Things to Come

[Enough!Participant @enough]

(Found this in a Firefox Forum)

CALLER: Is this Gordon's Pizza?
GOOGLE: No Sir, it's Google Pizza.
CALLER: I must have dialled a wrong number. Sorry.
GOOGLE: No Sir, Google bought Gordon's Pizza last month.
CALLER: OK. I would like to order a pizza.
GOOGLE : Do you want your usual, Sir?
CALLER: My usual? You know me?
GOOGLE: According to our caller ID data sheet, the last 12 times you called you ordered an extra-large pizza with three cheeses, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and meatballs on a thick crust.
CALLER: OK! That's what I want!
GOOGLE: May I suggest that this time you order a pizza with ricotta, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and olives on a whole wheat gluten-free thin crust?
CALLER: What? I hate vegetables!
GOOGLE: Your cholesterol is not good, Sir.
CALLER: How do you know ???
GOOGLE: Well, we cross-referenced your home phone number with your medical records. We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years.
CALLER: Okay, but I do not want your rotten vegetable pizza! I already take medication for my cholesterol.
GOOGLE :Excuse me Sir, but you have not taken your medication
regularly. According to our database, you only purchased a box of 30 cholesterol tablets once, at Drug RX Network, 4 months ago.
CALLER: I bought more from another pharmacy.
GOOGLE: That doesn't show on your credit card statement.
CALLER: I paid in cash.
GOOGLE : But you did not withdraw enough cash according to your bank statement.
CALLER: I have other sources of cash.
GOOGLE :That doesn't show on your last tax return unless you bought them using an undeclared income source, which is against the law.
CALLER: WHAT THE HECK!!!
GOOGLE: I'm sorry, Sir, we use such information only with the sole
intention of helping you.
CALLER: Enough already! I'm sick to death of Google, Facebook,
Twitter, WhatsApp and all the others. I'm going to an island without
internet, cable TV, where there is no cell phone service and no one to watch me or spy on me.
GOOGLE: I understand Sir, but you need to renew your passport first. It expired 6 weeks ago.

It's only for your own good…

 

Edited By Bandersnatch on 02/08/2019 15:24:01

[Enough!Participant @enough]

It’s only for your own good …

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Ah that quaint old-fashioned human technique of talking to one another. My grandbioancestor mind-messaged me a memory of him doing that when he still had a body.
My google pizza arrived before I had thought of ordering it as the delivery drone dropped it down the chimney owing to a software error. Some of the cheese content had been withheld for legal reasons and the tomato content blocked by the child safety filter in case it was a representation of naked flesh. The toppings had been replaced by a number of items I had searched for in 2008 as I must still be in the market for them.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I go down the pub and talk about all sorts of random rubbish and when I get home Facebook and google bombard me with adverts about my discussion subjects, I must leave Siri at home and see if they still know what I talk about, I tend to use cash down the pub so I doubt they know that Old Speckled Hen is my favourite tipple. Big brother is watching us.

Mike

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Mike Poole on 02/08/2019 17:07:20:

… I tend to use cash down the pub so I doubt they know that Old Speckled Hen is my favourite tipple.

.

They do now, Mike … Just wait for the flood of new advertising !!

MichaelG.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Perhaps they will send me a few free ones for the plug.

Mike

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

That's a great dialogue, Bandersnatch.

It vindicates my decision not to have a smart phone or any kind of "phone life" to speak of, and not to have accounts on any social media platforms, anonymous or otherwise.

I don't know how many forum members are familiar with the multi-purpose Chinese app Wechat, which probably way over a billion Chinese people at home and overseas use almost exclusively for most of their communication and financial needs.

I've regularly witnessed Wechat users in the UK have messages censored by China's cybersecurity bureau with text or images removed in mid-air, so to speak, and automated warnings displayed, and I know of people in China who have jay-walked, for instance, in the sight of surveillance cameras and received an instant message on their phone from the authorities notifying them of their violation and that a fine for the violation has been simultaneously taken from their Wechat-linked bank account.

Having dined on several occasions with a Chinese lady who works for Huawei, I can tell you on good authority that Bandersnatch's dialogue would not be even remotely ironic to a lot of Chinese citizens.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

My iPad has no GPS but google maps is near spot on with my location, they know where everybody’s WiFi is and have it mapped, an easy job to work out where you are within a few meters. Sometimes the tech can be useful, I went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed and forgot where I left my car, luckily my phone remembered where it lost the blu-tooth connection with my car and helpfully highlighted on the map where my car was. Would have been handy 35 years ago when I parked at Luton Airport in a bit of a hurry and a week later had to play hunt the car for ten minutes, before the days of remote locking so had to look at all the red cars.

Mike

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Mike if you ever have a lost car situation again just go up to the counter and tell them you've lost the vehicle when dropping off a Russian friend and he left his plutonium in the back of it. He doesn't want to miss his flight, could they help find the car?

(Just kidding of course – would not be good to mention the P word.)

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by Bill Phinn on 02/08/2019 19:13:33:

It vindicates my decision not to have a smart phone or any kind of "phone life" to speak of, and not to have accounts on any social media platforms, anonymous or otherwise.

I'm ever so sorry to be the one to point this out to you, but you're actually on soshal meedya on this forum.

+ I'm a little puzzled about how you are able to part with your intimate knowledge of a Chinese app called Wechat yet claim . . . . Oh, never mind.

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

I like search engines.

OK it was not Google but recently I was curious about some colourless/white spots on my skin.

After some reassuring images I looked down the list of results and found:-

eBay Official Site – White Spots Sold Direct – ebay.co.uk

and

White Spots at Argos – Fast Track Same Day Delivery

and

Amazon.co.uk: white spots

As I said I like search engines – they are fun!

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

My local club has recently gone over to a "card carry" type membership system. It's not a golf or sports club sort of place, it's just a soshal club/drinking den.

I can forgive them for being technologically naive, but I cannot forgive them for being stupid.

Whereas before the locals just wandered in & generally clogged the bar, now you have to present the card to the door lock then present the card each time you order a drink.

My attempts at pointing out just how dangerous to personal privacy this system is has fallen on mostly deaf ears, apart from the secretary, who finally read the T&C's from the supplier & promptly resigned.

They've not even registered GDPR . . . .

Last weekend, one member who has almost woken to the problem, was asking me questions about the possible implications of such a system when we just happened to overhear the barmaid gossiping to her sidekick that "Nobby" who she'd just served is currently in first place having spent £XXX's on 820 pints of lager.

If that doesn't strike the fear of God in you . . . Then you are a part of the problem.

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 02/08/2019 20:26:10:

I like search engines.

OK it was not Google but recently I was curious about some colourless/white spots on my skin.

After some reassuring images I looked down the list of results and found:-

eBay Official Site – White Spots Sold Direct – ebay.co.uk

and

White Spots at Argos – Fast Track Same Day Delivery

and

Amazon.co.uk: white spots

As I said I like search engines – they are fun!

I have an angry mole under my left armpit.

My adversity to Doctors is almost equal to my adversity to the Sun & neither of them have or are ever likely to see my angry mole.

Yet my angry mole worries me . . . What exactly does a skin cancer melanoma look like & does it look like my angry mole?

Google has it's uses.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I am pretty sure Wechat is the application the People's Republic of China is using to track its Muslim and Khazak minorities. If not it is something very similar.

China is perhaps the world leader in developing such software, and has already sold it to a number of other governments.

However, we cannot be too smug or complacent about far-away dictatorships using such spying. An item on Radio 4 the other day described a programme anyone can buy on-line, designed specifically for spying on others such as after a broken partnership. Or leading to such a breakdown. The speaker – sorry, I forget her name – had used this, and found far from helping her it made a lot more miserable because it implied not only she could not trust others, but she herself was not trustworthy.

The less one's involvement with the Internet at large, or the smart-phone-on-24-hours syndrome, the better. I refuse point-blank to use Facebook and its ilk, and I would certainly not buy a so-called " smart " 'phone if some business tried to insist I do. I know it would be for its, not my, convenience.

'

BT Internet hopes you won't do it, but you can switch off the so-called "Targetted Cookies" prior to using its e-post service. It only saves the setting for that session though. A linguistically ugly phrase for a socially ugly concept – selling your details to advertising agencies unknown to you, with only the most slender of implicit permission from you. Outlook has a similar feature but instead lists its clients… hundreds of them, but you can "Select all", and I do.

'

A warning tale came from a friend who a few years ago, proudly displayed photos of his recently-completed, major model-engineering project on Facebook. It elicited a number of enquiries about its value…. (He did delete them.)

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

A few weeks back, I was looking at Neil's post on this forum about his Trace Elliot guitar amp and later went to Ebay to look for tools. On the front page of Ebay was a whole load of Trace Elliot amps for sale.

They say it's to help us, but ultimately it's google making even more money.

[I.M. OUTAHEREParticipant @i-m-outahere]

I think there should be a global law that all devices that can look at us , hear us or track your browsing history or location should have these abilities disabled at the manufacturing stage and they can only be enabled by the user with a password access should they wish to use that feature . I detest having to go through the settings of my various to turn all this stuff off ! Google is the biggest offender and i recently found out that my ipad was keeping tabs on my recent locations so Google could send me ads for shops in those locations – that got turned off and the history cleared immediately after finding out about that !

I noticed that the ads from Ebay and Banggood also seem to be focused on my browsing history or recently viewed items so they now get cleared after a browsing session .

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 02/08/2019 15:23:05:

…

It's only for your own good…

Edited By Bandersnatch on 02/08/2019 15:24:01

Yeah, but in my experience they never tell you how they know…

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

That I find annoying is Google's way of sending me news stories I may be interested in.

It seems to have a feedback loop, so I clicked on two stories about Black Sabbath, now I get an alert every time Sharon buys Ozzy a new toothbrush.

Equally, it knows I'm interested in the Hyabusa mission so I get daily alerts about the latest city-sized asteroid that isn't going to hit Earth.

Actually, I've kind of lost interest in Hyabusa because I now get served the same story about it from about twenty outlets.

I'm slowly trying to customise it with the controls that pop up, but I don't want to stop using it or otherwise 98% of my news would come from the same two sources…

Neil

[Enough!Participant @enough]

While I do have a cellphone, I keep it pretty private. I've given the number to not more than about 4 people including my wife and the car service people. In particular I've always refused to give it to Gmail when they nag me for a mobile number for extra ID purposes.

Today I noticed that Gmail has finally picked it up from somewhere – not me – and have recorded it without my permission. (Then again, this is Google which doesn't need anyone's permission).

Edited By Bandersnatch on 03/08/2019 18:42:24

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 03/08/2019 11:11:21:

[ … ]

Equally, it knows I'm interested in the Hyabusa mission so I get daily alerts about the latest city-sized asteroid that isn't going to hit Earth.

.

Ah but … Does it know not to send you stories about big Suzuki bikes ?

MichaelG.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I have sometimes wondered about putting a video on youtube about our club activities but don't have an account so didn't bother. Recently I reluctantly for work registered with google apps store with my work phone something I hadn't wanted to do for my personal device. I suddenly noticed on my work laptop that youtube invited me to comment on a video using the google apps account name. I don't recall using the app store login on my computer as it was only to download a trial version of a company app to the phone so how did it link my computer to my phone? The only common item is the company email feed to my phone.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Just try buying something over the counter at Screwfix, they get very sniffy if you won't divulge your postcode and email. I take the line of least resistance and give them the postcode of the Town Hall, and my e-mail is [email protected]. That usually shuts them up.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Same thing at Vision Electronics here in Canada. Demanded my address, phone-number and email. I declined and they said they couldn't sell to me without them. Fine, I said, left the goods on the counter and started to leave.

At that point they decided that perhaps they could, after all, sell them to me without that info (but not without a lot of grumbling). That was a couple of years ago. It worked well for them – haven't been back since. Their weekly flyer in the local paper gets dumped unread.

Asking Demanding a phone number is somewhat ubiquitous around here …. I just give a fake to save the hassle …. but I won't go beyond that.

Edited By Bandersnatch on 04/08/2019 01:31:58

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

I'm also a passive resister at Screwfix when I can be (i.e. when I'm not having to order something in for collection). I simply decline to give them an email, a phone number or an address, and I pay in cash. (I have to say that part of my objection is not wanting to divulge my personal details within earshot of the other shoppers waiting behind me in the queue). I always of course ask for a receipt, and make a point of checking with them that the receipt will be valid in spite of my wish to remain anonymous.

They do get sniffy, but when I point out that this was the system in shops everywhere for many years and the retailer never insisted on knowing more about you as a condition of handing over the goods, they tend to acknowledge the reasonableness of my position.

What about CCTV cameras, now? Has anyone taken video footage inside a shop as I have, and been challenged by staff about it, all the time their shop is blithely training CCTV cameras on you?

And while we're at it, what happened to all the shops anyway? Most seem to have been nosed out by "stores"? How long before we go "storing" when we need groceries?

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

The latest generation of supermarket cctv systems are all seeing all of the time. They have 360deg cameras that don't need to train on a particular person.

Your facial (& whole body) image is recorded as you enter the store. The software is then able to track your every move in that store either live or retrospectively.

If they do a stocktake on . . . tinned salmon & find 1x item shortfall, they can go back to the software & it will show them everybody who has taken a tin of salmon. They can then cross referance this with everyone who has payed (or not) for their item at the till. et. voila "here is your thief".

Currently, they are not legally allowed to note the persons name & address if a bank card is used for payment, but some are stoopid enuff to use loyalty cards or volunteer info etc.

Next time you enter the store your facial (&whole body) image is recorded as you enter the store . . . & cross referenced with their database of thieves.

If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear, this is just one of the primary uses of such an advanced cctv system.

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