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)
Anecdotal: I had a friend go to New York. When he got back, I asked what he did while there, and (among other things) he told me that he saw a musical on Broadway.
I had heard of the musical before, but I’ve never searched for it or anything. The next day, I got an ad for it on YouTube.
Maybe it’s coincidental. I didn’t get ads for any of the other things he talked about. But I’ve never been to New York. I have no plans to go to New York. Why would I be getting ads for a musical only playing in New York?
They totally have data on who you are spending time with. they know your friend went there and know you saw that friend. That’s enough I think
Hard to say without knowing more about your personal situation but it would be trivial to figure out.
Your buddy does a Google about the play. Google knows they’re interested in the play. Your buddy gives Google access to his contacts at any time. Google knows you’re on his contact list. Later when he visits you he accesses literally any website with Google ads (which is basically every website) from your WiFi. Google captures his IP address and sees that he’s on the same network as you. Bing bang boom.
You could do that a dozen different ways with GPS data, calendar farming, email farming, notifications over Google servers, WiFi data, Google Messages data, etc. etc.
And through that entire interaction Google needs zero information on your end. That’s the fun part of this dystopian nightmare: your friends are ignorant and unwitting spies for Google, Meta, Amazon and who knows who else.
Just wanted to say thanks for writing this up. I had a similar experience and figured wifi and location was enough for google to make the connection, but I like the extra part you added about being associated through contacts app too.