A few months back I acquired a couple of new rifles. That is nothing strange for me as I have owned guns all my life.
A few days later at least thirty news feeds about guns started showing up.
I have been writing here on the forum about playing by ear for a day or two.
Is it normal for things like this to show up? Is everything we do on the internet being looked at, and decisions of what will appear on MSN made by spying on me? Not that I care, I have nothing to hide, but damn folks. Is nothing private?
Strange stuff,
Billy
Last edited by Planobilly; 12/26/2409:21 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Today, I logged on to this YouTube site about piano instruction.
After a few hours, I got this.
I also asked ChatGPT who Planobilly was, and it returned a bunch of information about my SoundCloud and BIAB accounts, my real name, and where I lived, and people I have played with in the past. There were never any non disclosuer agreements I have made with the government/millitary when I have worked for them. They have no real reason to track me but they do. Homeland showed me part of some files they had on me one day when I cleared coming back into the country in my airplane.
But all this seems very different.
Is all this normal?
Billy
Last edited by Planobilly; 12/26/2409:52 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Is it normal for things like this to show up? Is everything we do on the internet being looked at, and decisions of what will appear on MSN made by spying on me?
There were complaints about a year ago where people were seeing what looked like extremely targeted ads on Facebook, and concluded that Facebook must be listening to their conversations on their phones.
That turned out not to be the case, but the amount of information that's collected via our browsing habits is astonishingly large. I was talking to a co-worker who's working on selling a product that will integrate multiple trackers, and sell targeted ads to users.
I've seen the ear training videos pop up in my feed because I've visited musician-oriented websites, so it's not necessarily as targeted as you think.
Then again, if there's money to be made, no doubt someone will parse out the pages we're visiting to gather even more information.
Does everyone who has a Windows computer have MSN in the taskbar? On mine, there is a cloud with a moon, 64 F, and Mostly Cloudy. When I click on that MSN comes up.
The information contained here is generally emotionally charged subject matter, advertisements for things for sale, and weather information.
I will try to figure out some sort of test to see if it is directly related to something discussed on this site.
Is it illegal to monitor information on a site like P G Music Forum and sell that information to an advertiser?
I don't really care about targeted advertising, although it can sometimes be useful. It just seems strange based on a music forum if that is actually happening.
Billy
Last edited by Planobilly; 12/26/2410:25 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Cookies, Billy, and not the chocolate chip kind. I'll bet your browser allows cookies (most do, they are nearly impossible not to have enabled), and those cookies can watch everything you do. That's largely what they are all about.
I'd start with cookies... When I get asked to install cookies, if it is compulsory (the web page won't load otherwise), I always select 'strictly necessary cookies only', never anything else. More detail on cookies here.
It states this about Tracking Cookies: "Tracking cookies, and especially third-party tracking cookies, are commonly used as ways to compile long-term records of individuals' browsing histories."
There is more info on the Wikipedia website on Tracking Cookies (see link above).
Hope this helps, Trev
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Professional & Windows 11, Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors
Adding to Trev's excellent advice I use FireFox as my browser and it will delete cookies when shut down. There is an exclude list you can make for those sites you use the most, like PGMusic.
This doesn't eliminate the problem but it really cuts down on tracking. YMMV
It takes courage for a man to admit his wife was wrong.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Adding to Trev's excellent advice I use FireFox as my browser and it will delete cookies when shut down. There is an exclude list you can make for those sites you use the most, like PGMusic.
This doesn't eliminate the problem but it really cuts down on tracking. YMMV
I second this. I have Firefox delete all cookies on exit and I close and reopen Firefox between certain sites. I close and reopen both before and after any access to my financial affairs.
I also don't give much information about me personally on social media and the like. I'm cagey about where I live and I try to avoid all the clickbait that asks banal questions, because many are collecting and collating trivia that eventually begins to form a picture. I also deliberately follow things that go on elsewhere to lay false trails. Mostly that seems to keep me fairly private. Not so easy if one has to have a public persona. Yes, I do still get some targetted stuff, mostly about music, sailing, electronics and software.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
If you are on Google, YouTube, Facebook and other sites, remove everything that is personal about yourself. On Facebook, there is nothing personal about me at all, no picture, no birthday, no schools, no interests, etc...
Same thing on Google.
Remove all tracking on Google that you can find.
Use a VPN!!! That is a must.
Download and install OO Shutup and run it. That stops just about all tracking from MicroCrap. The only thing I allow access to is my Microphone in case I do some recording. You have to do research to stop the vast majority of apps tracking you.
My cell phone is for calling only. I don't do YT, Facebook, Mail or other app. That is for my Desktop where I can have more control over it.
Another example, I ordered a guitar from Sweetwater and it tooks months for the ad's to finally trickle off. I learned that if I want to see something on a commercial website like Sweetwater, Amazon, Guitar Center, etc..., I open up the website in a Private Browsing window on Firefox. If you really want to go deeper, you can use TOR. You can't stop it all unless you go a full "Ted Kaczynski" and just drop off the tech grid 100%. You just do what you can to keep the data from feeding back.
BIAB2025 Windows 10 Pro WA6NCB No Longer on a Crappy Laptop!
There are two components to all this. One is the tracking and how to stop it. The other is whether any real danger exists as a result of the tracking.
I assume the type of tracking we are talking about controlling has little to do with actual criminal activity. The solution to possible future criminal issues is being taken care of by other professionals I have had to hire. I had a banking issue where a fraudulent cashier's check was cashed on my business account. That caused a bit of hassle but not a super big deal. It was a good bit of money, $230,000.
I do not have any real problems with the fact that a bunch of music advertising ends up on my MSN feed.
The fact that I live in Florida is well known and easy for anyone to find that information. I am not hiding out any longer even though All My Exes Live In Texas...lol
The advertising tracking idea seems pretty stupid, as I only get the advertising after I have bought something.
I see most people being very secretive about a lot of things, such as health. I had Cancer and was lucky enough to get over it. I can't imagine what value there would be in trying to hide that fact.
All this potential looking over my shoulder, so to speak, just seems a little weird.
If these people who wanted to sell me things were smart, they would just contact me once a month and ask what I needed to buy. Hell, I would be glad for someone to go do all the research I have to do to make buying decisions!
Billy
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Welcome to the new AI world! Their bots are scouring sites day & night for anything they can find to 'improve' their ChatBots. Privacy is nonexistent; it's on the public internet, same as taking a picture of you in public; no right to privacy.
I get how beneficial AI can be, but I also see the intrusive abuse every day. They eat up bandwidth I pay for to scrape unimportant trivia .. <sigh>
I, for one. do not welcome our new overlords, especially the ones making big $$ off other peoples data while they foot half the bill. Did a ground breaking study? That's our data now! Wrote a song? Ours!
</rant off>
Last edited by rharv; 12/27/2403:15 PM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Good point. Just go to the Members List, click 'Who's Online' and see how many bot crawlers are reading posts at any one time:
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Professional & Windows 11, Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.
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MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
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Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
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SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
Join Tobin as he takes you on a tour of the new user interface in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®! This modern GUI redesign offers a sleek new look with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, and a smoother workflow. The brand-new side toolbar puts track selection, the MultiPicker Library, and other essential tools right at your fingertips. Plus, our upgraded Multi-View lets you layer multiple windows without overlap, giving you a highly flexible workspace. Many windows—including Tracks, Piano Roll, and more—have been redesigned for improved usability and a cleaner, more intuitive interface, and more!
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Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!
Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 21 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
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Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Energetic folk rock, raucous train beats, fast country boogies, acid jazz grooves, laid-back funky jams, a bevy of breezy jazz waltzes, calm electro funk, indie synth pop, industrial synth metal, and more bro country than could possibly fit in the back of a pickup truck!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 21 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 21 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
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