Lookit this!
This message popped up on my phone well over a week before my actual birthday. What’s sinister about that is that I never give the internet my real birthday – my internet birthday is April 1. So how did Google Assistant get the real one?
I worry about the growing pervasiveness of Google. The number of times lately I’ve bought something online from some little podunk shop and they send a confirmation number undbidden to my cellphone, which I didn’t give them.
Oh! Why yes, my birthday is a-coming. I’m taking the week off to observe it. I’ll be around – I’m hoping the weather will be nice and I can potter around the garden all week – but I will auto-queue some posts so I don’t have to exercise my little braincell.
Bonus! I get next Monday off to celebrate Charlie’s becrowning.
Posted: May 1st, 2023 under personal.
Comments: 22
Comments
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: May 1, 2023, 5:10 pm
Wait….
…. I’ve already left birfday greetings on the Deadpool thread… wuzat too early?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 1, 2023, 5:36 pm
Ha! I don’t usually read the Dead Pool thread past a certain point. But thank you.
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: May 1, 2023, 5:55 pm
It’s almost like there are hidden tracking pixels on every web page to inform background processes about where we are, where we have been and where we are likely to proceed on the Wonderful Wide Web, idnit?
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: May 1, 2023, 6:30 pm
BRA-A-A-A-A-PPP!
Happy Burpday, Mme. Ermine!
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: May 1, 2023, 9:02 pm
Happy B-Day S. Weasel, many happy returns.
It’s truly frightening how much they know about you. They know where you are at all times, where you go frequently, who you’re with. If you look at stuff on your cell phone, you start seeing related suggestions on your desktop or laptop. Not good in light of how totalitarian they became during the covid fiasco. These are not things we ever consented to, but surely our ‘duly elected representatives’ (*spit*) did the hard work of doing it for us.
Comment from Pupster
Time: May 1, 2023, 9:08 pm
Happy Birth month Stoaty. Let the celebratory sloth commence.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 1, 2023, 9:55 pm
I wish I could upvote you all but I broke the app 🙁
Comment from Armybrat
Time: May 1, 2023, 10:09 pm
First…happy birthday month
Second…several years ago Hubby and I went to Iceland. Like good world travelers we stopped at an ATM upon landing and got a hundred or so dollars in local currency. And then we discovered nobody in Iceland will touch cash. They’re such good socialists they bought the government line about the perils of cash. Easy…all our transactions were easy. When we left we were directed to a lane to collect our VAT refund. They had a neat printout with EVERY transaction we made, including the taxi ride and the beers (yes, a full accounting of each and every penny we spent on alcohol). The clerk looked and said “wow…you enjoyed Iceland!.” Got home and about a month later my MD called and said “let’s talk.” Now he and I happened to run in the same social circle. He was very aware of my habits and the idea that vacation meant we let loose a bit. He sat in my loft with a glass of wine in his hand and said “so I got a call, do we need to talk about this?”
Third…if you want anonymity, cash is the answer…always. Oh! And that hundred or in cash we got in Iceland? You can only spend that cash in the airport. What a racket!
Comment from M
Time: May 1, 2023, 10:20 pm
Armybrat, so Iceland contacted your doctor? Or he just heard from friends about your printout?
Comment from Armybrat
Time: May 1, 2023, 10:39 pm
@M…we didn’t travel with friends. We laughed about our print-out and said “we’ll, we were Vikings I guess!” We used plastic for every transaction. Our Alcohol consumption that trip was FAR less than we had done in Greece, Spain, Italy or any vacation in sunny FL. Apparently we drank enough that the Icelandic government felt the need to notify somebody, who notified somebody, who notified somebody…
Comment from Clifford Skridlow
Time: May 1, 2023, 10:47 pm
Mrs. Skridlow and I are certain that something (we’re leaning towards the cable box as of right now) is listening to what is said in the house. We will choose a product that we have never bought, and don’t really need, fishing waders for example, and make a point to talk about it at least once or twice each day. By week’s end, we will suddenly begin to get previously unseen ads on the television for camping and fishing supplies from a number of stores. Rather unsettling when you think about it . . .
Comment from M
Time: May 1, 2023, 10:48 pm
Armybrat, that’s dystopian.
Comment from Armybrat
Time: May 1, 2023, 11:39 pm
@M…do ya think! We’ve been residents of the Free State of Desantis for almost 3 years so this would have been almost 8 or 9 years ago, far sooner than any of us would have put the tin foil hat on. For the record, my MD at that time has been a friend for almost 15 years, is a regular visitor and we all sit and laugh about this. Every once in a while he’ll look at me and say “how much did you drink?” and my answer is always you should travel with me in the southern PIGS.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: May 2, 2023, 1:05 am
By virtue of hints and such I have come to conclude you and Mrs Durnedyankee share a birthday.
In any event happy approaching birthday!
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: May 2, 2023, 1:20 am
The iPhone told me to turn down my Bluetooth “headphones” the other day, twice.
Except it’s a speaker, and it barely generates a sound loud enough to overcome the sound of a hose spraying water on a truck unless you have it carabinered to your belt, even then you better not be listening to Debussy piano pieces cuz you won’t hear much.
I just wish they’d provided a “click here to tell us to mind our own F***ing business” button.
But you can expect it to get worse and NEVER get better.
Comment from OldFert
Time: May 2, 2023, 1:22 am
Happy birthday/week/month, Stoaty, and many happy returns.
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: May 2, 2023, 2:00 am
And if you can say “Alexa” or “Siri” or any other name of an electronic assistant you know you’re being surveilled.
And that mic in your phone is always on too.
“They don’t listen!” Yeah, sure. It’s just a coincidence the ads showed up!
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: May 2, 2023, 8:21 am
Armybrat – that report from Iceland is, er, chilling. I’ve no doubt “they” collect this information but that’s the first time I’ve heard of it being acted on. How did they find out who your doctor was, though?
Still, a funny lot the Icelanders. One Icelandic medic I consulted some years ago seemed to regard even a mere sniff at the vinegar bottle as a giant stride down the rocky road to ruin. Personally, I think they took that Luther a little too seriously.
As for the ever-listening mics in the living room, that must explain why The Weasel and I keep being sent unsolicited SS uniforms in the post 🙂
Comment from BJM
Time: May 2, 2023, 5:40 pm
Despite our best attempts, we are being assimilated.
In the late 90’s a group of friends began a private Yahoo email group, and we soon noticed that topics were indeed appearing in browser ads, our non-yahoo email and snail mail.
We all know that data mining has been a profit center for at least 30 years, but now it’s morphing into something insidious.
Comment from Mark Matis
Time: May 2, 2023, 9:04 pm
I see there was an explosion near where Charles will be crowned. Looks like someone besides Markle does not like him!
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: May 3, 2023, 12:31 am
What’s hilariously liberal about the Icelandic Karens is they tracked your drinking, but didn’t stop you!
And then somehow got your dad’s phone number, as it were, and called him to tattle on you.
Comment from V4
Time: May 7, 2023, 5:19 am
April Fool’s day, good one.
Mine is Feb 29th.
It used to mean they left me alone four years.
Should be Veeshir. Stupid thumb.
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