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Anecdote time... So, I was sitting in a car with a colleague who was talking about how he used to live in the UK (we're both Danish but were speaking English be
by lillesvin 8y ago
Anecdote time... So, I was sitting in a car with a colleague who was talking about how he used to live in the UK (we're both Danish but were speaking English because we had a non-Danish colleague in the car with us). My colleague talked about how he'd developed a fondness for cricket while living in the UK, to which I replied that I only really knew cricket from Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and that it was one of those sports that I'd always been sort of curious about since it gets so little exposure here in Denmark. We agreed that we should maybe watch a game together so he could explain it to me and the conversation naturally changed topic shortly after. But a couple of days later Google Now showed me a notification saying that cricket results were available asking if I wanted to subscribe.
There's of course always a chance that I've done something that—unbeknownst to me—has led Google to believe I was interested in cricket, but I definitely didn't google "cricket", watch videos about it, mentioned it in emails or some such.
- TheHeadMaster 8y agoGoogle knows that you and your colleague met, drove together etc from location of both your devices. So, "maybe" your colleague frequently searched about cricket on his device. Based on these data points, google might have shown you cricket suggestions.
- biophetik 8y agoPretty much sums up my thoughts exactly. There was a good reply all episode about this very thing. https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/109-facebook-spying https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/109-facebook-spying
- lillesvin 8y agoThat's actually a really good and plausible explanation. Hadn't thought of that. My colleague is an Apple guy but I guess Google could still easily and legitimately know his location if he has Google Maps or other Google software installed. But then I wonder why the 3rd guy in the car didn't get any similar suggestions.
- partisan 8y agoI don’t know, but this sounds as bad to me as if they are actually listening. There are plenty of things I search for that I wouldn’t want to exposed to my friends or colleagues via this approach. I can think of ways to mitigate the violation of privacy, but that is what this is, if it exists.