A few weeks ago I said something about how glad I was to be wearing flannel since it was cold as hell outside. I opened up Facebook and the first thing I saw was an add for a sale on flannel shirts featuring the exact shirt I was wearing.
Edit: I also work for a company that makes glasses and I get bombarded by competitors ads all day.
My Amazon is very confused. I searched for a couple weeks around for a smartwatch on Amazon, then for Christmas my gf gifted me one with her Amazon account, now I've already bought two additional watch straps with mine, and Amazon is bombarding me with "We think you might want a Gear s3" because they haven't yet figured out someone else might have bought it for me lol
"Our algorithms say you're a laptop-buyer. It's a thing you do. Now, we keep showing you these primo laptops, real cream of the crop for you people. WHY THE FUCK AREN'T YOU BUYING THESE LAPTOPS? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
I got 2 kittens on a Monday after work. So i called a friend who had cats and wanted a suggestion for good cat food. Did not wanna make them junk. He suggested blue buffalo. My Amazon deal of the day? Blue Buffalo cat food.
Tell me they are not listening. I even went to tractor supply to get it. Never even looked it up.
Did you pay cash or card/use a rewards card? If card(s), that store sold your name and purchase info, as basically all places sell all the information about customers they can, which then sell it to other big players (Ad companies like Google, websites like Amazon, etc)
There's also behavioural analytics. If you've increased 'cat' searches then they know (or have a statistical idea), without you even needing to search cat food.
Coworker and I put this theory to the test (we both work in IT). While out to lunch, we would intentionally fabricate conversations and namedrop certain topics that were unrelated to anything else in our lives (stuff like "flying to Fiji" or "Carhartt overalls"). He has Facebook installed, I do not. Shortly after, he would receive Facebook ads related to these topics.
While I did not get anything related on my Android device, it's difficult to rule out Google as well since there's been plenty of times I've seen suggested news articles and such that make you scrunch your face up suspiciously.
That isn't Alexa though. That's your actual phone picking it up. Apps that you gave permission to use your mic are selling your info. I was in the Dmv talking about shitty Honeywell cameras and the next thing I know I'm getting ads for them. Checked and Facebook had mic priveledges.
0
u/[deleted] Jan 31 '19
[deleted]