Image description: Elon Musk & X @elonmusk • 42m Just bought a new PC laptop and it won’t let me use it unless I create a Microsoft account, which also means giving their Al access to my computer! This is messed up. There used to be an option to skip signing into or creating a Microsoft account. Are you seeing this too? This is not cool of Microsoft.
(Originally published on mastodon.social: 2024-02-25)
Phones aren’t listening, that uses too much data.
Reality is a lot more creepy. They don’t need to wiretap you.
If you talk to someone about a subject. Google knows you 2 have encountered each other, because Google knows both your locations, even if the GPS is disabled.
And if the other person do a quick search on the subject after you left. Then google can associate you with that user and gives you similar ad results. So it looks like you only thought about it.
But it goes further. Because Google has so much data on everyone, they can predict what you want before you even thought about it. Because like it or not, in a population of 8 billion, you aren’t really that unique. There will be at least 10 000 similar people that all react to things the same way. So if they all have this brilliant idea about a subject, then you are bound to have the same idea. So they serve you ads.
I get ads for random shit that I have no interest in all the time.
Maybe Google has learned that sending me ads makes me less likely to buy shit, so they only send me ads for unrelated junk.
My phone is always listening for an “okay Google” it’s not too unreasonable to believe that there are other keywords that it’ll hear to know what ads to send your way
Even this is silly, it’s what Google want advertisers to believe when they buy ads but their tracking is kinda shit in reality.
The reason you often see adverts that apply to you is that we’re all kinds basic and are probably only thinking of things because they’re running an advertising campaign.