# Someone is watching me... Google **URL:** \ **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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/42 "2019-05-15T16:16:29Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > . After I cleared my cookies, I started getting ads for Uber Eats. Sure, your computer knew that without cookies you’d be hungry. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/43 "2019-05-15T16:47:52Z")
> [@solost](#): > > There were a few votes for coincidence but Cholula hot sauce seems too random of an ad for that. Nothing is too random when you have thousands of possible coincidences and thousands of possible people for them to happen to. And the number of votes for coincidence in a discussion thread would be underrepresented since there is little point in posting “coincidence” over and over again, while people speculating on absurd connections have more freedom to invent their own unique spin. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/44 "2019-05-15T17:09:46Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > A lot of people don’t realize what’s really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidences and things. They don’t realizes that there’s this, like, lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything. > > I’ll give you an example, show you what I mean. Suppose you’re thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly, Google will say, like, “plate,” or “shrimp,” or “plate of shrimp,” out of the blue, no explanation. No point in looking for one either. It’s all part of a cosmic unconsciousness. If you see a commercial or a billboard or someone starts talking about something you asked a friend about yesterday, I think most people assume it’s a coincidence long before they wonder if it’s on purpose. But people have been questioning this for quite a while. IIRC, google got in trouble years ago for turning peoples PC microphones on and listening for keywords in conversation to serve up ads.\* Look at it like this. When you go to the grocery store and checkout and a machine spits out a few coupons, they’re very clearly based on what you typically buy. No big deal right. You always use a credit card or punch in your phone number or swipe a savings card. Makes sense. But what if all the coupons were for things you talked about, but have never purchased. And far more often that what would be a coincidence. At some point it’s fair to assume this isn’t confirmation bias and you’re going to wonder how this is happening. \*I couldn’t find the article I read a long time ago, but I did find a [this](https://www.komando.com/happening-now/464613/youre-not-paranoid-your-phone-really-is-listening-to-everything-you-say) article in which the author confirmed this by talking about random things (ie going back to school, needing cheap t-shirts etc) and found that ads for those items were consistently served up within 24 hours. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/45 "2019-05-15T17:12:53Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Nothing is too random when you have thousands of possible coincidences and thousands of possible people for them to happen to. > > And the number of votes for coincidence in a discussion thread would be underrepresented since there is little point in posting “coincidence” over and over again, while people speculating on absurd connections have more freedom to invent their own unique spin. I’m not saying that it definitely wasn’t coincidence, that I disbelieve any posters who said it was, or even that the response sampling in my post was enough to come to a definitive conclusion. But i’ve been tracked plenty of times from one computer to another— usually looking at a product online, then being served ads for the product for days or weeks afterward on various other devices. Also being served ads for a store after I shop there once, using a credit card. Based on my experience, being tracked via gps does not seem more unbelievable than coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/46 "2019-05-15T17:15:13Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I posted a very similar thread here last year. I went to a Qdoba for lunch, using a lot of Cholula hot sauce on my burrito. I paid cash. When I got back to work, I took a quick look at a news website on my work computer, aaaand there was an ad for Cholula hot sauce. I’d link to my post from last year but i’m on my phone now. > > The consensus, if I recall correctly, was that my phone had been gps tracked and the ad relevance guessed at from my location. There were a few votes for coincidence but Cholula hot sauce seems too random of an ad for that. So, my location was likely tracked from my phone, my consumer preference correctly divined, and I was cross-tracked to my work computer, where I was delivered my Cholula ad less than an hour later. Brave new world! Your phone certainly knew you were at Qdoba. That’s why facebook, yelp, foursquare etc so easily give you the ability to ‘check in’ at the location. If you have an Android you can even pull up your history and it’ll show you all the places you went to on a specific day, what time it was, how long you were there and a few other things. From there, I don’t think it would be a huge leap for Cholula to pay for their ads to be served to people that were at restaurants using it. And with that, you have to keep in mind that your phone only collects data (possibly…or possibly not including keywords it hears) and asks advertisers who they want their ads served to. It wouldn’t be a big deal for Cholula to ask for their ads to be shown to people that have visited a QDoba in the last 24 hours. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/47 "2019-05-15T17:33:15Z")
I’ll throw out there that Facebook has the ability to target ads to a very specific location. For example my son’s Cub Scout Pack was selling Christmas Trees, and we wanted to advertise on Facebook. Rather than just hit the entire zip code, we had the option to target anyone who was checking facebook from a phone that was currently located within a short distance from the lot. It’s not much of a stretch to think that Google could target anyone who drove past a particular billboard, or shopped at a particular store that stocks a new brand of chips. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/48 "2019-05-16T12:49:25Z")
> [@solost](#): > > But i’ve been tracked plenty of times from one computer to another— usually looking at a product online, then being served ads for the product for days or weeks afterward on various other devices. Also being served ads for a store after I shop there once, using a credit card. Based on my experience, being tracked via gps does not seem more unbelievable than coincidence. Being tracked from one device to another isn’t anything new. So long as (for example), your phone and your computer are both logged in with the same gmail account, google will treat them (kinda) as the same device. > [@Cheesesteak](#): > > I’ll throw out there that Facebook has the ability to target ads to a very specific location. For example my son’s Cub Scout Pack was selling Christmas Trees, and we wanted to advertise on Facebook. Rather than just hit the entire zip code, we had the option to target anyone who was checking facebook from a phone that was currently located within a short distance from the lot. > > It’s not much of a stretch to think that Google could target anyone who drove past a particular billboard, or shopped at a particular store that stocks a new brand of chips. Yes. When I did a little bit of advertising on facebook, the ability to target the ads gives you a good insight to how much they track all those details. For example, I could target my ads to people in a specific set of zip codes and/or X miles from a/my location, gender, age etc. I could even have my ads target people who like specific other (competitor) businesses. IIRC, there were a handful of other metrics as well. On top of that, you could then see, based on those things, which groups were engaging (or not engaging) with your ads so you could make adjustments. And, for what it’s worth, just about every website you go to does this as well. Google has a free tool called Google Analytics that will do it for you. I can see how many people have been to my website, how long they were there for, how many pages they visited, where they went after they left, what site they were at before, what terms they searched for to find my site, what type of device they used, IP address and quite a bit of other stuff, to the point that it’s almost overwhelming. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/49 "2019-05-16T12:56:29Z")
I was on the phone the other day and, during the course of my conversation, said; “Wow, it’s already the 12th of May! Can you believe it?!” Immediately, and out of nowhere, my Alexa said, “No, today is the 11th of May.” ?!! :eek: I never said “Alexa”, so she never should have responded. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/50 "2019-05-16T13:12:10Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I was on the phone the other day and, during the course of my conversation, said; “Wow, it’s already the 12th of May! Can you believe it?!” > > Immediately, and out of nowhere, my Alexa said, “No, today is the 11th of May.” > > ?!! :eek: > > I never said “Alexa”, so she never should have responded. Yes, Alexa’s ability to recognise when something is not her name is surprisingly bad, but Alexa listening all the time is an essential part of how it works. You can go in and most likely see what the program thinks it heard. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/51 "2019-05-16T14:54:13Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Before I listen to a half hour podcast…is using your phone to listen to you one of the ways? > I mean, anything else, I think most people have a grasp of. It’s the concern that they’re listening that bothers people. The episode started as an investigation to see if your phone’s apps, including Facebook, are using your mic to listen to you. Facebook and former Facebook employees claim they are not. But not everyone is convinced. There are some user experience stories that are pretty hard to dispute the use of a hit mic. But even if they aren’t listening through your mic, they’ve got soooo many other ways to capture your data. And then they categorize you in ridiculously specific buckets. Like they apparently know if you’re “someone who pretends to text in awkward situations.” ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870/52 "2019-05-17T20:16:49Z")
I was emailing a company about a replacement part and Gmail freaked me out by highlighting the conversation and putting a coloured note on it, something like “there hasn’t been a response in 5 days, do you want to write again?”. I dismissed it with haste and about an hour later received notice the part had been sent. I vastly prefer the illusion of my email being private but the idea of Google kicking companies in to action on my behalf without me doing anything is amusing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-is-watching-me-google/833870.md?page=2)