For example, last week my doctor prescribed a new medicine for me she thought might be helpful, and noted out loud that it had a specific side effect she didn't think I'd find too bothersome. She prescribed the drug, and I ordered it from the Amazon pharmacy. By the time I got home, Facebook was offering up ads from numerous companies offering herbal remedies for the condition or else for the side effect.
Most likely Amazon sold me out as a customer; less likely, my iPhone is listening in and Apple is reporting it to Facebook. Somehow, however, they knew almost as soon as I did that I had a new hook for their advertisers.
I mention this because, in the last couple of days, I've received a similarly aggressive spur in ads for expunging my criminal records so that I can seek gainful employment again. Readers, I have never been arrested for anything nor charged with anything more serious than speeding or improper backing of a vehicle. Do you think they know something I don't know?
8 comments:
Those weren't supposed to drop till Tuesday!
I've been receiving calls from a third party supposedly representing CVS, trying to sell me diabetic medicine. These are people who don't have English as their first language.
Either they are misrepresenting CVS, or someone in corporate might have given the green light for this BS and needs to be fired.
The AI creating these connections ain't nearly as smart as some people think it is. I subscribe to various Norton utilities and therefore I get occasional prompts to purchase their service that contacts data brokers to delete your personal information from their databases. Part of the prompt for this is a display of some of the data connected to your name and address, and I can see from that display that the prior occupants of our address are likely being included in my data profile, and I think some people that live on a different street in the vicinity with the same house number. We occasionally get junk mail for them, as well. I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of inference about you is being made from general demographic data, neighbors or prior occupants, or if the company offering that service is taking a scatter gun approach to sending out offers since it's virtually free.
Google and DDGo have been doing this for some time too.
As a privacy focused search engine, I would be very surprised if Duck Duck Go were doing this. What makes you think it is?
So, our phones track us in four ways. 1, GPS. 2, wifi networks. 3, cell tower. All of those people generally know, or are at least aware of.
4 is social network in the broadest, big data sense. So, probably, your phone noted you were at your doctor's, she had recently prescribed that med for other patients (social network -- although you don't know those other patients, the companies tracking us know everyone who visits her), and the database noted that those patients went out and bought the medicine you were prescribed. They also know the most common side effects. It's probably more complicated than that (they're probably also using age and gender info to narrow the possible medications list, etc.), but that's enough to understand what's happening.
Facebook is possibly the worst -- they actively search out data on people who are not on Facebook in order to fill out their social network info and they use facial recognition software on all photos, so even people w/o an FB account will be recorded by facial recognition and FB will try to identify them in other ways.
However, Google and Apple both track your social network in the sense of tracking people you are around. They see all of the phones running their OS in your area, as long as they can see your location from cell tower, wifi, or GPS. Facebook can do something similar w/ people running the Facebook app.
All of this information is salable and there are websites (e.g. peoplefinder.com) that help you find all this info on someone for a fee. Those companies are are happy to buy this info from whomever is selling it.
You can turn off GPS and wifi when you aren't using them. You cannot escape cell tower triangulation from your service provider or Apple (or Google for Android phones) without a Faraday sleeve or leaving your phone at home.
For anyone who is serious about escaping all this surveillance, you can get de-Googled Android phones (or de-Google them yourself), in which case only your cell service provider will be able to track you. Obviously, don't load any Google or Apple apps, Facebook, etc., and keep wifi and GPS turned off if you aren't using them. If you really need one of their apps, it is possible to "sandbox" the app on a de-Googled phone and shut the app down when you aren't using it, but it will be reporting on you when it's up and running.
Oh, on the criminal record thing, my guess would be that you unknowingly spent some time in the general vicinity of some convicts, maybe at a bar, maybe a cafe, maybe at Walmart. Or it's the rollout of the Department of PreCrime.
Here's a good article on phone privacy. I didn't realize bluetooth could also be used. If you don't use a deGoogled phone, an iPhone is the second choice.
https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/stop-mobile-phone-tracking/
- Tom
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