Big Food Is Watching?
 

Hi all, hope everyone is doing well.

I think this is just on Face book but am not sure, I know I am tracked on line because I have had ads referring to posts I made on forums. Something to do about that was suggested here but I either got lazy and didn't follow through or else my computer was so gimpy I didn't want to annoy it further. :rolleyes:

Can supermarkets also do this? I bought a somewhat obscure personal care item and ads showed up. I shopped at Safeway last week which is unusual for me and now I have ads for Safeway. I normally shop at Fred Meyer (Kroger) and a horse rescue site I follow today had requests for Kroger shoppers to sign up for a program that donates money from purchases, i have not seen either of the latter 2 before. I think there have been some other instances but I assumed it was coincidence.

I am a little creeped out by this, am I losing my mind or is the evil Big Food
intruding on my privacy. Did they start selling info from your store card to FB?

judi

This is called data mining. There is a Firefox feature that will block your activity from being snooped on:

Click file in Firefox, and the third choice down, is browse privately.

Jo knows more about this than I do.

Big handbags and furniture were watching me for a while. I guess it was connected to my searches in google and in ebay.

There's another thread here on computers and technology that may be of assistance. I ended up fixing my settings on Google and as well I added Adblock Plus on advice from other members and it works fine. No more of those stalking advertisements.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread217778.html

I have an unusual thing to report about the data mining.

I get massive ads based on my Ebay activity... art supplies etc.

But yesterday I had on Facebook an ad for Military Veterans clothing.
My hubby wore out his old fishing cap this summer...which he used for a boonie hat (from Vietnam)... his old Boonie hat died
years ago. And low and behold there was an ad for a Boonie hat..
olive drab 1/2 off and free shipping. I certainly wasn't looking for one yet and neither was he. But it popped up on my Angry Birds game, and we bought one! So the price was right and we are rather amazed that something actually worked for us this way!;)

Serendipity. ;)

You are right, Lara.... I have lots of coincidences in my life like this. ;)

Besides browser add ons, I use the more private search engines.. non tracking..
in this post-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post1131079-5.html

how to block tracking cookies- results by duckduckgo privacy search -
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+blo...g+cookies&t=lm

MrsD,

Your computer and the Net is now reading your mind…:eek:

Dave.

Your google search history is recorded in your web browser's database; it can be read by websites and thus you'll see banner ads based on your browsing history. See the following article on stopping targeted advertising:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_828289.html

Thanks everyone, at least I can block the sneaky weasels. It isn't just FB, I was on a horse racing site today and got an ad for something I buy.

I'm not getting these from web browsing, its from what I buy from the store, I haven't looked any of the items up online. I am trying to remember if I have ever given them my email address but cannot. I generally don't because I don't have a printer to use for coupons but it is possible I had a weak moment. It is either that or they sold my info to some marketing company. :mad: I don't get any emails from them though.

I couldn't find anything on line except this and I don't know how credible it is.


http://www.theguardian.com/money/201...-get-your-data


I also found a horrid article that really appeared true about Target designing a computer analysis to try to identify pregnant women in their second or third trimester so they could manipulate their buying habits before the birth of the child to establish habits and scarf up on all the new purchases a child would entail and it worked. I was a psyc major and what it said they did sounded plausible.

I am already annoyed with Freddie's because recently they have been spraying their organic produce so heavily its a soggy mess so I think I will bring this up too. Should I wear a tin foil hat? :) Mrd D had either of you mentioned the Boonie hat online?


Thanks again gurus of all things mysterious and technological.

judi

Nope.. We dicussed getting him a new
Hat upNorth in the privacy of our house.
Hubby is quite bald and he needs a hat but
balks at getting one. He does have his photo with fishing hat on,
on FB and mentions army service in his
profile.. But keeps his privacy settings very
High there. Maybe this veteran organization
can still find him that way?

It is really spooky IMO though. But it did work
on us this time. ;)

Yes, Foil Hats!
 

Hi judi,
I was also a psych major and a psych professional before disability and I believe we ALL should be wearing tin foil hats, with lightening rods attached. The hats will keep our thoughts safe from any data-mining. They will also keep our own thoughts from broadcasting. The lightening rods will either keep us safer in storms or may set us up for a brief thrill should lightening strike? :eek:

If many more drones are launched, we may need tall lights on our foil hat to make sure they maneuver safely around us.:winky:

I was at a city gathering for the fourth of July, on the waterfront. Suddenly, the crowd was silent and staring at the same thing; a drone had flown in and was suspended in the air (sitting still) looking at our part of the crowd. We were all seated. It was a very low-flying drone. Some people were immediately frightened. After 5 minutes, the drone left. There were many large boats nearby and we thought maybe someone was just playing with a small drone from their boat. We never found out who was operating the drone. I am not sure it would be possible to tell. There were over 10K people in attendance. Many people were definitely uncomfortable with the drone appearing like that.

Just don't know what to think about these types of 'invasions." :eek:
DejaVu

This brings to mind this funny photo from Cheezburger:

There are many other interesting cats and people with tin foil hats, on Google:
https://www.google.com/search?q=cat+...inb1XyTXtYM%3A

:Funny-Post:
Great sense of humor, mrsD!
:ROTFLMAO:
DejaVu

I always thought my father had a few paranoid quirks so I've tried to avoid reacting to anything like that unless I had some kind of substantive evidence, correlation does not imply causation, right DejaVu? :) After I thought about it I decided to pay more attention to what I buy and do online to see if it is really happening. I

The article I read about Target was real however, it was in The New York Times and below is a link from Forbes. Maybe I am turning into a cranky old lady but that kind of thing just fries my eyeballs, how dare they do that? :mad::hissyfit:

I don't have any problem with serendipitous events like the hat, I have had things like that as well. I don't know what to think about the drone, there seem to be more and more problems with them interfering with planes, etc so it could have been private. I don't know if law enforcement/government can do something like that to try to spot guns or suspicious people.

I checked out the opt out tool in tnthomas' link, it said I got ads from 81 companies.

Big food better watch out! :winky:

judi


http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirh...er-father-did/

What about the implants? Alot of folks have them but don't know...

**

TNThomas
 

Hi tnthomas, I guess I am not aware of the implant issue.
* Thus, I am not sure if you are serious or playing along in jest with us, as we'd gotten a little OT and silly. :)

I like your screen name, by the way.
:grouphug:
DejaVu

TNT, I was sure if you were serious either, we were a little silly. I don't think implants are a problem but I have heard that some people do.

Hah! Well trackers were certainly a problem for me and I am embarrassed I didn't do something sooner. I downloaded Ghostery and Facebook runs MUCH smoother for me now, who knew. :p Oh, I guess you guys all did.

judi

remember all our purchases are very valuable info to businesses. It is not just during online activities; it is also frequent shopper card programs (i.e. grocery store loyalty cards like Krogers, Harris Teeter, Shop Rite, JCPenneys, KMart/Sears, CVS, etc). They know what you tend to buy & at what price point- hence the ads, coupons, facebook ads, search engine info, etc.

It is called Data Mining and involves a lot more than just your address, phone and income. I'm afraid we are a commodity frequently bought, traded and sold - all for someone elses financial gain. {big sigh}