Originally Posted By: MarioD
Some must think that I am the biggest cross-dresser east of the Mississippi River.


And many of us knew before this revelation...

As far as targeted ads, let me share this story and see who gets it.

A couple of years ago, when I was going to buy my trailer, I called the manufacturer and got an exact measurement from back to front of tongue and between the outside of the wheel wells. When my friend was here we went to the garage and measured to see if that thing would fit sideways in my garage if I wiggled it to get it in there. Length worked out that I had 5 inches to spare. Width, however, was too deep so I would not be able to back my car in far enough that the garage door would still close. I softly cursed as I said "I guess I have to pull it alongside the driveway, which is okay because it will have a solar panel on it and it should stay in the sun anyway."

My friend said "Isn't it great that our lives are SO good that THIS kind of thing is a problem for us?"

From that, take this. Most of us have many instruments and capable home studios. Is some web page running and ad for Pampers REALLY a problem? That is in no way tied to any kind of "privacy" issue as most make it. If your phone hears you buy a Heath bar, does that allow anybody to track your location and get the pin to your credit card?

WHY is this world so angry that people look for reasons to be mad ab out something? Unless you are Brain from "Pinky and the Brain" and you are planning "to take over the world" who cares The same people that complain about "my phone listens to me" will happily sit in a restaurant and take a phone call on speaker.

I'd also like to share this. I was walking the dog and up at the end of my street was a guy I know well enough to wave to loading suitcases into the car. And with a laugh I said "Ah. She finally wised up and tossed you out, eh?" And he laughed and told me (after his laugh) "Nah. We're heading down to Florida to see how much we can see in some of the parks since Covid has the attendance limited everywhere in the world." And I asked "So a day down, a day back, what are you staying, 4-5 days?" He told me 4. Now, were I the type that is into nefarious activity, in that short conversation I now know that their house will be empty for 6 days, and I could call "my boys" to kick the back door in and rob him. So what did more damage, his phone sending him ads based on key words it heard or that 45 second social engineering conversation?

If you accept that your phone is listening to you, it is not RECORDING you. It is listening for keywords that relate to products sold by people who have paid to have their word entered into a database. So in Herb's example, Hershey would have paid to have the names of their 80 something candy bars made by Hershey, noted the MAC address of the phone, which gives them the name of the person who owns it, which gives them a related email address, and then targeted ads are sent. Nobody knows it's Herb. They just know that some email address holder bought a Heath bar on some phone while using some MAC address. The step that people assume is that your phone is recording every word you say as if they are gathering intel to arrest you for something. I mean, c'mon now. Those are probably the same people who think the Covid vaccine contains something that allows some master of spy technology can sit at a screen and track your every step.


I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.