Is this some big brother.......... stuff, or what?

[DISNEYSQUIRRELS]

That’s great!! I wish I would have thought of that before I switched to working from home. What a fun game!

Well, definitely don’t give it a second thought... working from home trumps my sad little game!

 

[cruiser21]

I have a piece of painters tape over my laptop camera & mic. I did this before Mark Zukerberg said he does the same thing. That guy's got several billions and he relies on the tape, not some fancy blocking program he could have had his IT team figure out, to keep people from spying through the camera.

My kids have have gaming a computer with no camera and older apple laptops without the camera. My laptop has tape over the camera. Not sure what to do about the phones. I got creeped out when I watched the Snowden movie. I believe they can listen to you through TV's. The stuff they can do is crazy if they choose to do it. I'm not paranoid. I don't really worry about it, but I know the technology is there.

 

[wenrob]

So, I took about 20 photos of my hometown and posted them to a Facebook group. Among the photos were two pics of a mural that was painted recently. I made no comment on those pictures. About an hour later, I check my “people you may know”. Top of the list, the artist who painted the mural........

Do you have location services turned on for camera? If you do it would actually be a very short leap to get there. Location embedded in the photo matches the location in a photo of the same thing that’s tagged with the artist’s name. Even if you don’t have it on if you’ve tagged any of the photos in the same set or album same thing is likely to happen. If the group is about your hometown, again a very short leap. That’s not data mining IMO, that’s FB doing what it was originally set up to do: connect you with people you may know. It looks for info that you have in common with other people.

 

[Imzadi]

I believe they can listen to you through TV's.

Yes, I read that too. . . right after I bought a smart TV.

I think Homeland security would get bored at all the Hallmark movies I watch.

 

[cruiser21]

Yes, I read that too. . . right after I bought a smart TV.

I think Homeland security would get bored at all the Hallmark movies I watch.

While I was on transatlantic cruise with my son. My dh bought I smart TV. I have to say I love it. It makes watching Netflix super easy.

 

[DLgal]

You know they can listen to you through your phone. They've been able to do that for a while. My brother has a very high security clearance job. They cannot take their personal cell phones into their offices.

My husband can't either. He works in military intelligence and has to lock up his phone when he enters the building.

But it isn't because anyone might listen in on the phone, but because even though everyone has the same top secret level clearance, no one is fully trusted.

It is to prevent people from using their phones to take photos, videos, recordings, etc.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

Oh, I hate with a passion anytime I get a "people you might know" thing, I dont know anyone so leave me alone . its so hard to be a hermit now a days

I’m going to find your face tweeter page and get random people to friend request you.

 

[mummabear]

[

 

[tvguy]

I've never been on any of them and could never be happier.

LOL. Not an option, it is a job requirement for me to be on them. And I just signed up for an event, only way to do it, through your Facebook page.

 

[Marchand63]

 

[powellrj]

I have an Alexa and a google home. They will beep or randomly answer a question nobody asked. I always say they are listening. My iPad will have the next wood I want to type and I didn’t know I wanted to type that word. I quess someone out there finds my life more interesting than I do!

 

[1GoldenSun]

My husband spent several hours pressure-washing the pool deck and screen enclosure yesterday. This morning on my Facebook page was an ad for pressure-washing services. We didn't rent the machine--we own it--so I have no idea how they knew. Unless there's some skycam watching what goes on in our back yard I'm going to have to assume that it's a coincidence.

All I know is that at Christmas time I have to be sure no on goes on my laptop, because it will be peppered with ads for the very Christmas gifts that I have just ordered or am currently researching. It's annoying. I'm tempted to start looking up a few odd things just to throw them off--jelly of the month club, matching family onesies, tickets to a mud wrestling tournament, etc.

 

[cruiser21]

My husband can't either. He works in military intelligence and has to lock up his phone when he enters the building.

But it isn't because anyone might listen in on the phone, but because even though everyone has the same top secret level clearance, no one is fully trusted.

It is to prevent people from using their phones to take photos, videos, recordings, etc.

I think its that and also foreign intelligence can hack into phones.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

If it really bothers you, use a VPN or proxy

 

[DLgal]

I think its that and also foreign intelligence can hack into phones.

Nah. The buildings they work in are literally vaults. They don't allow signals to come in wirelessly. All their work is done through hard wired secure computers. This has been protocol for many years, way before cell phones has these kinds of vulnerabilities.

 

[wenrob]

I have an Alexa and a google home. They will beep or randomly answer a question nobody asked. I always say they are listening. My iPad will have the next wood I want to type and I didn’t know I wanted to type that word. I quess someone out there finds my life more interesting than I do!

That’s a setting on your iPad, it’s called Predictive Text. It learns using your history and then predicts what you might type next. The more you use it the more accurate it gets.

 

[kimblebee]

 

[DLgal]

My husband spent several hours pressure-washing the pool deck and screen enclosure yesterday. This morning on my Facebook page was an ad for pressure-washing services. We didn't rent the machine--we own it--so I have no idea how they knew. Unless there's some skycam watching what goes on in our back yard I'm going to have to assume that it's a coincidence.

.

Before he did the pressure washing, did anyone happen to do a search for anything related to pressure washing? Even something as basic as "what is the best way to pressure wash a patio" would be enough to trigger a targeted ad on your social media on the same computer. Often we think "they must be listening", but we simply forget how often we perform internet searches to answer really basic questions we have.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

That’s a setting on your iPad, it’s called Predictive Text. It learns using your history and then predicts what you might type next. The more you use it the more accurate it gets.

Yup, I have a couple of sentences I repeat often in texts. My phone will fill in the blanks from the first word. Kind of handy.

 

[wenrob]

Yup, I have a couple of sentences I repeat often in texts. My phone will fill in the blanks from the first word. Kind of handy.

I have made shortcuts of things like my kids names, email addresses etc. so that if I type in the first two letters it will fill it in for me.