Covid - 19: How is it affecting you?

[fin]

I'm sitting 2 feet from my 87 inch HDsmart TV


but it's behind me and only used for videoconferencing

You hope! LOL. Personally have second hand knowledge of several instances where ads have appeared on telephones or computers regarding products or situations which had been merely verbally discussed within "earshot" of a smart tv. The ramifications of such should be self evident.

[OFSO]

....and smartphones. Have lost count of how often Google puts up an advert pertaining to something we've been discussing.

[Woody]

....and smartphones. Have lost count of how often Google puts up an advert pertaining to something we've been discussing.

I’ve been getting quite a lot of adverts for padded bicycle shorts in the last few days

[llondel]

I run ad blockers, most ad sites are a security hazard, and there have been instances where computers have been compromised by a dodgy ad script. So Google might well be trying to push these ads on me but I don't see them.

[Karearea]

Absolutely some device is listening.
Best example is a conversation I had in living-room with daughter when we briefly mentioned the title of a children's story she remembered from twenty-five years before.
Next day Yoochoob suggested I view someone reading that story.
Several other examples as well that elude me just at the minute.

[FD2]

Quote: I’ve been getting quite a lot of adverts for padded bicycle shorts in the last few days

When I was in my teens my bike had a very thin hard leather saddle and I used to cycle miles on it. When I got around to buying another I was 50 and it had a similar saddle. I cycled up the road for a mile and back and could hardly walk upright when I got home due to severe pain near the a**e! I swapped the saddle for the softest one I could find - bliss! May even add extra padding in due course - hooray for soft saddles. All the men in the U3A cycling groups use them too. Not into lycra yet though...

A friend who is a computer buff has been deeply suspicious of surveillance because of receiving targetted adverts after Googling things online and has also disconnected his microphone and camera. He thinks it is mainly through Google that this stuff is happening. I have switched over to Firefox and so far have had no problems after having a few 'coincidences' when I used Google and Chrome.

[G-CPTN]

I have noticed for some time that I get 'offers' on my Hotmail email after I have elsewhere (such as eBay or Amazon) discussed an item.

I do not possess any type of 'Alexa', nor do I use Facebook.

[boing]

They are definitely collecting information. I use a VPN, the PC normally goes to a site in Washington and one of my laptops normally goes to a site in Utah. I get ads pushing businesses in these two areas. If I send the VPN to Puerto Rico I get ads. and suggested Youtube sites in Spanish. The websites I visit do not seem to be able to locate me but they do take reprisals. For example Craigslist will not let me find an advertisers phone number through the VPN but I can get it without.

.

[llondel]

Geolocation is common - the endpoint of your VPN is what the ad servers pick up on for serving ads.

[FD2]

I'm sure this is just a coincidence but a little spooky...but an email trying to sell me these just arrived!

ptwf1560224812102.jpg (34.27 KiB) Viewed 323 times

[4mastacker]

Touch wood, I don't seem to get bothered with those kind of adverts.

Is it because I've got Ad-blocker plus enabled, or because I'm using an i-Mac, or because I clear my browsing history a couple of times each session or because I don't click on links to newspaper web-sites where there's loads of click-bait? I just switch me 'puter on and surf away - and I do use 'Goooogle' a lot - p'raps I've done something without realising it and blocked whatever it is that does the tracking.

It might even be the chunk of Bluetac that I stuck over the camera after I got one of those funny e-mails demanding bit-coin payment for watching dodgy sites.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Your web browsing history and habits and purchases and sites visited are being tracked by so many parties. You location is being tracked to some sort of accuracy even if it is just by IP address but if you are using Google Maps they know where you are to the within a couple of metres and if you are using Siri, or Alexa or Google Voice you are being listened to. Then there is the NSA, GCHQ, Cisco and the Chinese who built you electronic gadget and the list just goes on and on...

[Magnus]

Interesting that the UK's two metre "rule" is not enshrined in law, only guidance, and is legally unenforceable. Most media (particularly leftie) keep referring to it as a rule. It isn't.

[TheGreenGoblin]

The worst aspect of this confounded contagion is that it has resulted in the Archers' programmes being recorded by the actors remotely giving us stilted Borchester and Ambridge wooden, which has infuriated my better half, and as any fule kno, an irritated better half is worse than a coiled spitting cobra!

Personally I hate the Archers and their bucolic crap and reactionary piffle but the sooner this travesty is rectified the better it will be for me!

I notice that there are no blacks in the Archers! Perhaps I will set up an Action Group. More reggae on the Archers. I am sure there are many here will support my noble endeavour!

[TheGreenGoblin]

Very soothing but too slow for me in these days GG. I need to get out and do.

Found this new-to-me quote today, thought it was hilarious.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!

Hunter S. Thompson

He certainly did that...

Having shot himself...

Funeral

On August 20, 2005, in a private funeral, Thompson's ashes were fired from a cannon. This was accompanied by red, white, blue, and green fireworks—all to the tune of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man". The cannon was placed atop a 153-foot (47 m) tower which had the shape of a double-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button, a symbol originally used in his 1970 campaign for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado. The plans for the monument were initially drawn by Thompson and Steadman, and were shown as part of an Omnibus program on the BBC titled Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision (1978). It is included as a special feature on the second disc of the 2004 Criterion Collection DVD release of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and labeled as Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood. According to his widow, Anita, the $3 million funeral was funded by actor Johnny Depp, who was a close friend of Thompson’s. Depp told the Associated Press, "All I'm doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out."

[OFSO]

Mrs OFSO and her chums have given up on the "Archers" in their new format. 'Given up' hints at peaceful resignation, but doesn't even begin to describe the rage of my wife at the brain-numbing stupidity of the BBC....

[TheGreenGoblin]

Mrs OFSO and her chums have given up on the "Archers" in their new format. 'Given up' hints at peaceful resignation, but doesn't even begin to describe the rage of my wife at the brain-numbing stupidity of the BBC....

Your wife and my obergruppenführer are ad idem on this matter. Heaven help the BBC. Bunch of idiots.

[ian16th]

Personally I hate the Archers

I've never forgiven the Beeb for putting The Archers in the Dick Barton slot.

[TheGreenGoblin]

A prescient documentary in so many ways, politically, drug wise, alcohol fly less and painfulness...

I suspect I know what Mr Thompson said about Barstow...but will never understand!

A saint among bad sinners... and a great writer...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Personally I hate the Archers

I've never forgiven the Beeb for putting The Archers in the Dick Barton slot.

I must ask my English better half about this!

Personally, I suspect that I would agree with you.