking. That was published in '13. If it's even true think of how much further they've probably come since then.

Well... Facebook finally came out to admit that they've been snooping on our conversations and stuff through our phones:

Facebook Has Been Collecting Android Users' Cell Phone Data For Years | Time

The link above also shows you how you can download a copy of all the data that Facebook has recorded on you, and how you can stop it from continuing to do some of those eavesdroping.

I'm personally a-OK with FB losing billions of dollars at this juncture. I remember downloading the app on my Android back in 2012 and used it for maybe 4 months but after reading articles BACK THEN about how the app can harvest information without sufficient knowledge, I deleted the app right away.

I've watered down my FB profile over the years. The features they added just went beyond the creep threshold for me.

Fairly comprehensive article on his thievery
How Facebook Was Founded - Business Insider

Clarify its only SMS text messages and phone call records, not via audio while the phone is inactive.

does deleting the app delete the API and all associated codes completely? 4Head
https://arstechnica.com/information-...ndroid-phones/

i'm surprised people are finding this revelation surprising...just about every social media android app asks for permission of contacts, birthdays, etc....to assume call/msg history and beyond are not logged when they've already gone to those lengths?

Be like me and never get Facebook, ever.

so that means you're not on instagram, whatsapp?

Time to buy in the $FB dip :fullofwin:

lol no one is safe...even if you deleted FB years ago or don't have FB but uses WhatsApp or just the Internet in general

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...users-off-site

I don’t have social media. Texted a few friends about how I’m in the market for a pre-owned car. Posted in here too. This week has been a non stop cycle of ford and Mitsubishi and Honda etc car ads, very specifically about buying pre owned.

Fucking desperate and pathetic

If you're in the market for one, would you have been looking online using your web browser?

its not just about what you are doing.

it's about your position in the bigger picture.

who your friends are, what they are posting and what the computers can correlate between you and them and what they are doing.

like i said, it's not just you.

totally out of your hands.

for those of you that are too stupid to get it.

im gonna make it slightly easier

A^2+B^2=C^2

you only have to know 2/3 to figure out the 3rd.

and guess what, the computers know the 2/3 and you're the 3rd.

like a fucking puzzle missing only one piece. only ONE PIECE FITS IN THERE. lol. YOURE THE MISSING PIECE.

doesnt matter if you hide... it knows your shape. it knows what's supposed to fit in there. and that's you.

o...k....

Also if you go into dealerships and sign onto their wifi, they will also retarget you for related ads after.

Only Craigslist which is no different than any other day. No google searches for tips on used vehicles etc

^ I'm gonna assume you went into the "cars and trucks" category? Which is largely populated with pre-owned vehicles.

What really made me feel violated was that Instagram Advertisements for Amazon showed my previous purchases and items I've viewed. FB/Instagram and Amazon are separate companies, but this browsing/account information somehow gets implemented into facebook's targeted advertisement?

This is actually done through both wifi location services and bluetooth location services. It's beginning to trend as marketing tactics, but essentially when you walked into that store, the strongest Wi-Fi signal is of that store or BT signal of that store.

That's how Google knows you're at W49 and not Gap.

Amazon purchases ad space from FB/IG, the same as anyone else. Nobody would make much ad money if the ads they ran were only for their own products.

Amazon buys ads elsewhere that read your cookies and login info to target you. This is why they are making such a huge deal over cookies in the EU.

There are obvious tracking methods, but that's not really what this thread is about. What's REALLY creepy is when you get targeted after having a verbal conversation with NO other ways to track, like in my OP.

So I come home for lunch, make lunch, put my phone down on my coffee table and put on a “Rick steves Europe” I have PVR’ed. Anyone who knows rick Steve’s knows he has a fairly unique voice.

About 10 minutes in my phone vibrates and I look at it. It “randomly” recommends me a rock Steve’s podcast in the notifications..

I’ve never once seen a podcast notification come up and I don’t even subscribe to his podcasts (although I have listened in the past but not for months..)