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There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB #835883 12/26/24 09:21 PM Off-Topic
Joined: Jul 2015 Posts: 2,738 Gulf Of Mexico As Of Late Planobilly OP Veteran
OP Planobilly Veteran Joined: Jul 2015 Posts: 2,738 Gulf Of Mexico As Of Late	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; 12/26/24 09:21 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…”

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB Planobilly #835884 12/26/24 09:37 PM Off-Topic
Joined: Jul 2015 Posts: 2,738 Gulf Of Mexico As Of Late Planobilly OP Veteran
OP Planobilly Veteran Joined: Jul 2015 Posts: 2,738 Gulf Of Mexico As Of Late	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; 12/26/24 09:52 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…”

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB Planobilly #835885 12/26/24 09:57 PM Off-Topic
Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 8,143 Sacramento, California dcuny Veteran
dcuny Veteran Joined: Sep 2010 Posts: 8,143 Sacramento, California	Originally Posted by Planobilly 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. -- David Cuny My virtual singer development blog Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing? BiaB 2025 \| Windows 11 \| Reaper \| Way too many VSTis.

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB Planobilly #835890 12/26/24 10:20 PM Off-Topic
Joined: Jul 2015 Posts: 2,738 Gulf Of Mexico As Of Late Planobilly OP Veteran
OP Planobilly Veteran Joined: Jul 2015 Posts: 2,738 Gulf Of Mexico As Of Late	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; 12/26/24 10:25 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…”

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB Planobilly #835896 12/27/24 12:42 AM Off-Topic
Joined: Jun 2012 Posts: 21,029 Melbourne, Australia AudioTrack Veteran
AudioTrack Veteran Joined: Jun 2012 Posts: 21,029 Melbourne, Australia	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 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB AudioTrack #835915 12/27/24 05:43 AM Off-Topic
Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 24,302 Hamlin NY MarioD Veteran
MarioD Veteran Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 24,302 Hamlin NY	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 think my wife has started to show the first signs of dementia. She said she can't remember what she ever saw in me! 64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB MarioD #835930 12/27/24 07:38 AM Off-Topic
Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,625 Hampshire, UK Gordon Scott Veteran
Gordon Scott Veteran Joined: Jan 2015 Posts: 2,625 Hampshire, UK	Originally Posted by MarioD 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 .

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB Planobilly #835942 12/27/24 09:22 AM Off-Topic
Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 1,050 Springfield, MO J Joseph Land Expert
Joseph Land Expert J Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 1,050 Springfield, MO	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. BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB Planobilly #835949 12/27/24 10:29 AM Off-Topic
Joined: Jul 2015 Posts: 2,738 Gulf Of Mexico As Of Late Planobilly OP Veteran
OP Planobilly Veteran Joined: Jul 2015 Posts: 2,738 Gulf Of Mexico As Of Late	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…”

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB Planobilly #835987 12/27/24 03:11 PM Off-Topic
Joined: May 2000 Posts: 22,463 Mi., USA rharv Veteran
rharv Veteran Joined: May 2000 Posts: 22,463 Mi., USA	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; 12/27/24 03:15 PM. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB rharv #836002 12/27/24 05:06 PM Off-Topic
Joined: Jun 2012 Posts: 21,029 Melbourne, Australia AudioTrack Veteran
AudioTrack Veteran Joined: Jun 2012 Posts: 21,029 Melbourne, Australia	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: Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in) 2024-12-28_11-54-48.jpg (26.34 KB, 25 downloads) BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.

Re: There is a MSN feed on my computer feeding me info from BB Planobilly #836018 12/27/24 07:37 PM Off-Topic
Joined: May 2000 Posts: 22,463 Mi., USA rharv Veteran
rharv Veteran Joined: May 2000 Posts: 22,463 Mi., USA	Surprised your image doesn't show ChatGPT or Claude .. must be using CloudFlare <grin> Last edited by rharv; 12/27/24 08:46 PM. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!

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