VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

Mike Harrison

Some of you may recall a thread I started sometime within the last year about my discovery that LinkedIn was somehow reading emails from my computer (none of my email accounts were affiliated with LinkedIn and I certainly did not knowingly choose to share the contents of my address book/contacts). It turns out, I wasn't alone: perhaps hundreds or more discovered the same thing, as evidenced by Google results and at least one class-action lawsuit I know of.

Well, today, I visited Amazon.com and the site "recognized" me as an account-holder (since at least November 2000). But today there was something new: the page asked whether I wanted to buy parts for my car. And it knew the make, model and year of my car. But I never knowingly supplied this information; never bought anything for my car on Amazon where I'd have to enter this information. So this concerns me greatly. I spent a half hour on the phone with a management type whose only possible explanation was that I must have – at some time – at least searched for something for the car where I would have entered this information. But I highly, highly doubt it. If I had, it was a long time ago, and today was the first time I'd ever even seen mention of my car on the site.

So, if anyone here is also an Amazon.com shopper, check your account profile for your "Garage" to see if they know what you drive. And if you find they know (without your having volunteered the information, please say so here. This crap is (getting) out of hand.

Thanks.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:27 pm Post subject:

The bad news: I have noticed that I will occasionally be having an email conversation with a friend and, shortly thereafter, I'll start seeing Amazon ads for what we discussed in our emails and not elsewhere. The one particular friend I'm thinking of is an author who has several books on sale through Amazon, so their access could be through him.

The good news: I just looked in the Garage and Amazon does not seem to know what I drive. It says "no saved vehicles."
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Mike Harrison · Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:51 pm Post subject:

Yep. Very similar to the LinkedIn escapade. It shouldn't have made too much difference, but I never used to actually log out of Amazon.com after using the site. But I have all my various browser preferences set to Do Not Track, and there are some plugins that also monitor that. But, after this, I will definitely be logging out after each visit AND deleting the cookies that state they automatically delete at the end of a session but mysteriously never seem to.

I told Amazon about my LinkedIn experience and about the class-action suit and made sure they knew I'm already suspicious. These companies can keep saying how they're trying to make the "customer experience" better til they turn blue, but I think they are the ones who benefit most.
_________________
Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

Look up how to block 127.0.0.1 on your computer

Deirdre · Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 11:11 pm Post subject:

Amazon (and Sweetwarer and will show me stuff I have searched for elsewhere.
But that make and model of your car biz seems pretty creepy.
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DBCooperVO.com

WillMWatt · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 1:08 am Post subject:

I don't know if it's the same in the US, but here in the UK you can enter your car reg into a government website and it'll come back at you with the make, model, colour, and engine size of the vehicle. This info is all public record. It could be that you entered your car reg into a form on, say, an airport parking website. The autocomplete in your browser saved the info, or it was saved in some cookie which Amazon later picked up on.

Although the majority of targeted advertising comes from cookies, it's also worth checking your browser plugins. Many free plugins will make their revenue by passing on details to advertising companies like Google or Amazon. They're probably not likely to be shouting about this in the plugin description either.

It is very, *very* unlikely (not to mention barely possible) that Amazon are, themselves, snooping on your private info.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 1:42 am Post subject:

I get that eBay and Amazon know what I've been looking at, so it makes sense that they'll show me ads for that stuff or things that are like that stuff. What I don't understand is, eBay and Amazon also know when I have bought what I was looking at, so why do they continue to send me promotional material for things they know I now have and, presumably, don't need anymore?
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Mike Harrison · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 5:15 am Post subject:

I have, indeed, searched for and perhaps even bought things for my car by having entered its make, model and year on websites OTHER than Amazon. Amazon is NOT a place I would choose to buy model-specific auto parts.

And, to clarify, I'm not as concerned that the make, model and year of my car is known as I am over HOW this information was obtained by Amazon when I did not give it to them. Will I log in one day to find "My Medicine Chest," containing a list of all medications, prescription or OTC I may have ordered online? Or, worse, "My Medical History."

Like most things, this shit will not end – it will get worse – until enough people get angry enough to begin speaking out about it publicly.

One thing I left out earlier was that when I first got the Amazon management-type on the phone and began asking about this, I told her I was recording the conversation, so she'd better choose her answers carefully. She demanded I stop recording (I really wasn't), so I asked why she was afraid of having her answers documented. She wouldn't answer. When I compared this situation with other forms of information gathering and data breaches, asking if it were HER information that appeared where she hadn't supplied it would she be upset, she wouldn't even answer that.

Many times, withheld responses are very telling.

Trust no one. Question EVERYTHING.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Rick Riley · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 7:00 am Post subject:

If you're looking for privacy, those days are over. Why shouldn't they know what kind of car you own. They're watching you pull out of your driveway in it.
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Never do anything you wouldn't want to explain to the Paramedics

www.rickrileyvoice.com

Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:24 am Post subject:

Rob Ellis · M&M Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 2385 Location: Detroit

Mike Harrison · Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:24 pm Post subject:

Rognog · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 5:39 am Post subject:

Mike, are you familiar with ad re-targeting? That's when you go shopping on one website then see an ad for what you were looking at on another website. For example, I buy my vitamins online via Vitamin Shoppe and later on I see ads for the product I bought on Facebook. It's designed to aid potential shoppers down the "sales funnel".

https://www.adroll.com/getting-started/retargeting

I admit it appears to be a bit creepy but as far as I know (I and my comic book business partner have done some research) that nobody is actually in your computer snooping around. Is it possible that's what happened in your situation?
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Tom Dheere - The "H" is Silent, but I'm Not!
www.tomdheere.com

Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

127.0.0.1 blocking of sites like adroll, doubleclick, etc will limit the types of targeted ads your computer will have on websites as well as limit tracking google searches.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:24 am Post subject:

Quite often, I will look for a YouTube video to see how some unfamiliar proper name is pronounced. Shortly thereafter, I will start seeing banner ads for that out-of-state car dealer or foreign drug manufacturer or whatever it was I had looked up.

Until this week, the only way I could control the ventilation in my booth was to step outside the booth, walk around to where the exhaust fan is located and physically plug or unplug it. It finally dawned on me that there are remote controls for just about everything, including electrical outlets, so I Googled them and checked out some prices on eBay, Amazon, and elsewhere. Now, I'm getting emails from eBay and Amazon and seeing ads for them in Chrome and on Facebook and anyone else who has no way of knowing I bought one at Target (and would probably continue sending the ads even if they did).
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice