One other curious anomaly IDK if any of you are aware of, but there have been numerous times I have seen my microphone pickup what I'm talking about on my cell phone, then witness custom tailored ads or content based around what I'm talking about. I heard of these stories before and watch YouTube videos showing it happen in real time, but it's always hard to believe what you read on the internet so I took it with a grain of salt. Then, using the app TopBuzz (or BuzzFeed), I noticed while talking about my Jack Russell Terriers that I started seeing a ton of videos showing dogs, and specifically JRT's, and if that weren't strange in and of itself, my ads were showing pet store-type goods with a JRT as the main face of the ad.
I don't consider myself a paranoid type, and I don't do anything illegal so I'm not exactly fearful for what I do or say, but I do expect some level of privacy! These things I'm telling you, I don't use my phone to do web searches because it pisses me off smashing my finger on a tiny screen and jumping between multiple tabs on a phone so I do most of my searching on my computer and have never researched JRT before on my phone. In regards to the app, sure enough, it had permission to use the microphone and camera, so I removed ALL permissions. It didn't matter, I got adds once again for what I was talking about; my gf was looking into being a surrogate, and I started getting ads on BuzzFeed for surrogate related stuff, and videos showing pregnancy and child related things. I understand the possibility of clicking videos like this because of what you're thinking at the time and suddenly, you are inundated with this type of feed, but this is not the case I assure you. It was her interest, not mine, and I don't click on videos like that because they simply don't interest me. I have several more examples but I'll stop there.
So, tying this in with my original post, I feel, although I could be mistaken, than phones have become a new source of ad revenue, and just by using a wireless network, you've agreed somewhere in the TOS to accept having your phone updated without your consent, having your conversations listened to, and having ads custom tailored to these conversations. Strange times.
EDIT: And I wanted to post - before someone else does - that I use Firefox in Privacy Mode with Ad Blocker Plus, No Script, and Ghostery and I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine so, I find it highly unlikely I'm being tracked from my PC based on my searches. This is strictly a phone thing.
I don't consider myself a paranoid type, and I don't do anything illegal so I'm not exactly fearful for what I do or say, but I do expect some level of privacy! These things I'm telling you, I don't use my phone to do web searches because it pisses me off smashing my finger on a tiny screen and jumping between multiple tabs on a phone so I do most of my searching on my computer and have never researched JRT before on my phone. In regards to the app, sure enough, it had permission to use the microphone and camera, so I removed ALL permissions. It didn't matter, I got adds once again for what I was talking about; my gf was looking into being a surrogate, and I started getting ads on BuzzFeed for surrogate related stuff, and videos showing pregnancy and child related things. I understand the possibility of clicking videos like this because of what you're thinking at the time and suddenly, you are inundated with this type of feed, but this is not the case I assure you. It was her interest, not mine, and I don't click on videos like that because they simply don't interest me. I have several more examples but I'll stop there.
So, tying this in with my original post, I feel, although I could be mistaken, than phones have become a new source of ad revenue, and just by using a wireless network, you've agreed somewhere in the TOS to accept having your phone updated without your consent, having your conversations listened to, and having ads custom tailored to these conversations. Strange times.
EDIT: And I wanted to post - before someone else does - that I use Firefox in Privacy Mode with Ad Blocker Plus, No Script, and Ghostery and I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine so, I find it highly unlikely I'm being tracked from my PC based on my searches. This is strictly a phone thing.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin