This has freaked me out

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

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Stoke on Trent
It shouldn't do but for years I've said phones listen to us but perhaps there is another explanation.

Yesterday at work I log onto my NHS PC and I get an email off a colleague to read up on Nitro PDF Pro and whether it is suitable for our department.
Three of us use Adobe Professional but the rest of the team need it and at £499 a license for the standalone it's too expensive.
From my NHS account I go to the Nitro site and sign up with my NHS email to download a trial version.
I spend the day working with it and it does everything we need to do in the department for £190 a license and one free for every 3 we buy.
Over my version of Adobe Professional I've asked if I can also have it.
So to summarise I'm on my NHS PC with all my NHS logins and I have zero access to Facebook.
I even have an NHS Google account.

I get home and the first thing I see on Facebook is a Nitro PDF advert with a buy 3 and get one free advert.
WTF :eek:
I've had 3 so far.

Explain how this has happened other than me talking about it in the office please.
 
It's probably because you've logged into your personal google account and your NHS google account using the same machine at some point. Or maybe you've logged into facebook at work once. Now google and/or facebook know the two accounts are linked in some way. So any cookies on one machine may be relevant to the other machine.
 
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Mr Jack said:
Why do you think your colleague was looking at this? Might it be because they saw an advert for Nitro PDF Pro?
Click to expand...

No it's because she had Nitro PDF Pro 7 on her NHS PC before it went kaput last week.
She asked what the latest version 14 would now be like and it now does everything that Adobe Professional does for our needs - Bates Numbering, Password Protecting, Editing, Combining, Converting etc, the version 7 didn't do everything.
 
I very much doubt they're "listening to you" because they'd most likely have been pulled to pieces by the EU etc.

It might be location based, e.g., the ad network saw searches for Nitro PDF from your works IP / location and Facebook saw your phone on the same network / location and put two and two together to serve you those ads to your account knowing you have similar interests like tech. Facebook has tracking all over the internet even if you're not logged in.

No idea how true it is but I've heard similar stories where a group of people go out and talk about something random they never normally talk about, like cheese, and then they all gets ads for it later. Apple/Google weren't listening to your conversation but what most likely happened was one person in that group searched for cheese either at the time or later on and Facebook etc are smart and saw all your phones were in the same room together and decides to serve you similar ads.

But the real answer is just use an adblocker because the internet is unusable without one.
 
Sometimes it's chicken and egg. People talk about stuff because they've seen an ad and kinda forgotten about the ad, but the next time they see the ad they think they had a genuine thought about wanting to buy something. Nah bro it was put in your brain to begin with.
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
Explain how this has happened other than me talking about it in the office please.
Click to expand...
Well yes, this is well known. Do you have Facebook or WhatsApp installed on your phone? Do you have the microphone enabled for either of them?

If you never use them for calls, go into your privacy settings and stop them having access to the microphone.

It's worth checking the privacy settings anyway and seeing what apps have access to the mic. If there's any that you don't think should, then block them.
 
Recently gave a friend a lift home.

We chatted about outdated sat nav in cars and how you can get them updated etc.

Next day that's what my adverts were for. He's to tight to ever pay for anything like that.

It's not a conversation I've had with anyone else. It was also about his VAG car. Which the adverts were for not my first.

About two years ago I had searched on how to update the sat nav on my ford but that's it.

Coincidence I think not.
 
Before this, the one that stood out was a good 4 years ago.
Me and my mate were talking about motorbike locks which is something I'd never search for because I never have and never will have a motorbike.
When I got home first ad was a motorbike lock.
 
They definitely listen. There have been a few conversations now, whereby the adverts that have come up are directly related to a conversation i'd just had, for which the content was never searched for or looked at on any device. using the same network etc etc.

The most obvious was me talking to my wife about Vauxhall cars. I can't remember exactly what it was about, but it was random ( we werent looking for a car or searching for cars at all on our devices/home network), and neither of us have a vauxhall or anything related to Vauxhall cars. Within a couple of hours, we were both getting Vauxhall adverts on Facebook all the time. I am pretty sure the conversation and adverts were about a specific car as well but it was a while ago now so im not entirely sure on that.
 
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