Technology….or coincidence?

[Maquis]

So today I was at my dealer, finalizing the schedule for my glass recall. Discussed the process at length with my service manager. All good and the car goes in next week.

Fast forward to this evening. I get an email from Amazon recommending “thinks you might like.” Among the items: 3M windshield urethane adhesive, 3M urethane adhesive primer, and a windshield removal tool.

Kind of funny…just wanted to share!

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[EELinneman]

Regarding the charcoal, have you ever complained about the eheat?

 

[FullyCharged]

My wife had an Amazon book recommendation made based on the conversation she and I had been having one evening. Very clearly the Echo was eavesdropping as we’d never discussed anything similar before. I found it creepy. My wife actually really liked the book so was happy for the recommendation. ??

 

[Maquis]

My wife had an Amazon book recommendation made based on the conversation she and I had been having one evening. Very clearly the Echo was eavesdropping as we’d never discussed anything similar before. I found it creepy. My wife actually really liked the book so was happy for the recommendation. ??

Good point - I need to check if the service area has any Amazon devices. But even so, how would their device recognize me? Weird.

 

[JoelOclock]

My wife had an Amazon book recommendation made based on the conversation she and I had been having one evening. Very clearly the Echo was eavesdropping as we’d never discussed anything similar before. I found it creepy. My wife actually really liked the book so was happy for the recommendation. ??

You’re wrong. It can’t do that.
Source: I work there - on those devices

To provide more insight, it’s a common misconception. The reality is more mundane, your wife has a book taste that is common enough to recognize from other indicators

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

Good point - I need to check if the service area has any Amazon devices. But even so, how would their device recognize me? Weird.

Based off your device reporting your location as well as any echo nearby picking up your phone

 

[RickMachE]

Good point - I need to check if the service area has any Amazon devices. But even so, how would their device recognize me? Weird.

You're on a forum discussing the topic...

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

You’re wrong. It can’t do that.
Source: I work there - on those devices

To provide more insight, it’s a common misconception. The reality is more mundane, your wife has a book taste that is common enough to recognize from other indicators

 

[FullyCharged]

You’re wrong. It can’t do that.
Source: I work there - on those device

To provide more insight, it’s a common misconception. The reality is more mundane, your wife has a book taste that is common enough to recognize from other indicators

Zero chance of convincing me. It was a totally left field topic. Nonfiction (which she never reads). Not at all related to anything she’s ever read before. Recommendation was literally the next morning. And we’ve never had any such recommendation again. Just the annoying “based on your purchase history it may be time to order such and such again.” There is a mute button on the Echo for a reason. Personally I’d find it too annoying to turn it on and off, and am not worried about anything discussed around it.

Companies do things all the time their employees are surprised by. Sometimes even things they swear they don’t do. More than enough examples in the tech world of this…

 

[JoelOclock]

Zero chance of convincing. It was a totally left field topic. Nonfiction (which she never reads). Not at all related to anything she’s ever read before. Recommendation was literally the next morning. And we’ve never had any such recommendation again. Just the annoying “based on your purchase history it may be time to order such and such again.” Companies do things all the time their employees are surprised by. Sometimes even things they swear they don’t do.

ZERO chance of convincing me I don’t know what I work on. Sorry to break it to you but your wife’s tastes just aren’t that unique. It’s a big old world out there and it’s so much easier to look at your internet history than to parse your smart speaker transcript

 

[Motomax]

ZERO chance of convincing me I don’t know what I work on. Sorry to break it to you but your wife’s tastes just aren’t that unique. It’s a big old world out there and it’s so much easier to look at your internet history than to parse your smart speaker transcript

Yup, they get a ton of info on you just tracking your internet footprint. Emails, apps, websites, They probably looks at your pictures too lol. You just get surprised because it was on your mind, if it wasn’t you wouldn’t have noticed as much.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

Yup, they get a ton of info on you just tracking your internet footprint. Emails, apps, websites, They probably looks at your pictures too lol. You just get surprised because it was on your mind, if it wasn’t you wouldn’t have noticed as much.

And honestly, which is scarier: just listening in to your conversation or having enough information parsed from all different sources to build such an accurate model of you that it can predict things with such accuracy?

 

[FullyCharged]

ZERO chance of convincing me I don’t know what I work on. Sorry to break it to you but your wife’s tastes just aren’t that unique. It’s a big old world out there and it’s so much easier to look at your internet history than to parse your smart speaker transcript

Oh we’ve gone to caps now. Lol. No search history, which was why it stood out as so odd to the two of us and the only conclusion we had was the Echo. Occam’s Razor.

Amazon has already had to backpedal, clarify and ramp up public relations once before about Echo’s listening when Bloomberg published their article a few years back. If what you are saying is true that is great. Hope that’s the case, but count me as skeptical due to history and my own personal experience.

 

[Logal727]

Reminds me of the story of people receiving mysterious Amazon packages but when they looked into it, the people actually just had ordered stuff and forgot they did

 

[joes723]

Recent studies show that the average person with normal habits online have roughly 10,000 data points that are easily farmed by various apps and services. Then, algorithms kick in and can instantly connect and correlate the data and present these recommendations to you. Unless you read the T&Cs on everything you click “accept” to, you’ll never avoid this.

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