This freaked the hell out of me

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Now that the school year is over, I have to return my son's school orchestra instrument to the store we rented it from.

I use Google to see what their hours are (we usually go there on Saturdays) and Google kindly supplies the information shown below in the "sidebar" of the search results.

What do you want to bet they get that "busy" data from Android phone users whose movements they're tracking?

[sugarwood]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

What do you want to bet they get that "busy" data from Android phone users whose movements they're tracking?

Next thing you'll be freaked out at how Google Maps knows there's a traffic jam.

[stealthn]

We do that for customers, if you login to their guest wifi via Facebook we can also grab your age, gender, likes, dislikes, you name it

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

Next thing you'll be freaked out at how Google Maps knows there's a traffic jam.

I recently got caught in a traffic jam (road closed). Saw online that a certain entrance ramp was red, which meant "open but slow traffic". Thought that was strange, being an entrance ramp...how much traffic can there be?

Well, the ramp was closed, but there was a cop car parked there, and the cop pacing back and forth along the ramp. Therefore, Google saw his phone, saw his slow motion along the road, and called it "heavy traffic".

[David]

I'm in Bangkok right now and google maps can cut a ton of time off a trip.

I think using our data is great, I just wish cities would link the traffic light times to google to help move traffic along.

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by stealthn

if you login to their guest wifi via Facebook

I don't even know what is, let alone do it.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by stealthn

We do that for customers, if you login to their guest wifi via Facebook we can also grab your age, gender, likes, dislikes, you name it

I get the request to log in via Facebook now and then. How does that work? I don't do Facebook BTW.

[tabs]

When they put a chip in my head then I will worry. Which come to think about those little ear phones you put in your ear to talk or listen to musik.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Having traffic information is a lifesaver in any major metro area. That's one tech tool that I love and use often.

[john70t]

I think it was Target and/or CVS that pinged and identified the cell phones of visitors, began facial recognition to connect databases, and tracked people inside stores noting which isles they traveled, and how long they stayed, and where they looked, etc.

It's actually Orwell combined with Huxley.
Surveilence is first imposed and then it is sold bit-by bit until it's not only accepted but becomes desired.
"Everyone is doing it! I want to join in. If I allow Goggle to track and record my entire life, they will find ways to help me. Yeah!!"

(Oddly enough, my immediate search autocomplete didn't recognize 'brave new world' as a name and I had to type the entire sentence. Just like other garbage search results...consistently returning junk results...like MS is pretending to really be that stupid. Funny thing that psychological steering effect is and how it can control the masses. I don't buy it for a second.)

[pwd72s]

Orwell was an optimist.

[T77911S]

i sit back an laugh because people are so concerned about the govt tracking them so they can look for terrorists and they have NO IDEA how much they are being tracked on their computer and phone.
just do a search for say a tractor, log back into here and then look at all the tractor ads that will pop up at the top.

BTW, I am sure it does not stop it all but I turn off the "allow so and so to use your location"

I also don't facebook

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by john70t

like MS is pretending to really be that stupid

Overheard at the office yesterday: "OK, why is a Microsoft support employee using Google to find documentation for Microsoft software?"

[john70t]

So about a decade ago, I used Bing to search for flowers in Florida, on one computer.
I looked at about ten shops and then ordered from one.
It was not the first or last click and I don't believe that site held any particular significance in pages opened or time spent.

A few years later, I used Google to search for flowers locally in Michigan, using a different computer.

That FL flower shop I had previously purchased years before from was at the sponsored top of my Google search return.
-I was looking for local MI flowers.
-But Goggle was pushing me to purchase from a particular shop in FL.

I can only conclude that it was the same Internet Provider (Sprint I think) which sold Google my search history, or at least my single query.
But to know which flower shop for its sponsored paid ads, Sprint would also have known that I had previously purchased from that particular shop.

Sprint either had excellent predictive software on browsing habits, or had cross-reference access to banking records.
There didn't seem to be any other correlating element involved.

[rockfan4]

I surf several sites who get ads from Criteo. They'll usually show me things I've recently surfed at various sites, but lately they've started to show me things my fiance is looking at on her computer. It's going to make it hard to shop for gifts if my shopping history shows up on her computer, or her searches show up on my computer.

[M.D. Holloway]

The singularity is closer then we think

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Having traffic information is a lifesaver in any major metro area. That's one tech tool that I love and use often.

Yup! I use Waze on my commute every day. Saves Ned time knowing when I need to detour, or a few times that I've needed to go ahead and call in saying I'll be 5 mins late!