Shadow Profiling

 

Guess what I have been learning about?  

Talking about a Yeti backpack near a phone on one day and finding ads for one on Facebook (Meta) the next?   Shadow Profiling

Discovering that your Echo Dot or Alexa recorded a private conversation that you were having with someone at your kitchen table?   Shadow Profiling

Visiting a website only to find other links to what you were looking for pop up in your texts?  Shadow Profiling

Email from Amazon "You've got deals!"  Shadow Profiling

Someone you know being denied access to Facebook perhaps because they have the same name or email address of someone else who was thrown off/blocked from that platform. Why?   Shadow Profiling

Shadow Profiling is everywhere.  It builds a file on you without you even knowing it ... even if you clear your search history. One article I read, said that large data collection agencies may know more about you than you do yourself and are projecting what you will probably purchase, where you may vacation, what you worry about or find interesting, etc. They then sell that information to companies who then target their ads toward your interests and concerns. And  -- perhaps  that is not the scariest part.

As far as I can tell Shadow Profiling began with Facebook., but now who knows how many other companies are doing it?  Apparently it has been big business for a long time.  (As usual I am behind a bit.) "Meta's advertising data infrastructure has become the most sophisticated surveillance system in human history" according to a TIAMAT article I read that was posted last March.  But -- you don't even have to be on Facebook to have your information gathered and shared.  If you are even in a photo that someone posts,  facial recognition has captured you and is inferring things about your activities and relationships from the photo. Meta is building a file and spreading/selling your information. All of this -- plus -- cameras are everywhere.

Then again, if you are actually on Meta, the thing is that this is not just information gathered from what you post, like, tag, etc., it is also information from other sources including legal, health and financial .. information that you assumed was protected when you accessed them through an app, for example.   

Further - the more one interacts with AI, the more your Shadow Profile expands.  Unless you become an "off-grid hermit" there doesn't seem to be anything you can do about it.  Most of the information is benign, but still....  It appears that the best we can do is follow and support legislation on how and when companies can gather and share our personal information.  That and carefully read Privacy Policies and not agree to anything that makes you edgy. If the site asks me if it can track, my answer is no - always.  Not even sure that makes a difference.  Scary.

Fortunately there are companies now that are at work to make your privacy a part of the "architecture of their infrastructure" -- to empower you to protect your privacy and all data.  No one makes it easy for you to figure this all out however.  Who do you trust?

In some ways this lack of privacy has become who we are.  It crept in ... slowly... while we were unaware that it was even there  -- sort of like the socialist candidates in the Democrat party are creeping into power throughout the country. Some of them pretend to be one thing and turn out to be another. It's deceptive.  Personally I am totally uncomfortable with both Shadow Profiling and Socialist Democrats.

Time to pay attention on more than one front. It's a lot.

AI Stalker

There are a lot of things in our fast changing world that I simply do not understand and maybe never will.  I grew up, after all, in a age of limited TV channels, no twenty-four hour news and phones that do not do math or connect you to social media. There was no social media. There were no such words as streaming, apps, Starlink, internet, and "cells" were where prisoners lived.  When I ordered something it was by check through a catalog and the USPS.  It took days, sometimes weeks, for the package to be delivered. Master Cards didn't even appear until the late 60"s and at that time the first computers were the size of large rooms.  Now... we never leave home without our small computer phones and somewhat suddenly find ourselves with AI which I find it sort of creepy although ...  I have used it to find things like a valid phone number to reach Amazon or how to disable the spying stuff on my new 24" Smart TV.  That TV, by the way, is referred to as a postage stamp TV by some of my beloved. I find that to be really funny.  Anyway -- back to the point.  Does it bother anyone else that AI just suddenly appeared on your phone, computer and other devices? No one asked for it.  It was just there   -- an uninvited guest lurking everywhere you go.  Further -- you can't get it to leave.  Seriously I hope AI does a better job in driverless cars, translations of important documents, and in training doctors.

Focus on it for a moment. Artificial Intelligence. And to think I used to think that you could just unplug it and go on your merry way.  Now it pops up everywhere -- an unwanted stalker.  I have told it to go away but it doesn't listen well.  Case in point.  The other day it offered a unasked for summary of an email exchange that I had with a friend.  Neither party asked for a summary, but there it was. AI is a bit of a show off but without a soul.  I share it with you now.  AI concluded that:

".... the thread is a casual exchange of personal updates with no outstanding request or required actions."

Actually that email contained a lot of important information and conveyed things  like how people felt about certain situations -- feelings and opinions -- thoughts. Personally I wish AI would go away or come out only when you ask it to.  Like I said - sort of creepy.  For those of you of my vintage -- AI has become the nosey neighbor who made it a habit of listening in on your party line or watched you from behind a curtain. Again  -- sort of creepy. Right? The big difference is that AI lives in your home and is everywhere you go.

Never a dull moment...

 

It’s been a nutty few weeks -- annoying, but minor "stuff", in the grand scheme of it all.  We have all had such times.  The thing is ... for me … it is essential to find something humorous at such times.  So… here’s the deal.  The situation involves two, totally separate occurrences.  #1 is the survey that Best Buy wants me to submit, and #2 the shipment of a heavy cylinder of O rings I received from a family-owned company in Texas - O rings that I never ordered. Exhale.

Let’s start with Best Buy and I will make this a painless as possible for you to read.  On October 1^st, after an extensive and exhausting search for a white double wall oven unit to replace my 20-year-old one, I found one online at Best Buy in Erie, PA (44 miles/32.7min) from my home.  Perfect. (White, by the way, is apparently no longer a socially acceptable color in new appliances – totally out of the popular spectrum and therefore almost impossible to find.  So, of course, that is the kind I love the most. It matches my kitchen.  I like what I like and the finish doesn't show fingerprints.)  Anyway – It was delivered and installed on November 1st by two pleasant young fellows sent, for some unknown reason, from Akron, Ohio (150.8 miles/2hrs24 min) from my home.  When they left my house both ovens worked perfectly, but they installed the double ovens leaving them sticking out 2 inches from the wall cupboard – necessary because there was a junction box behind them that needed to be moved and these nice fellows would not/could not move it.  Okay – I understand.  So… I had the junction box moved by others and the oven fit perfectly – except it was discovered in this final process that the Akron installers had broken an important piece that holds the control panel in place – or perhaps it came broken. Who knows?  Duh…  

Long story short – Best Buy has no email address for any customer support so... I wrote them a letter.  I had pictures that I so wanted to attach to an email so that they could “see” the situation.  Crickets. More Crickets. And here I was having taken the time to learn how to move pics from my phone to my PC and how to attach them. Sigh…  So – I contacted the appliance company itself.  They do have a customer support email.  Immediate response. They loved my photos and sent an appliance repairman on December 2^nd.  He ordered the necessary part(s) from his phone and will be back on the 16^th to replace whatever it is that needs to be replaced.  They will bill Best Buy. I had, after all, purchased that pricey five-year- warranty.  Note – I still have heard nothing from Best Buy… except ...  they just sent me a customer satisfaction survey. And guess what – you can attach pictures.  😁 I am going to have fun with this survey for sure. I will let you know if Best Buy actually puts my review on their website.  I am not betting the ranch on it. Oh --Guess what? Update! Best Buy did post my review … and they are sorry – yet -- still did not offer an email address. Said I could chat with them or call.  I am just not into chatting online – the answers seem to be computer generated by a slow-running machine with a human name that doesn’t read well, doesn't grasp what you have already described,  and asks you stupid questions that have nothing to do with the problem. Further…I don’t really have the patience for in-person calling unless it is absolutely the best option for the situation. (You probably noticed this lack of patience in my response to things before this point ….  I get that.)

As for the O rings....  Amazon let me know that the backorder for the weed torch I wanted was cancelled as they could no longer get that particular brand. I found it at this family-owned company in Texas in about three minutes, so I ordered it. To continue -- although Olga, with a smiley face, had checked the order – alas – they had shipped me a heavy cylinder containing a sack of 2” O rings instead of the torch.  I called them (the best option) and who did they connect me to?  Olga.  Olga sounded overworked and shorthanded … but…  we ended up having a lovely chat and she was going to send me the weed torch immediately. I am not holding my breath, but I did believe her.  I like her. We will see.  She said to keep the O rings - for now.  Not sure what that means.  A good friend of mine suggested that I could make jewelry out of them.  Hmmm…  Update!  Huge thanks to Olga.  The Bluefire 32” Weed Torch arrived safely to my porch. I still don’t know what to do with the O rings….  Ideas? I am just hanging onto them --for now.

So…  those two things are on my mind at the moment.  One thing for sure… I would rather think about stuff like this than the current state of affairs politically, or of the anxiety mongering media, or the perpetration of the fears of the damncovid by those “in power”. I am sick of all of that. "Stuff" like that seems to be always there seething under the surface. It may even have something to do with frustration levels and a lack of patience.  Don’t know for sure.