I
have debated with myself on whether to post about this because
1. it’s really, really creepy
2. some people in this world probably already
think I’m c-r-a-z-y
3. I’m not sure anyone will believe me
So…are
you intrigued???? This really did happen,
y’all…honestly! The details are a little
convoluted but I’ll “try” to make it simple.
Back
in Feb. hubby and I attended a big high school reunion. Our school had a very popular “boy band” back
in the day and the reunion was put on by them…and extremely well attended I
might add. What a fabulous time we
had….but I digress!!!! (Yep, I tend to
do that!)
Anyway…earlier
this week one of my best friends (Jerri from high school) sent me a photo of
her and another lady that was taken at the reunion, only Jerri didn’t remember
who this gal was! Jerri has a fabulous
memory so why she was asking me (who doesn’t have one!), I have no
clue!!!! The lady had on a nametag which
we could clearly see said SUS…but that’s all we could see.
Thinking
the mystery might be solved I emailed Jerri and gave her the names. Yep…feeling rather smug at this
point…Detective Cheri to the rescue.
(Just so you know, I was wrong on both!!!)
Side
bar: On FB sometimes you will get a
“FRIEND REQUEST” meaning that person wants to be able to follow you on FB and
see your posts. (Great way of keeping up
with old friends.) HOWEVER….I am pretty
sure FB often is the one sending out some of these requests because I’ve gotten
requests from people who would never want to follow me (I mean, why would a
local teenager want to follow an old lady like me?)
OK…back
to my story. So…I get on FB and the
first thing I see is I have a new friend request. I click on that button and what do I
see???? A friend request from SUSAN #1
(one of the gals that I had emailed Jerri about)! Just
in case I haven’t made myself clear…
How
did FACEBOOK know that I had just recently emailed this person’s name to my
friend???????????????? It was as if
someone had read my email!!!!! Or is
there some way FB knows when I type in a name??? I called my son (younger folks know so much
more about technology) and he said something (which I didn’t understand) about
“algorithms” but then he said, “Mama, Big Brother is out there more than you
think.” Now that REALLY scares me. He told me to change my FB password which I
did!!!!!
Folks,
I am not making this stuff up…I’m not THAT creative! I decided to post about it just to 1. give
some food for thought and 2. maybe issue a warning that we all need to be
careful and prudent these days about what we put into cyber space.
And
just so you know “it’s not just me” with craziness like this….
A
good friend recently told me her experience:
she was walking into her kitchen, looking down at her ipad, when all of
a sudden this popped up on her screen:
“Watch where you are going.” Then
it quickly disappeared. Creepy,
right????? And, no she’s not crazy
either!!!
Amendment:
After writing this post I emailed my friend in TX and told her all this. She works for a big oil company and is so smart! Anyway, she emailed back also saying something about "algorithms" and "artificial intelligence" and sent me this video to watch. WOW! WOW! WOW! Evidently I've been living in the dark. You REALLY REALLY need to watch THIS VIDEO!!!!
Amendment:
After writing this post I emailed my friend in TX and told her all this. She works for a big oil company and is so smart! Anyway, she emailed back also saying something about "algorithms" and "artificial intelligence" and sent me this video to watch. WOW! WOW! WOW! Evidently I've been living in the dark. You REALLY REALLY need to watch THIS VIDEO!!!!
OK,
comments, anyone?????
Next
thing you know I’ll be posting about little green men landing in my backyard…
That's pretty weird. FB's algorithm does track your online searches. That's why you might suddenly see an ad for a pair of shoes you might have just looked at the day before at an online site. It shouldn't track email correspondence. So, if you were looking up Susan 1 or 2 during your detective work, it might have figured that out. But how that got to the friending thing is a mystery. How about Susan 1 was maybe thinking about the reunion, saw your photo or saw that you commented on a mutual friend's post and thought, "I should friend her." I'm inclined to think that's what happened there and it was just weird timing!
ReplyDeleteJeanie, thanks for your thoughts but I think it would have just been too big of a coincidence for "Susan" to have wanted to be my friend right after I typed her name in an email. My theory now is that there is a whole lot we don't know about the technologies we use!!!
DeleteI know that "big brother" is definitely watching, and it is just going to get worse as time goes by. So yes, we need to be careful what we look at, write about, etc., if we don't want it to come back to haunt us! But, in any case, maybe you made a new friend!
ReplyDeletePamela, I think you are right...unfortunately!!! Sure is scary.
DeleteI'm not surprised.
ReplyDeleteYou weren't???? I think I've been living in the dark. Evidently I have missed what's going on in the cyber world. I knew it could track my online shopping and place ads all over everywhere, but I didn't have any idea anything like this could happen!!
DeleteThat's crazy! I have seen ads pop up for something that I had searched on-line. WOW, big brother is watching and I don't really like it. Have a blessed day dear friend, HUGS!
ReplyDeleteI have known about those ads (think that's what those "cookies" are about), but I never realized how indepth we are tracked!!! If you didn't watch the video I referred to, you really should.
DeleteThis is SO true you are not alone. It seems the same with phones. My husband and I were AT home discussing where we want to eat AFTER we go to the farm. We decided on Panera Bread. We drove to the farm and the minute he turned off the car, his phone piped up and said, 'Rate Panera Bread' Ok this was soooo weird. We hadn't even gone there yet but we talked about it. His phone was listening. Yeah, those Alexia and Google devices are not good to have in the home. They are silent listeners and take everything in.
ReplyDeleteThis would have freaked me out!!!! A friend from TX just basically told me the same thing that happened to you happened to her awhile back. Makes me paranoid!!!
DeleteI've had lots of things pop up after I've googled something. The funniest thing that happened to me was when a new surgeon started working and he was a bit difficult to get along with. I was sitting at lunch with some other nurses and I made a statement that I wished he would just go back to Egypt where he came from. About a second later an ad came up on FB for "Egyptian Vanishing Cream"! I laughed so hard but another funny thing happened. He actually turned out to be a good guy and we all love him now so I guess he did vanish in a way!
ReplyDeleteNow that is FUNNY!!!! Yet scary. I had absolutely NO idea that weird things like this happen and that "somebody" is often listening. I have been in the dark for sure!!!!
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ReplyDeleteYup. It's scary and it's all out there. We've had so many instances like this...where we just talking about topics that then pop up on our computer. Someone we know works for a very high tech company employed by the government and says nothing is private...they are always "listening"...turn of Siri and never get an Amazon Alexa they told us...creepy!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that info!!! I don't own Alexa and never use Siri...now I'm really glad. Of course, if anyone wants to listen to my boring life they will stay asleep most of the time!!!
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