Amazon Sidewalk: what could possibly go wrong?

Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
3,815
Reaction score
12,250
Location
Charlotte
Had this conversation with a co-worker at a restaurant a few blocks from work over two years ago. His Android phone was clearly listening in. Later that afternoon at work, he began receiving advertisements for something we were discussing. It's been going on for a long, long time.
 

Crows

Getting comfortable
Joined
Oct 11, 2020
Messages
127
Reaction score
435
Location
South Australia
So now I need to go into every room in the house that has a smart TV , computer, appliances etc etc and in each of those different rooms talk about a different product , then over the next few days see which of those items I've talked about pop up on our PC ......then I can pinpoint what item is doing the spying? Lol
 

Frankenscript

Known around here
Joined
Dec 21, 2017
Messages
1,288
Reaction score
1,197
OMG , this is just plain spooky! Myself and the Mrs where only discussing this last night . Last weekend we had been talking about a new item that her mother had purchased , shortly after i kept seeing that item pop up online so I said , oh ...you've been doing research using my Tablet hey ? No she replied, I haven't touched your Tablet or done any research on the item whatsoever? WTF ?
A common route of advertising is to show you things to buy that your social contacts recently bought. You don't even have to butter the name. My brother in law got a Tesla, and I was getting ads for a month or two. I only figured out about it retroactively when I was talking with my sister, months later. The ad barrage for me started within days of the purchase. I thought it was random at the time.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
 

David L

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
8,002
Reaction score
20,955
Location
USA
I realize that the title of your post is a rhetorical question but even so I gotta say "...so many things."

I unplugged 2 Echo Dots last year when, after neither myself or my wife had done any searches online of a specific and unusual topic and that we had discussed that topic verbally only between ourselves......shortly after (like by the next day) when I opened amazon to browse my account / order status page, I received popup suggestions that clearly suggested items that my wife and I discussed privately!

I wonder what else had been heard? My political views? :wtf:
So Google has out of the blue entered many of my conversations with my wife. Either some word triggered it or it's ears never sleep. One time Google killed the mood while we were intimate, Google said something, wife started laughing, I asked her if she was laughing at me, that did not go over well, then I joined her laughter, after some time we ended up laughing ourselves to sleep, I was not able to mark a notch on the Headboard that night, LOL
 
Last edited:

CCTVCam

Known around here
Joined
Sep 25, 2017
Messages
2,670
Reaction score
3,494
If you want privacy, change your router's DNS setting to an independent 3rd party DNS provider, preferably one that doesn't keep or log lookups. Without that, your isp records and can see every single website you visit from the DNS lookup records tied to your ip. It doesn't matter if the connection is secure and encrypted. The fact your router had to look up the IP to connect is recorded along with what it looked up. No this isn't just for chess piece sites :), but for all sites if you value your privacy.
 

David L

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
8,002
Reaction score
20,955
Location
USA
If you want privacy, change your router's DNS setting to an independent 3rd party DNS provider, preferably one that doesn't keep or log lookups. Without that, your isp records and can see every single website you visit from the DNS lookup records tied to your ip. It doesn't matter if the connection is secure and encrypted. The fact your router had to look up the IP to connect is recorded along with what it looked up. No this isn't just for chess piece sites :), but for all sites if you value your privacy.
These are the one's I use:

1622560853017.png
 

David L

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Messages
8,002
Reaction score
20,955
Location
USA
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 19, 2015
Messages
953
Reaction score
1,213
Location
Naples Fl
I realize that the title of your post is a rhetorical question but even so I gotta say "...so many things."

I unplugged 2 Echo Dots last year when, after neither myself or my wife had done any searches online of a specific and unusual topic and that we had discussed that topic verbally only between ourselves......shortly after (like by the next day) when I opened amazon to browse my account / order status page, I received popup suggestions that clearly suggested items that my wife and I discussed privately!

I wonder what else had been heard? My political views? :wtf:
yep and they can determine what vaccine you will get according to your politics and religious beliefs
 
Top