Is Google sniffing out emails?

Higgins

So I have an iPad and an aol.com email address.

Yesterday, the neighbour asked me to bring a Sodastream Cylinder with me frommthe supermarket in an email.
We don‘t own such thing and I am sure that I‘ve never searched for one.

Tonight, a Sodastream ad pops up and the only connection that I see was receiving this email which is kind of worrysome.

Barbel

I get the same sort of thing (not Sodastream, though). I look casually at an ad for something, then other ads for the same thing appear on other sites.

bosoxfan

yea but it does seem different when it was plucked out of an email, I agree, scary

Asp9mm

Wait till you activate Siri or Alexa and the conversations you have about products pop up in your ad bars. Then you’ll be worried. Many functions on iPhones and androids are live as factory standard. Check YouTube on them and how to turn them off. It’s an eye opener for sure and your battery life increased tenfold too.

Number24

And Big Brother isn't always the state.

Thunderpussy

My Daughter and her friends at university
As an experiment , with their phones on the
Table, they began discussing pregnancy......
.... afterwards, nearly all the adverts were
For pregnancy tests etc.

Higgins

Barbel wrote:

I get the same sort of thing (not Sodastream, though). I look casually at an ad for something, then other ads for the same thing appear on other sites.

That can be explained.
When you click on this ad, your browser is storing a code (cookie) which is then being made available to all other webpages that you are browsing on and this, a corresponding google ad.

As far as I know, it goes even far as placing certain ads to find out, which target group you belong.
So, when you find an ad, luring you with present pic of Jennifer Grey and you click it, they know that you are over 50 and are probably male.
If you see an ad which seems to inform about improvement with issues of bladder control or stamina, I am sure that you are flagged to be male and over 60.
That info is stored and spread to every webpage that you visit to give you targetted ads.

But I was not browsing for Sodastream ( until I have mentioned the keyword on AJB), I don‘t use Siri or Alexa, and I don‘t allow my iphone and ipad to activate the mic.

The only way that Sodastream was mentioned was this particular email and so some service must have sniffed out my emails. Or AOL gave that info away connected to my devices.

Barbel

Thanks, Higgins. I haven't noticed this with emails, though.

Number24

Thunderpussy wrote:

My Daughter and her friends at university
As an experiment , with their phones on the
Table, they began discussing pregnancy......
.... afterwards, nearly all the adverts were
For pregnancy tests etc.

If that's true (and I guess I have to think so) that's really scary. In fact your daughter and her friends should do a few more tests. If they get the same result they should report it to the police. that sort of thing can't possibly be legal.

welshboy78

I thought when you signed up for Google email part of the condition was some kind of scanning email text for marketing.

This was why I never used it at the time - maybe it was bull but I remember hearing about it and avoided