Care to share any strange occurrences of "the internet is watching us"?

In looking up info to answer a fluther question a couple months ago, I did a Google search for info on catheters. Until I went and re-tweaked the Google ad preferences, I was getting ads for catheters everywhere I turned around.

Linked in is insidious over the data mining for connection suggestions. I dated a woman briefly back in 2008; her picture pops up on linked in about once a week.

Just finished watching InsideMan with Morgan Spurlock wiith my husband (an IT professional). From that I learned privacy on the Internet is a facade

Unless you use someone else’s computer to search on, using any major search engine keeps a log of your searches (except for Duck Duck Go) and is a part of the record all of the data collected and saved by companies such as Epsilon

This isn’t me, but is a story I read on Facebook: Office worker brings 6 spoons to work and keeps them in the common room. His coworkers use them so they keep disappearing, and he starts complaining about how now there’s only two spoons left, where did all the spoons go, who took the spoons, etc., day after day. One of his coworkers has an idea and gets the rest of the office in on it: in every email they send him (this is in gmail) they write at the bottom in white (so you can’t see it unless it gets highlighted) SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON. Now ads for spoons keep popping up and he thinks the internet is reading his mind.

I should have been tipped off when I saw that every ad on my ex-boyfriend’s computer was for a dating site or a meet girls in your area ad. I would just be cruising yahoo or Craigslist and those ads lined the borders or popped up regularly. He just told me the computer had a virus. I’m lucky I didn’t catch any viruses.

@wildpotato That’s funny.

There is nothing unsettling to me about any of this. If I enter into an agreement with a company, sell them my data, then how exactly am I supposed to be concerned when they use it the way I knew they would use it?

How much do you pay to use Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Bing every month? You pay by providing data. These are not “free” services.

Everytime you see one of the Facebook buttons or twitter button on a website those let them know where you have been. And then we have Google Analytics which damn near every site uses. Google knows pretty much everywhere you go through that. I suggest using something like Ghostery to block tracking.

@wildpotato “SPOON SPOON SPOON. Now ads for spoons keep popping up and he thinks the internet is reading his mind.”

It’s more sinister than that. Proof that our emails are being watched, incoming and outgoing. Makes it impossible to send a private message. Lot’s of right to privacy concerns there.

I use an ad blocker. I never see ads.

I have been on the phone talking about random subjects that I have never done an internet search for. Many times within 24 hours, I begin to receive some emails pertaining to the subjects spoken about.
I’m not sure which apps, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some apps are given permission to phone calls.
Has this happened to anyone else? Check your spam folders as many of the emails end up in there.