Observation - Google, Youtube, the omniscient...

[Zed Head]

So I signed up for Youtube TV.  I guess they call them "streaming services" now, we used to call it "cable".  Basically you can watch programs on your computer.  Or one of the new computerized TV's.  Most of today's "TV"s are actually just very large computer monitors.

Now I find that the commercials on the major main stream networks that I watch follow my latest Google searches.  So Youtube, owned by Google, gets information from Google and tailors the TV commercials to match what I'm looking at on the internet.  It's not even spooky anymore.  Sometimes i try to mess with them by searching things that i want to see commercials about.

Is that some boo sh...t?  I don't even have TV commercial commonality with the rest of the world anymore.  Just seems crazy that they spend so much time trying to drill in to my head.  Many of the ads on the web pages are for things that I just bought on Amazon.  I just bought it!!  Why show me an ad for it.

The above might qualify as a rant.  I don't know.

Edit - also just realized that this might all be in my head.  Not sure...

 

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by Zed Head

[Zed Head]

Why are ads showing up right in the middle of my words...

[dutchzcarguy]

9 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Sometimes i try to mess with them by searching things that i want to see commercials about.

Hahaha... same here...  

I also very much like the ads for car battery's after i just bought one... ughh.. ?

[grannyknot]

9 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Edit - also just realized that this might all be in my head.  Not sure...

Not in your head, what makes me laugh is that line about, " Buyers who purchased this item also purchased..."  I doubt anyone who just ordered 4 NGK sparkplugs also bought a dozen Champion's for the same engine on their recommendation.

That lie has the opposite effect on me of what they intend it to do.

ZH, have you looked into content blocking to get rid of the all the ads you're plagued with?

[AK260]

Why are ads showing up right in the middle of my words...

Use Tapatalk pro app - no adds here [emoji12]

[AK260]

What I find most disturbing is the fact that even with Siri off, my YouTube “suggested” videos match conversations that have ZERO with what I search for.

My pregnant friend was asking about my wife’s experiences while walking with me and 10 mins later when I went onto the YouTube app the suggestions were related to the conversation. Has happened many many times!!!

We are just in that world where you have to learn a new skill - to ignore and live with it without being bothered by it.

On the PC, I found installing the Ghostery extension kills most adverts like the one in the middle of your words etc ....

https://www.ghostery.com/

[heyitsrama]

I would recommend 

1. Becoming a donating czcc member ( if you can afford it)

2. installing unlock origin extension on any browsers you use. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Consider step 1 or turn off ublock on czcc. Mikes operating costs are said to increase with this beefy server he’s upgrading to.
 

3. if you are technically inclined you can block advertising at the DNS (what resolves URLs into IP addresses) level by using pihole or adguard home. 
Here is the configuration I use at my place. https://github.com/amarjandu/neptunes-orbit
 

in the couple weeks that I’ve used it it’s blocked ~30% of network traffic out. 
 

you don’t have to go all the way to step 3, I used ublock origin for almost a decade, and it works wonders. I think if you are on an android phone you can get it installed on that as well, I use an iphone, so I don’t get that option.

 

if you need some help getting the DNS level blocking installed, or want more information reach out. ? 

[heyitsrama]

If you need an additional computer to route the traffic for step 3 consider a raspberry pi, it runs a free operating system. And is around $35-$55. Also it has very low energy consumption.

https://pi-hole.net

https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/
 

 

[Zed Head]

8 hours ago, AK260 said:

My pregnant friend was asking about my wife’s experiences while walking with me and 10 mins later when I went onto the YouTube app the suggestions were related to the conversation. Has happened many many times!!!

That could be from the "location" function on your friends phone.  Or it might be that your friends phone identified your Wifi signal, or Bluetooth.  Or just triangulated cell towers and matched with your Contacts.  All of these things happen, all the time.  I've had the feeling that ads show up after I stop at a store front and look at what's inside.  But that could just be a recency effect.  Like seeing 240Z's everywhere after you buy your own 240Z.

I'm not trying to avoid, just making an observation.  The ads in the middle of the page is from Mike's ad settings though.  He might have missed the setting for Replies maybe, that's where they showed up.  None here now though.

I just saw Edward Snowden on the news the other day.

[Zed Head]

Something similar.  Even if you don't "join" the network, or officially connect, the network has still identified your phone as being in its range.

https://www.shopify.com/retail/wifi-marketing-what-it-is-and-how-retailers-can-use-it

[AK260]

I just saw Edward Snowden on the news the other day.

 

You know what I find most interesting about that chap is that if you were old enough to have an email address in the early 2000s and someone said the government is monitoring emails, you would have laughed at them and put them in a certain bucket of people.

 

[AK260]

duplicated post - can’t delete it! :(