# Someone is watching me... Google
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 12, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870 "2019-05-12T22:38:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/1 "2019-05-12T22:38:19Z")
I think I’ve posted something like this before but damn it’s creepy.
Yesterday I went on a road trip. I stopped for snacks along the way. Browsing the chip isle I spied a brand of chips I had never had nor had even heard of so I bought a bag.
Now today, today(!) I’m being flooded with ads for those chips. This kind of thing has happened before. I’m not going to be convinced it’s a coincidence. Or that it’s confirmation bias.
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2019, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/2 "2019-05-12T22:51:39Z")
Did you pay with cash or a card?
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2019, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/3 "2019-05-12T22:51:59Z")
I think some stuff is confirmation bias and other stuff just seems creepy and sinister. I was considering changing my car insurance company and talking to a friend on my iPhone about it, I even mentioned aloud about inquiring if Geico was cheap.
I’ve never done business with Geico I didn’t do any searches on my phone or computer before that voice about Geico or even car insurance in general. After that conversation I got a lot of geico ads online and got some promotional material in the mail from them.
Creepy…
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2019, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/4 "2019-05-12T22:59:15Z")
This is concerning.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/5 "2019-05-12T23:04:20Z")
I’ve never had any phone or online conversations about Geico, and I also get tons of ads from them. All it means is that Geico does a ton of advertising, to everyone.
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/6 "2019-05-12T23:27:37Z")
A very prescient Philip K. Dick quote:
> [@](#):
>
> There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me’.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2019, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/7 "2019-05-12T23:43:35Z")
A few months back my wife started looking at area rugs online… on her phone, and on her account on our home laptop. A few days later I started getting ads on _my_ phone for Ruggable and other companies that she had been looking at.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/8 "2019-05-13T00:17:55Z")
> [@kambuckta](#):
>
> Did you pay with cash or a card?
Card.
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/9 "2019-05-13T00:30:40Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#):
>
> I’m not going to be convinced it’s a coincidence. Or that it’s confirmation bias.
Your lack of belief does not alter the fact that it’s coincidence or confirmation bias.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/10 "2019-05-13T00:35:35Z")
There’s no way you can know that. Your belief is no more valid than mine.
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/11 "2019-05-13T00:55:50Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#):
>
> There’s no way you can know that. Your belief is no more valid than mine.
Of course I can. Occam’s razor: which is more likely?
a) A new product is available, and the company that makes it decides to advertise their new product. (Coincidence)
b) Assuming you’re an average American, you see roughly 2,800 advertisements per day. You notice the one for the chips you bought yesterday. (Confirmation bias).
c) You buy something on a credit card. The card companies get access to the itemized list of things your bought, instantly decide to share that with the world in violation of who knows how many privacy laws, Facebook/Google/Whoever picks up on it, associates the credit card number with your account, and starts showing you ads for something you’ve already bought, in about 24 hours. (perhaps technically possible, unlikely bordering on the paranoid.)
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/12 "2019-05-13T00:56:40Z")
[I always feel like somebody’s watching me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY)
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/13 "2019-05-13T01:08:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> [I always feel like somebody’s watching me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY)
That video showed an ad before it – for a product I’ve never bought. QED.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/14 "2019-05-13T01:26:56Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> [I always feel like somebody’s watching me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY)
Aye; that was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread title too. 🆒
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### Author:  [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/15 "2019-05-13T01:41:52Z")
So, how about an experiment.
Single guys talk about tampons, see if you get adds.
Ladies, call all your friends and tell them your thinking about putting nitros oxide injection on your car, see if you get adds.😃
I’m yelling “i want a bedazzler” right now to see if I’m being watched.
Yep, everybody at the coffee shop looked, its a conspiracy.🆒:eek:
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### Author:  [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/16 "2019-05-13T02:47:49Z")
> [@BobBitchin](#):
>
> So, how about an experiment.
> Single guys talk about tampons, see if you get adds.
>
> Ladies, call all your friends and tell them your thinking about putting nitros oxide injection on your car, see if you get adds.😃
A better experiment would have the women talk about something that women never use or care about. That way it would better compare with single men talking about something they never use or care about (tampons).
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/17 "2019-05-13T05:51:47Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#):
>
> Of course I can. Occam’s razor…
I just looked it up, despite me having never seen them before they have been around since 1988.
And maybe tracking my purchases isn’t breaking some laws. Maybe the permissions are in the fine print I never read.
Regardless, I posted this humorously which is why I put it in this forum. Rest assured there is no paranoia involved. If anything I was marveling at how interconnected the world has become.
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/18 "2019-05-13T14:21:11Z")
It could be coincidence but it could also be [a phone app that is listening](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en_au/article/wjbzzy/your-phone-is-listening-and-its-not-paranoia?espv=1).
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/19 "2019-05-13T14:31:22Z")
> [@BobBitchin](#):
>
> …I’m yelling “i want a bedazzler” right now to see if I’m being watched.
>
> Yep, everybody at the coffee shop looked, its a conspiracy.🆒:eek:
OMG, I had JUST done that myself! That is soooo weird.
Seriously, I dropped my phone in a swimming pool Thursday afternoon. Put it in rice, told no one, and Thursday night I got an email from an iPhone repair place in the next state.
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### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/20 "2019-05-13T15:37:17Z")
If you give an app permission to your microphone it can listen to whatever it wants to and if it is buried the license agreement, they can do whatever they want with that info. Orwell only mistakes were that Big Brother would be the private sector and people would volunteer for it.
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