Spam & new Data Regulations

[AgedCrone]

This is the article ....sounds like I may have the same problem as the writer!

[Tessthomy]

Oh wow. So it’s becoming quite a problem then! X

[hatshepsut]

Don't think there is an easy solution. I try not to post anything too personal, especially on Facebook. I do get angry when using HU and private health services are advertised. Don't think this should be allowed

[AgedCrone in reply to hatshepsut]

I'm not on any 'social' websites...sort must be from car insurance companies or any company I have searched on line

Dammit......does that mean I have to go to the shops now!

[PFKAAde in reply to AgedCrone]

Well, you’re on one now...

Google are one of the biggest harvesters of your data also. Whenever you make searches on google it adds it all to the data they hold on you and it all goes together to create the profile that they use to target you with ads. That’s mainly how they make money.

So the fact that you searched for ‘car insurance’ in May means next year around that time of year you will likely be targeted by just that. Google sell these types of data to advertisers and they are way more successful when sending 1000 ads to people they know with some degree of confidence will be looking for their product at that point in time. Send me an ad to car insurance when I’ve just renewed and it’s a wasted ad, do it before and it has a much better chance of working. That is basically what it’s all about, has been for years and will always be to some extent in a digital world.

They aren’t bothered about you, as such - just what you might buy (or who you might vote for) and when you might buy it. Search for ‘chronic back pain’ and you are a suitable target for a lot of potential companies.

GDPR may well be a pain in the bum, but it is there to protect you from those that want to profile you without your knowledge and / or consent - and they are many.

🙏🏻

[AgedCrone in reply to PFKAAde]

I thought if you were in Private Browsing that eliminated companies holding your search details!

So much for that information then....from my supposedly tech savvy friend!

The laugh is my car insurance doesn't run out in May...that's when I bought the car & I just paid the difference on my present insurance to transfer my old car insurance to the new car....which I do through a broker not on Line. Plus all this Spam is from the US in $'s!

I then looked on line to see how much the new car would cost to insure when it is due......

I'd love to enter all sorts of fictitious searches to drive Google mad...but of course then I'd get even more Spam emails!

Grrrrrr!!!

[PFKAAde in reply to AgedCrone]

Private mode doesn’t hide your IP address so they will use that to identify you. There are all sorts of tricks that can be used to create a profile for the purposes of targeting you with advertising.

If by spam you mean emails then that doesn’t come from google, it just means that your email address is on a list somewhere. I get loads that are in dollars for all sorts of things, strangely they all seemed to start around the same time and are for things as diverse as walk-in baths, CBD gummies, replacement windows, etc etc. Email addresses don’t even need to be known, they just guess combinations of names and stick them all before a valid email address, so [e-mail] where the yourname bit is guessed. Any that don’t get returned as undeliverable are to a valid address....

[AgedCrone in reply to PFKAAde]

That sounds just like the Rubbish I'm getting . Trouble is you can't get an email address for the companies...just a snail mail address. I've had friends in the US try to trace the name & address they put on the email if you want to unsubscribe....but it doesn't exist!

I wonder how they got my real name though unless they somehow hacked into something with my name on it because? it's not a usual name.

Ah well who really cares.......I guess nothing will stop all this "progress"! Huh!

[PFKAAde in reply to AgedCrone]

Once you send an email it can be intercepted and the address can then be used (along with the contents read). You should, in theory, treat emails like postcards. So if you wouldn’t write it on a postcard, don’t put it in an email. People (including myself) use them for all sorts of ‘private’ things these days though. I tend to be of the opinion that do I really care if a third party knows what medication I take, for example. Or what my diagnosis is?

Once an email is in the hands of someone looking for email addresses then any other addresses that appear within the history of the email are also then known. In other words you can’t keep email addresses totally secure no matter how hard you try.

And whatever you do DON’T click unsubscribe or any other link in spam emails as you have no idea what it links to. And never reply, download anything etc. I just delete spam and forget it. Not much else you can do.

🙏🏻

[AgedCrone in reply to PFKAAde]

Yes I kind of worked out if you unsubscribe you are just confirming you are there! I just put them in trash & delete that box every night!

My only fear is when I have a real rant about A to B....A somehow receives it!

But I won't bank on line....I'm far too computer illiterate to trust myself with my money on line.

I still don't understand why some people hand over their debit card &

Pin number to a complete stranger who knocks on their front door, just because another complete stranger saying he is a policeman/bank manager makes a phone call.

I won't even admit I'm me on the phone!

[GranAmie]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaah bless. does labelling it 'junk' and then deleting , help at all. xx

[PFKAAde in reply to GranAmie]

It’s all you can do. It helps in the sense that you won’t see any more mails that are sent from the same address, but they change that address for that very reason, a bit like the way those phone calls from ‘microsoft’ (that aren’t really from Microsoft) change the number that they appear to be calling from.

Trust nobody and nothing as a default position, until they have proven themselves trustworthy. After that only trust them until they steal your money 😂

Not funny really but you get the drift.

🙏🏻

[GranAmie]

doing the above 'trains' yr machine to recognise it as junk , but u still have to delete it. xx