Would you dare to help me with an internet spying experiment?
Perhaps I’m paranoid. But it seems like the Google ads are really being intrusive these days. And they seem to be connected to other things beyond Google searches.
I never go to McDonalds. But my niece is staying with me and I’ve treated her to McDonalds twice this week. Suddenly my Google ads are displaying heart burn medication. I’ve never searched for heartburn medication on the web before. I don’t suffer from heartburn.
Is there any chance that Google has access to my credit card purchase history, and thus thinks I might need heartburn medication to alleviate the curse that Ronald McDonald has cast upon me?
I challenge anyone to go to McDonalds twice in the coming week and see if your Google ads don’t start displaying Prilosec advertisements. Make sure to get the #4 QPCheese combo large with a Dr. Pepper.
Meanwhile, I’m going back to DuckDuckGo until things blow over.
Have you noticed odd Google ads showing up beyond what you’ve searched for? Can you connect those ads to any recent credit card purchases?
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9 Answers
I get dating sites sent to me from Facebook, and the credit card offers have stopped from capital one since I got a credit card from them.
Ok, I know this sounds paranoid too, but I swear if I have a conversation about something, say I need a tree trimmer, I swear I get an email about tree trimmers.
I proved it to my co-workers recently. We talked about a subject and not half an hour later, I get an email about the subject. WTF?
The beauty of AdBlock (on Chrome) is that I don’t see ads at all. No ads means no paranoia.
That’s spooky flip. As I understand it, voice activated cell phones will be hitting mass market soon… not just for the blind, but for everyone. So we’ll all be carrying our own little spy devices that are always listening for us to speak.
Not sure I’m liking this brave new world.
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There is a particular book that I’d like to purchase. Not available at any book store. I’m trying to figure how to get a copy without any record of the purchase. I’m literally afeard of ordering it because I don’t want to be put on any particular list.
GQ About a month ago, I bought some personalised chocolate from Thorntons. Paid using my card. Now I get personlised gits and Thorntons chocolate on my searches. We live in a big brother world, especially in the UK.
I have AdBlock Plus on Firefox. and have selected do not track in my privacy setting. I do not see ads. I get horribly distracted when I use another computer and it shows ads constantly. How do yo stand it?
I do get lots of spam emails for off shore pharmacies. Really? Is there anyone on the planet stupid enough to send money to those places.?
I think Facebook is just as scary. I bought plane tickets for a trip via the airline’s website. All of a sudden, I’m getting ads on the side of my page offering specials for tickets to that city and on that particular airline.
Ues the Adblocker extension and I never see the ads.
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