Are Online Advertisements Spying on You?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around concerns regarding online advertisements and the perception of being monitored or "spied on" by these ads. Participants share personal experiences and anecdotes related to deceptive advertising practices, tracking mechanisms, and the implications of such surveillance in digital spaces.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express feelings of being excessively targeted by online ads, suggesting a sense of surveillance.
  • There are claims that certain advertisements are misleading or fraudulent, with participants arguing that it should be illegal to deceive consumers into purchasing services.
  • One participant recounts a past experience with a deceptive software service, highlighting the tactics used to instill fear in users.
  • Another participant shares a historical example of a business employing questionable practices to extract money from customers.
  • Concerns are raised about cookie tracking and how it leads to personalized ads based on user behavior across different websites.
  • Some participants share humorous or ironic takes on the idea of being spied on, with one jokingly wishing for attention from potential "stalkers."
  • There are mentions of social media notifications and emails that contribute to the feeling of being monitored, with some expressing frustration over unsolicited contact.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally share a common concern about deceptive advertising and the implications of online tracking, but there is no consensus on the extent or legality of these practices. Multiple competing views on the seriousness and impact of these issues remain present throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference various examples of deceptive practices and tracking mechanisms, but the discussion does not resolve the broader implications or legal aspects of these issues. There is also a mix of serious concerns and lighthearted commentary, reflecting differing perspectives on the topic.

Brainguy
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This, and similar banners seem to be everywhere recently, and it's not the adware on my computer, since I see them at school as well. Is anyone else being spied on as much as I am? because these things are everywhere and I'm getting the feeling that the two people who made this ad are the ones it refers to.
 
Computer science news on Phys.org
I click back to the PF homepage, guess what's at the top of the screen? :0
 
I assume that you're joking and that you know that the ad is bogus. I've also seen the ad, unfortunately there are people that actually think it's real and respond to the ad out of fear. It should be illegal, IMO, to trick people into buying your services.
 
Yeah it should but it may be because of the new law cisp the gvrmtn can "spy" on you and so can companies check the bill; anywyas i wouldn't click a baner that looks like a free virus.
 
Evo said:
It should be illegal, IMO, to trick people into buying your services.

It reminds me of "Clean PC", which for some reason is back in business. It was shut down, or at least warned that it would be shut down, quite a while back. They offer a free check of your system to snoop out worms, viruses, whatever. A consumers' advocacy group took the "test" with a brand new computer that was absolutely free of anything other than the standard system software. Of course, Clean PC reported that it had over a hundred pieces of malware and demanded a huge amount of money to get rid of them.
 
Oh, Jeez, that reminds me of another nasty example. (New post because the edit option on the last one has expired.)
Back in the early-mid 70's, Aamco in Detroit had one hell of an extortion scheme going. They offered free transmission inspections, which they provided as advertised. Then they charged a couple of hundred bucks to reassemble it and put it back in the car!
 
One thing that creeps me out is how many sites are linked to Amazon and items from your wishlist appear as ads on those sites. At first I thought it was a fluke but later discovered that there's some form of cookie tracking in use.

It also happened on Ars Technica where Ars seemed to know people in my friends list who have posted Ars articles on their feeds.

We need browsers with full enduser control to stop this kind of tracking.
 
With respect to Clean PC there was a similar scam where the checker would encrypt your files and demand payment before it would decrypt them.
 
I once had an interesting time with a special virus I will never forget. It was truly ingenious. See, my Norton subscription was up, and before I renewed it I was going about my daily internet filled life (after school of course). I don't remember exactly what happened, but here are a couple of things it had and did:

A fake BSOD: (Seriously, it was funny) A full-screen window would instantly open (covering the taskbar and everything, it was flawless), but not like when you full-screen a picture or game and the screen turns black for a second or two before displaying the image. You just had to hit escape, and it would minimize, then left click the icon to close it.

A fake start-up sequence tailored to your operating system: Same as above, but you could ACTUALLY log in, and all your files were "corrupted" or "moved" (A little message would also be on the bottom of the windows boot sequence that read "(I forgot the name of the virus) has restarted your systen on a attempt to protect your data". Pressing "Escape" five times would minimize it and it would instantly close.

Keeping your programs from opening: This is the best one yet. If you had ANY programs open, they would function flawlessly, until you closed them. Then, at whatever point you decided to reopen them a small message would pop up on your screen, making the "windows error" noise saying "The file you tried to open is infected. (program name) has terminated the operation" unless it was Internet Explorer... which was pretty funny.

All I had to do was restart in safe mode, renew my subscription and run a virus scan and it was gone. No harm done to my computer or my psyche, although if it had happened to a relatively computer illiterate person, they likely would have caved instantly.
 
  • #10
Brainguy said:
[...]I'm getting the feeling that the two people who made this ad are the ones it refers to.

Just so we're all clear... I'm constantly spying on everyone.

I don't know who the other guy is.
 
  • #11
Brainguy said:
15004900429758165634.png


This, and similar banners seem to be everywhere recently, and it's not the adware on my computer, since I see them at school as well. Is anyone else being spied on as much as I am? because these things are everywhere and I'm getting the feeling that the two people who made this ad are the ones it refers to.

:eek: One time I saw that I was being spied on by 17 people!:eek:
 
  • #12
I wish that someone would spy on me. I guess I'm not interesting enough!
 
  • #13
phosgene said:
I wish that someone would spy on me. I guess I'm not interesting enough!

I just looked at your bio, and you appear to be male based upon your hobbies. Therefore you are correct; you are not interesting to me. Get a sex change and call me back.
 
  • #14
But for the price of a sex change, I could be paying multiple meth addicts to stalk me and camp outside my window. I'm not sure that it's worth it.
 
  • #15
Coolguy100 said:
:eek: One time I saw that I was being spied on by 17 people!:eek:

That reminds me I am constantly getting e-mails from Facebook asking me if I know Betsy Fudrucker, Danny Limbserlost, and 14 other people.

I would block them but that is about the only e-mails I get.:shy:
 
  • #16
edward said:
That reminds me I am constantly getting e-mails from Facebook asking me if I know Betsy Fudrucker, Danny Limbserlost, and 14 other people.

I would block them but that is about the only e-mails I get.:shy:

Same Here:-p
 
  • #17
phosgene said:
I'm not sure that it's worth it.

I'm pretty sure that you're right about that. (I'm not the kind of stalker that you'd want, anyway. :devil:)

edward said:
I would block them but that is about the only e-mails I get.:shy:
I still can't believe that anyone with an ounce of brains would ever become involved with FaceBook, it I'll let it slide.
If you and Coolguy want to be up to your asses in e-mails, just subscribe to a thread here on PF. I'm still trying, with no success, to eradicate those subscriptions.
 

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