Here's a screen shot of the email (click to enlarge and clarify):
I googled the title of the book. Screen shot:
I'm not interested in discussing that book or David Duke in general.
Well, then why were you talking about David Duke in your house yesterday?, you might ask.
Answer: We were talking about the Prada story, blogged here, which referred to "historical images of Sambo," and it led to a discussion of whether the name "Sambo" is unusable. There's a restaurant in California called "Sambo's," and it's been around a long time. If the name refers to white people, is that okay? Could you call a dog "Sambo" — and would it depend on whether or not the dog was black? What were other questionable names for a dog? There's the classic dog name "Duke," but you certainly wouldn't want anyone to think you'd named your dog after David Duke.
That was the context! I've got nothing good to say about David Duke, and I basically hate even to put his name on this blog. I've done it a few times. You can click the tag to see what has provoked me, but I hadn't mentioned him since "Why wouldn't Donald Trump 'unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that [he doesn't] want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this election'?" (February 2016).
Maybe it's merely a coincidence that I got that email yesterday, but I'm concerned that one or more of my devices are listening to our speech in the house and some company is gathering information about me and using it commercially.
I don't have any of the devices like Echo or Alexa that listen to accept voice commands, and while all my devices — laptop, desktop, iPhone, iPad — have Siri, I have all of them set not to "Listen for 'Hey Siri.'" I read "Here’s How Facebook or Any Other App Could Use Your Phone's Microphone to Gather Data" (Money) and followed the instructions to go to Settings —> Privacy —> Microphone, which got me to the page that is supposed to list all the apps "that have requested access to the microphone," and there were no apps listed — not on the iPhone and not on the iPad.
Ideas?
Posts
101 comments:
And this is why the tech companies have a problem with coming regulation- even if it is a coincidence, you don't really believe it is. And neither does anyone else (even if it is).
Coincidence. But test it out by talking about other weird subjects and see what happens.
Set all those devices to "LISTEN FOR "HEY SIRI"....
You have the setting exactly wrong.
I agree. Test it.
What versions of apple operating systems do you have? Have you performed malware scans lately?
Something's listening... And you'll never know what it is.
I've had this argument with a friend of mine who was working at a startup that was going to be doing some rather sketchy things with the data it was going to be collecting when using it's app (location data in this case). He compared it to giving information to Amazon every time you order something from them.
Any my point back to him was that I had developed a trust relationship with Amazon. I wanted amazon to know what I was buying and searching for, because I trusted AMZN to use that information wisely to steer me to new products. Which AMZN has been doing a pretty decent job of so far.
Flash forward though and my wife is driving my oldest daughter to Target to pick up something or other for her, and she can't remember if they were talking about Target (they well could have been) or just the fact she was driving in the direction of Target, but low and behold she gets an email. With a coupon. From Target!
Useful? Yes. Creepy? Definitely.
David Duke? Over the top. Laziness in algorithms. Or just a coincidence....
I think after recent revelations - that Facebook and Google are essentially tracking you even if you turn those features off - you should 100% be skeptical of any user-selectable feature that makes you believe you have control over your privacy in general if the device is still plugged in.
Even if it was unplugged you've still got a problem, say something that has a battery backup, but your wifi is still running.
So yeah, color yourself skeptical....skeptical sambo...skambo.
I would suggest running some experiments. Come up with a list of consumer products that you don't actually need, which you have not seen ads for anytime recently, an which you have never googled.
Then discuss them with Meade within listening range of your devices, and see if you start getting ads for any of them. If you do, then try to narrow it down to one or more specific devices by discussing things only within hearing of one device per product.
Forgive me for recounting this again but many months ago - i forget when, I was in my car on the weekend and listening to an AM radio show on electronics and computers - this was the topic.
Hosted by? I cannot recall. A female.
A few people called in to recount their stories on how they think they are being spied on. (by facebook, by google?)
One couple did a test. They discussed how they were out of cat food and needed to buy cat litter for their cat. (they don't have a cat) - and all of a sudden the cat product ads came flowing in.
Someone or something was listening.
So many ways to get there without listening. Cookies tracking your searches and blogger algorithms anticipating your next move. Writing about the Prada story and adding tags with 'race' in them. Perhaps the magic algorithms tell us people who write such things are interested in David Duke...
I've noticed the QuickType section on my iPhone keypad often has a proper name in it before I've begun to type anything. 'Donald Trump' is popular. Probably because I have a CNBC page open. Or perhaps the algorithm correlates Trump with Althouse.
Yes they are listening. My wife will mention sweaters while I'm working on the laptop, and we also have no listening devices like Echo, yet within the hour, the sidebar on Blogger starts showing advertisements of women in sweaters. This happens all the time. Thank God the Constitution keeps Ted Lieu from regulating my actual speech, as he has said he would like very much to do. For now.
Have you asked: "Why won't the Left unequivocally condemn Louis Farrakhan and say that they don't want his support or that of any other racist?"?
"
So many ways to get there without listening. Cookies tracking your searches and blogger algorithms anticipating your next move. Writing about the Prada story and adding tags with 'race' in them. Perhaps the magic algorithms tell us people who write such things are interested in David Duke...
I've noticed the QuickType section on my iPhone keypad often has a proper name in it before I've begun to type anything. 'Donald Trump' is popular. Probably because I have a CNBC page open. Or perhaps the algorithm correlates Trump with Althouse.
A week or so ago I went to Costco. Shortly after I got ome a gmail arrived asking me about my Costco experience. Well, I paid with a credit card, so there's a rational explanation. Later that day I went to the neighborhood Dollar Tree and paid cash. No sooner did I get back home than I got a gmail asking about my Dollar Tree experience.
It turns out my Android phone is tracking my whereabouts, and selling them to whomever. It turns out there's a Location setting which can be turned off. I hope that's it.
Data you are giving Facebook or Twitter or Blogger or Amazon could be shared and correlated with any and every other group where they share data. And so on, and so on, and so on...
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NSA has bugged your house and then it sells the data.
He knows if you are sleeping
He knows if you're awake
He know if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake.
Do you use a laptop as your main computer?
They come with cameras and microphones. I think they're always on and listening while your computer is on.
Did you buy white flour at the grocery store? That might stand out in Madison. How Duke got the info is another matter.
Facebook has pulled up acquaintances with whom I've had no electronic interaction besides phone calls. Perhaps they've been posting about me!
"You have the setting exactly wrong."
No I don't. I have "Press Home for Siri" on and the "Listen for 'Hey Siri'" off. That means I have to do something with my hands to activate Siri and it doesn't work with voice alone. I have also tested it to make sure that is true and it is.
@Ignorance is Bliss
Good idea. I am doing that.
Maybe it's merely a coincidence that I got that email yesterday, but I'm concerned that one or more of my devices are listening to our speech in the house and some company is gathering information about me and using it commercially.
Have you ever had any interaction with any Russians? 'Cause there was a whole lot of redacted stuff in that FISA application. Maybe some of it was about you. They could have literally tapped the phone lines at Meadehouse...
I agree with others - this is a good thing to experiment with. As noted, talk about something plausible that you don't need. Vacuum Cleaner bags. Paint for the walls. See what happens.
Ads don't work on me. My favorite Aunt, who traveled the world, told me at an impressionable age: If they have to buy ads to make you like it, it mustn't be very good.
An exercise:
On an Apple computer: Safari>Preferences>Privacy>Manage Website Data>Remove all. Next, navigate to Althouse or any favorite site. You'll get at last 1/2 dozen cookies from instagram, youtube, google, doubleclick, et al. The names mater not because guess what- they all share...
Block them and you probably won't get to navigate to the site. Tricked ya!
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/smart-tv-spying-vizio-settlement/
If you google 'is my iphone listening to me,' the consensus seems to be 'maybe.'
Jayzus. I've gotten some weird stuff consequent to innocent searches/orders, but never anything as freaky as that.
Amazon Prime Video thinks I'd like to watch Atlas Shrugged. Guess they think I'm a conservative. I wonder if it's a positive correlation with something I've done or if the absence of popular left leaning visits or accoutrement are enough?
If the government gets tech companies to share data with them (Terrorism!! National Security!! Child trafficking drug cartels!!), and the companies know their devices listen in on you, doesn’t that make them state agents conducting illegal searches.
I have my dog set to listen for "Julie."
Don't assume they are listening. The algorithms don't have to be listening, they know you well enough without listening.
it's your phone.
also try VirtualSheild
Amazon lets you edit your history so it doesn't keep suggesting movies like a movie you bought but didn't like.
He knows when you are sleeping; he knows when you're awake....
Are you sure the email was really sent by David Duke?
The other option is someone who doesn't like your opinion trying to ensnare you. What did the email ask you to do?
Notice the email was sent ostensibly via Constant Contact using a gmail address instead of Duke's davidduke.com domain.
Read This if You Use an @Gmail.com Email in the “From” Address of Your Email Campaigns
Google recently announced plans to join Yahoo and AOL in an effort to cut down on email spam.
Google’s change to their authentication policy impacts people who use Gmail to send emails through a third-party service like Constant Contact.
What does this mean for you?
If you’re sending email through an email service provider (ESP) — like Constant Contact — using an @gmail.com address as your “from” email address, Google’s protocol will tell receiving servers to reject the email because it’s not sent through a Google server — and your email might be rejected or recorded as a bounce.
(Note: All email service providers are impacted by this change; it is not isolated to Constant Contact.)
Here’s how to ensure your emails get delivered: To help your business successfully reach your customers and supporters, Constant Contact will update your ‘from’ address using domains that abide by Google’s DMARC policy.
For example, if your address is joesgoods@gmail.com, it will change it to joesgoods+gmail@ccsend.com
However, to make your emails more credible and professional, we recommend using a custom domain email address.
Using a custom email address for your business increases trust, engagement, and sales for your business. Surveys show 42 percent of businesses saw an increase in sales after switching to a custom domain email address.
You want your customers to see an email address that matches your brand, like joesgoods@joesgoods.com, rather than joesgoods+gmail@ccsend.com.
This not only limits email deliverability issues, it also makes it easier for your contacts to recognize your business and can increase your open rate.
Lucien said...
If the government gets tech companies to share data with them (Terrorism!! National Security!! Child trafficking drug cartels!!), and the companies know their devices listen in on you, doesn’t that make them state agents conducting illegal searches.
Interestingly, I think Instapundit alluded to a Third Amendment issue in addition to the Forth Amendment.
Third: No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Alexa, you've been drafted.
Earnest Prole said...
If you google 'is my iphone listening to me,' the consensus seems to be 'maybe.'
If you google 'is my google phone listening to me,' the consensus is 'huh? what? oh! um, of course not. that would be silly.'
If you are a woman in your sixties and you haven't searched for Michelle Obama tickets the algorithms know you are a conservative.
I made an off-hand comment to my husband one day that an electric kettle might be handy during our winter power outages when we run a generator to power our kitchen. Like Ann, we have Siri and laptops, but no other listening devices. After a quick search on Amazon, I decided against purchasing a kettle and though nothing more of it. About two weeks later, my husband calls me from work to ask if I had purchased a kettle after all. I hadn't. A kettle had been sent to his workplace address out of the blue. (All personal items are sent to our home) There was no information in or on the package indicating who sent it and there was no charge on his personal or corporate credit card. So...free kettle. This situation seems too specific to be random. I wish we'd been discussing a new car.
Like, why do you care? Do you have something to hide? Google and Amazon and FaceBook just want to make your life better. Don't you want your life to be better? Maybe you would like your life to be worse? Nice life you've got there.
I've been trying to extricate myself from Google by not using their email and keeping my mic off on my phone but it would seem all the tech communications companies are determined to spy on us. I hate it. It would be tempting to retreat to a low-tech environment but they have made it quite impossible.
Could you call a dog "Sambo" — and would it depend on whether or not the dog was black?
The ultimate dog whistle, his own name.
According to my phone, "E911 location cannot be turned off on any mobile cellular phone". Purportedly, this is a safety measure but...
Like, why do you care? Do you have something to hide, Comrade?
@Jupiter, FIFY.
My guess is not a coincidence. Perhaps not Siri, but some other app on your phone is gathering leads for spammers.
Sambo's was the original name of Denny's. The Sambo story mentioned pancakes and butter. Although Little Black Sambo was supposed to live in India, African Americans complained about the name and it was changed. Several times IIRC.
The Chinese 'Social Credit System' is a high-tech means of monitoring every citizen as well as punishing them for wrong thinking and activities. We are currently on track for the very same controls. In fact, it is being implemented already.
Cover your tracks by continually asking Meade if he's seen your DAISY dukes.
You can test this hypothesis, Ann. Make a list of people who might send you e-mail asking for donations or political support. It should be a list of people you have not discussed recently on the blog.
I would lay my money on the Duke thing being a coincidence, but there are listening devices in phones and computers that can be turned on remotely, so it is definitely plausible you are being monitored by someone.
ken in tx, Sambo was also a portmantu of the owners, Sam Battistone Sr. and Newell Bohnett.
Ann, we're living in the world of "Brazil," where badly created algorithms are wreaking havoc online.
Tumblr, which can't tell the difference between nude art and not-nude art.
Amazon, where authors have to contend with multiple requests to prove they own the work they're putting up. Amazon also takes down legitimate reviews and deprives authors of income if it thinks someone has gamed the system, without recourse to appeal.
Facebook, which bounces ads it feels doesn't meet their requirements, but can't tell the customer exactly what it objects to (I see this a lot on a Facebook group of authors).
Twitter, which can't tell the difference between actual racists and satire.
It's the new clampdown.
"Did you consider...SATAN!!"
PM said... [hush][hide comment]
"Did you consider...SATAN!!"
Or Chuck?
As others suggested, intentionally testing by talking about something else is best thing to do.
Anecdote: Because of some subject or comment here, I turned off my ad blocker for Althouse site.
Instead of being inundated with ads for electronics, tools, auto parts and stuff I already bought, I got three or four pleasant side bar ads of women wearing nice dresses, lingerie, perfumes purses and related things.
Kinda nice, actually, so I have not turned ad blocker back on.
Wonder if the ads are related to searches done by AA?
As far as I can tell, you can't turn off the microphone on an iPad.
Many years ago I read David Duke's autobiography, My Awakening. What I remember most about it is that he criticized the Jews a lot more than he criticized Colored people.
The Media is to blame. They CONSTANTLY pretend like David Duke or the KKK or the "neo-nazis" are significant political actors - and they aren't. And haven't been for quite some time.
Plus, large numbers of liberals, especially boomers, desperately want some Right-wing Racist boogyman that they can attack and pretend to frightened of. After all, fighting "racism" was so much fun and such a moral high, and now they're are almost no racists left.
So, we need to invent some. Its like Stalin talking counter-revolutionizes and "wreckers" when the all the Bourgeois Reactionaries were dead or in exile.
I think that it is possible that Althouse has a spy, an actual human being, living in her house & that he or she is reporting to Alphabet or Apple or Facebook every word that passes from her lips.
This information is not being sent electronically. It is recorded by hand in a notebook that is then dropped off at a secret location after dark. The Althouse operative is then given a new notebook to record the following days Alt-utterances.
As a personality of some notoriety you are one of millions of people in the US whose communication and movement is tracked, recorded and placed in a file under your name and a numerical code. There are a plethora of sources communicating with each other over a shared platform that disseminates information to promote sales, recruit for various organizations, solicit donations, and monitor political activity. The program is expanding exponentially to include everyone.
My Samsung TV is listening to me, as is my XFinity remote.
Meanwhile it's obvious from the bizarre hodgepodge of ads that I get that Big Data has no idea who I am.
Wait til the SJW's discover DeBussey and "Golliwog's Cakewalk."
One possibility, per Lewis Wetzel.
More likely, it's a mass mailer Duke sent out yesterday and you, a macro influencer, are on his mailing list and it was a coincidence that you spoke his name. Shit happens.
You didn't by any chance say it three times, did you? I wouldn't do that.
Correction to my comment at 12:09 PM
I inadvertently used the expression Colored People.
I meant to write People of Color.
Please make the mental correction.
I have my dog set to listen for "Julie."
What do David Duke, Nancy Pelosi, and John Kerry have in common? They visited Assad the Butcher in Syria and made nice with Assad the Butcher.
MEMRI Transcript of David Duke on Syrian TV: American White Supremacist David Duke: Israel Makes the Nazi State Look Very Moderate.(2005)
Interviewer: Dr. Duke, what impact has the worsening situation of the occupying forces in Iraq and the daily shipment of body-bags of US and allied soldiers to the USA and elsewhere, on Bush's ability to plunge into another quagmire?
Duke: This war is a disaster for the United States, and I think that this has to put pause in some of the Zionist neo-cons about going into a new war. But the one wild card is that these neo-cons are crazy. They are insane people. They are Jewish fanatics, extremists, they are not normal people.
[...]
The people who are pushing Jewish supremacism, Zionism - they are absolute evil and they are crazy. All they know is more power, and so there is a real danger, I should say, for Syria, and a danger for Iran at this point.Duke: I have defended Syria for a long time, so I was admiring Syria, I have admired your president very much. I hope at some point to be able to meet him and shake his hand. I think he is the greatest man in a very difficult period, and especially with what's going on right now, in terms of Lebanon and its relations with Syria. But absolutely, even from my perspective, and it shows you how the Zionist media around the world controls and affects all of us. Even those of us who are aware of it - it's subtly affecting.
xPelosi Defies Bush, Meets Syrian Leader House Speaker Nancy Pelosi challenged the White House on Mideast policy, meeting with Syria's leader Wednesday and insisting "the road to Damascus is a road to peace." The Bush administration criticized the visit, saying she was following a road lined with victims of terror.
Jon Kerry visited Damascus in 2006. He made subsequent trips to Damascus during the Obama administration when he was still a Senator.Would John Kerry Be a Suitable Secretary of Anything? Instincts also matter. Kerry’s public posture toward Syria has been embarrassing enough; his judgment with regard to Syria has come at a far higher cost than Susan Rice’s poor judgment in the aftermath of Benghazi has. And on the peace process, he has already dug himself a deep hole by frequently telling his interlocutors what they want to hear, regardless of the entanglements that leaves behind. The problem is not only his public policy, but also his private: Staffers describe their collective cringe when, after a motorcycle ride with Bashar al-Assad, he returned to Washington referring to Bashar as “my dear friend.” Bashar may be a lot of things, but “my dear friend”—an address Kerry used only with a select few, such as the late Ted Kennedy—should not have been one.
xxx
Yes. Your smart appliances, computers with cameras and microphones and internet connected things ARE spying on you.
This is why the internet of everything is dangerous. Hackers can even hack into and take control of some of the features of your car. Self driving cars can be hijacked. No thanks
Link to a Canadian hacker talking to an American on his Nest security camera...home invasion by remote processes. WATCH
Do we really need this connectivity? Is this really a good idea?
NO!!!! This is why we don't have any "smart" devices. I do have a logitec camera with microphone that I can use to Skype, but it is unplugged from the usb port on the computer when I am not using it. The microphone on my husband's laptop is disabled (we think) and a piece of tape is over the camera.
Actually, anyone trying to spy on us would be pretty damned bored with us :-)
You didn't say "David Duke" three times while facing your reflection in your phone screen, did you?! Oh, no!
"You didn't by any chance say it three times, did you? I wouldn't do that."
Heh.
Sambo was Indian; there are NO tigers in Africa.
"Do we really need this connectivity? Is this really a good idea?"
It's a terrible idea. We need a new television and I'm really hoping we can find a dumb one.
No. I mentioned a shopping list to my husband as I was writing it on paper and immediately started getting online coupons for all the items. I had not used the computer but my Amazon tablet was in the room when I was talking.
There were very odd items. A dog bed. A specific brand of eyecare. Sesame oil. Mixed Grill Temptations. Califlower. Capers. There is no way -- no way -- no way it was a coincidence.
I ran for a state house race last year. Consultants brought me the things they could sell me in terms of data they have on us. I was shocked beyond comprehension.
I told them to go pound sand. I'd rather lose than rape the privacy of my neighbors. Beware. And yeah, I lost, but it was entirely because of my terrible personal choices and difficult personality!
Ann, isn't it far more likely that the demographics of your household simply conform to those of David Duke's supporters? All white, fearful and barricaded behind locked front doors at the prospects of the brown immigrant invasion? Don't know about your firearm situation, wouldn't surprised if it's considerable. Plus, totally paranoid about being surveilled by the Deep State. White, frightened and paranoid: that's the KKK right there. If you don't send a check, maybe your roommate will.
If it hasn't been posted already, Sambo was Indian. He wasn't a Negro. The story is set in India.
THEOLDMAN
And I don't have Siri. And I have never searched for these items online. The Amazon tablet was listening to us. Capers?
They sell "Faraday" bags on Amazon. These are plastic bags with metal mesh shielding which prevent RF transmission. You can put your phones, ipads etc in them and for as long as they are there they won't be picking up or transmitting locations. But I'm not sure whether they block microphones.
I too have noticed the sudden appearance of ads relating to what I have been talking about or driving toward (but without activating a search or map, at least not that same day.) I have all of Google's privacy controls activated and my phone stays in a different room a lot. (Bad phone, go to your room at once.) But still ... there are these ... coincidences. Other people's phones?
So I click on a lot of extraneous ads trying to raise the signal-noise ratio. And I think I should go back to cash money. But probably the most effective thing would be that everyone has to sign every ad sent by email and every regulation they apply to anyone must include a notice with the bureaucrat's name on it. Every Twitter deplatforming - the person who did it and how to reach that person. And every ad must explain how they got your name. They're anonymous; we aren't, that's the source of their power.
"Maybe it's merely a coincidence that I got that email yesterday, but I'm concerned that one or more of my devices are listening to our speech in the house and some company is gathering information about me and using it commercially."
I've had this exact thought maybe a dozen times in recent years. I try to tell myself it's the product of my imagination or some kind of memory bias. Sort of like deja vu. Maybe I didn't just say that word, maybe I also typed it at some point. If I'm saying something, chances are good I've also typed it.
But David Duke ... yeah that's weird, unless your conversation caused you to almost reflexively wikipedia him.
Actually, since you've posted about him and have a tag devoted to him, it might just be that. Or it's possible David Duke's algorithms found you because your blog has been visited by users who also subscribe to him. I don't know.
The sign of the beast will not be televised.
@wildswan: But I'm not sure whether they block microphones.
No, they won't block sound. Not unless they're really thick and heavy anyway.
"In one set of patent applications, Amazon describes how a ''voice sniffer algorithm'' could be used on an array of devices, like tablets and e-book readers, to analyze audio almost in real time when it hears words like ''love,'' bought'' or ''dislike.'' A diagram included with the application illustrated how a phone call between two friends could result in one receiving an offer for the San Diego Zoo and the other seeing an ad for a Wine of the Month Club membership."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/business/media/amazon-google-privacy-digital-assistants.html
It really very simple. Don't speak.
I used to worry about this kind of thing, but I gave up. Even a few years ago, before widespread internet use, it was amazing how much info you could obtain on a person for a relatively few dollars,
.
If your creepy explanation as to how DD came to send you that email is true, the truly disturbing aspect would be that DD can afford to access that technology. But the truth may be even creepier. His people may have picked up on your writings on the Confederate Rest controversy and added you to their list of sympathetic influential bloggers who they hoped might blog about his book. The less creepy but equally plausible explanation is that the controversy has made Madison a target market for DDs message.
Aside from searches, I think that most of the tracking is done via location. We know that our phones follow us around and report our location, we know that information is being used to target ads, and we know the government can get that information via a third party search warrant without our knowledge. So what about these devices with the ability to listen? Can the government get a warrant to listen? Can the warrant require the service provider to override the device settings and turn on the listening function?
My expertise is software, and I've been producing it professionally for 25 years. Every once in awhile I hear a story like this. I'm extremely skeptical that you have a device which is passively listening, and building a profile based on what it overhears. If the state of the art allowed for that kind of speech recognition, we'd have far better voice assistants, for example, it would not be necessary for me to directly engage with the amazon echo, it could act more like a human assistant, listening to my conversation, and occasionally interjecting with information that would be useful in context.
On the other hand, I don't think it's a coincidence either. My guess as to what's happening is arguably more disturbing. I think it's not so much that the marketing tools know you were discussing David Duke, it's that they know so much about you, that they are able to predict fairly accurately that there's a good chance you will be talking about David Duke. Certainly they know that you're a white woman, they probably know your age within about 5 years, they know where you live, of course, and they undoubtedly know that you are interested in political questions. A friend of mine was horrified when she started getting ads for a sofa she'd admired in a shop window, convinced that was listening to her discuss the sofa in question with her friend. I'm 90% sure that it simply pegged her as exactly the kind of person who'd be interested in such a product, and the sofa wasn't in the window by accident either (the window in question belonged to a big chain).
There's also the obvious selection bias. When something like this happens, it's creepy and you tell your friends. When something like this doesn't happen, either you talk about something and are not re-targetted based on that context, or you are served ads that are not relevant to you at all, it's not news, and we aren't here discussing it.
Also worth noting that a lot of technical people are suspicious of their devices, and a few of them go to great lengths to monitor the network traffic those devices send. Occasionally someone gets caught sending data they shouldn't be, and it makes the front page of hacker news, every time.
Tell us again how the emails were doctored to make Hillary look bad, John Pickering, then lecture us again on paranoia. It's a hoot!
And, most of the people who discuss David Duke are not fans of David Duke but haters on the left who see Duke as a weapon to be used against the right. I haven't seen or heard his name in years.
So, if the reference was overheard and the email was based on commercial considerations it would seem more likely that you would have gotten one from the SPLC than from Duke.
I have often had similar experiences.Someone suggested leaving radio tuned to spanish station with device in question - then see if you start getting ads in spanish.Some day soon I will try this.
They changed Sambo to Babaji. It's a great book.
I'm going to start talking about Jennifer Garner in my house. Maybe she'll show up at the door!
Don't know about your firearm situation, wouldn't surprised if it's considerable. White, frightened and paranoid: that's the KKK right there.
Priceless. Pickering calling our host, a bitter clinger.
Eventually the left always eat their own.
Ok, tonight I was talking with the SO over dinner about an avacado salad while she was searching for a piece of furniture on her phone. It came up in the avacado color. We are in the twilight zone.
Actually I was telling her that I first thought "avocat" salad was "lawyer salad."
Ann,
Any setting you can turn off via settings can also be turned on again remotely. Not only can they be turned on but they can still show that they are turned off.
Are they listening to you? I suppose the David Duke thing could be a coincidence. I suppose it could be a coinkidink that a number of similar instances have happened to people over the years.
Remember the gay guy who committed suicide in NJ a few years back? I think we discussed him here. His roomates hacked his laptop camera remotely and filmed him in a gay encounter. Then they circulated it. He was so ashamed that he jumped off a bridge (IIRC)
Of the school in Pennsylvania that gave all the students laptops. Then turned the cameras on remotely and watched kids, mostly teenage girl kids, in their bedrooms without their knowledge.
Yes, inhibit all cameras and microphones via software. Then remove the drivers from your system. This makes it harder, but not much harder, for someone to turn them on without your knowledge.
In addition to that, you should physically destroy the mic and camera. A sewing needle will go a good job on the mics. Nail polish will block the camera. A piece of duct tape over the camera is almost as good if you actually want to use the camera sometimes. But, if you want to use the camera, a $30 webcam that you can plug in when you want to use it will probably work even better. If it is physically unplugged when not in use, nobody can hack it.
John Henry
Blogger Mike Sylwester said...
I inadvertently used the expression Colored People.
I meant to write People of Color.
There are few people more white than me unless they are albinos. However, I am also "A person of color" being an Hispanic but about half of the 6-10 current definitions.
What a load of bullshit.
Not you Mike, the whole concept.
John Henry
In the room Althouse comes and goes
Talking of what Siri only knows.
I have an interest in old CW music. Performers like Hank Snow and Jimmy Rogers. I have bought some of their music from Amazon.
Some time ago my mother told me she thought we had a Black ancestor -- way far back, Elizabeth Warren far back. We kidded each other about it on Google Hangouts (a messaging service).
Shortly afterwords Google began to serve me ads for old CW music by Black performers.
I shit you not.
Suppose you covered all the little cameras on your cell phones and laptops with nail polish & then Google started serving you ads for nail polish? That would be spooky.
One of the things the political consultant told me is most useful in classifying voters is book shopping habits. They have access to everything you purchase on Amazon. Amazon must sell them the data. Or they did for a time at least. The consultant said non-book purchases were surprisingly useful for categorizing people too.
They use scores of metrics, as well as voting patterns, to profile everyone, including non-voters. If you pick a Democrat or Republican ballot in a primary they know that too. You can even go to a database and see if your neighbors voted and which primary ballots they took, by election. That's creepy.
There is a lot of work going into natural language processing.
The algorithms are called LSTMs or long short term memory. They put different weights on words in a sentence based on the word and the words around it.
As the algo processes the document it “remembers“ different words by applying different weights to the edge between that word and other words in a graph like structure. Impossible to really describe in words.
Autocomplete and autocorrect use the same thing.
There are YouTube videos you could watch.
It is inherited wisdom around the office that if you say something within earshot (microphone shot) of your phone, you will start getting ads for it. (Examples: I need to clean my house is followed within 24 hours by ads for house cleaning services; I need to have my floors cleaned and one probably needs to be replaced is followed within 24 hours by ads for floor cleaning services AND flooring contractors.) It isn't a question of Big Brother coming, Big Brother is here.
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