They watch.

I know this isn't really news, but I just had my nose rubbed in it.

I drive an old pickup that has a small crew cab with jump seats. There's a small back door for access, and the door latch cable ends are made of a plastic that gets old and brittle. I searched on Amazon and found that this is such a standard problem that there are aftermarket replacements made of metal. I ordered a set half an hour ago.

I just went on Youtube and it offered me an installation video for them. Unprompted.

 

I had a Chevy S-10 for about three years. After the third time the plastic cab door latch broke, I said fuck it, traded it in for a Toyota 4-door Prerunner. I'd had enough.

 

All components of General Motors doors in the 1990s were complete garbage.

I had a Trans Am that required a new power window motor three times.

 

You think you've private lives
Think nothing of the kind
There is no true escape
I'm watching all the time

 

I'm not sure how Samsung/Verizon or Windows is able to figure out what I want from conversations that don't involve them, but I'm guessing there are very smart programmers who get paid a lot of money to let companies eavesdrop, all perfectly legit I'm certain.

 

There is no evidence companies are eavesdropping.

Frankly, they don't have to. With cookies and device fingerprinting and other ways of data collecting, they get all the info they want and are able to attach it to you.

That data allows algorithms to correctly predict your interests.

So you may have a conversation in which you say, for example, need to buy oil. You may not do a search for engine oil, but you see an ad for Mobile 1.

It isn't because your phone or computer was eavesdropping. It's because of years of data collection leads an algorithm to guess you're interested in oil at a particular moment.

 

The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
...
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me

 

I think I’ve mentioned this here, but maybe 5 years ago on a text chain with my law school friends, one of the guys mentioned that he had bought Allen Edmonds shoes on a crazy discount. I knew vaguely that they were very expensive but I never did a web search for those shoes once. For the next few weeks, I was constantly bombarded with banner ads for that brand.