Big Brother

Val

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Posts
6,729
Loc
Carson City, Nevada
I hate to be a post-hog, but something is reeaallly bothering me. Recently a friend and I were e-mailing each other through our "private" e-mail adresses. I mentioned briefly about being an oboe player. When she replied, she got a pop-up link to an oboe-reed supplier company, about "Problems With Your Oboe Reeds? Click here". I have never, ever gone to an oboe site, nor has she, to leave behind cookies, etc. And I delete cookies and delete offline content nearly every day. How did that happen? Does someone spy on our personal e-mails? This is really creeping me out. I have shared some pretty personal stuff with my friends through our e-mails, and now wonder to what extent is the spying going on? I know this site is monitored by other than just us framers, but my personal e-mail? Yikes!!
 
I have no idea to what extent our emails are public but I don't think we can ever presume that they are entirely private. Just look at the headlines recently.

I would imagine that anyone who had the desire and means could intercept and read them....not that I think oboe reed manufacturers are in the business of snoping.

But you're right, it is creepy.
 
Perhaps your email provider has an agreement with a marketing firm. I know on Yahoo! auctions for example, Yahoo! eliminated seller auction fees, and instead - when you search for a particular item, sidebars show several 'paid advertisements' - much as you described above, related by keywords you have typed. It's how such services are "free" to the user.

A sign of our times...
shrug.gif
 
Val:

I noticed you use SBC, is this the address you're talking about??

Gmail, from Google (I have 3 accounts there) scans the emails and put adds on the email page.

But no one is reading the Google emails, it is just a scanning program to target Gmail users and places ads (like the ones on the Google search page results).

But I am not aware that SBC is doing the same.
 
Several years ago when I was looking for an e-mail account, I read somewhere where the “free” e-mail accounts came with a price. In order to make it “free”, in the <font size=-40>fine print</font>, one had to agree that the ISP would be able to mine information and sell it.

There is a company named “One-Click”, I think, that harvests information from web site accesses. Perhaps, they are extending their tentacles to e-mails, too.
 
Think of it this way.. Sending plaintext email is like sending a postcard - what type of information do you disclose when mailing a postcard? When do you consider putting the letter in an envelope to resist tampering and to protect your privacy?

If you are really concerned, encrypting e-mail is way to protect your privacy. Entrust (www.entrust.com) has a very good encryptor and you can read more about the services.

ISP's are consistantly trying to find new revenue streams as well as having to protect the information they do have and IMHO, sometimes it is a tight rope that they walk.
 
After I had just signed up with MSN messenger I was chatting and I got a message that said "hey *** (my youngest son's name- an usual one at that) check this out"

When I opened it there was porn in it! Well I freaked out totally (he was only a baby so I know that it wasn't something HE had done). I deleted the program and lived in fear for about a week until my friend asked me why I wasn't on anymore. I told her and apparently she got the very same message - so I just assumed that it was a co-incidence.

Sure did freak me out though!
 
This is a relevant and important topic that belongs on the <strike>geek</strike> technology forum.

There is a reason we are advised to never include sensitive information in our emails (e.g. credit card numbers.)
 
This is why I run SpyBot and Adaware about once a month. Thru the normal course of surfing bots and adware is included in the pages you look at. Most don't directly affect your computer operations (except for the adverse outcomes of the data mining they do) so you may not be aware that they are there running in the background.
Both programs are free and available from download.com.

There is one particularly malicious spybot out there right now called Spyaxe. It is a B@st&&&& to remove. I have had to do it twice for friends and family. Please, please do not click on any windows that pop up saying that you may have spyware or adware on your computer, click here to remove them. Just don't

James
 
That is a bit on the freaky side. I recently had somone email me hat I have never heard of before. I opened it to see what it was about. Must have done some kind of search to find out a hobby of mine. Said they saw my work before and wanted to buy some. Well it turned out to be one of those scam things from some south amercan country. It was scarey, because they kept emailing me as if they met and spoke to me before. But when I asked some kwestions they would not answer. So be careful there is some odd and scarey stuff out there.

Patrick Leeland
 
Paul, yes, my e-mail is SBC. I didn't get the oboe link, my friend did. She has gmail.com.
I just ran my Adaware and anti-spy programs. Hadn't done that in awhile. Even though I delete cookies and offline content files every day, I still had 19 tracking cookies show up. Guess I need to do that more often too, huh? How often does everyone run your Adaware, Anti-Spy programs? And delete cookies?
 
Gmail is up front about doing this, and it was a big subject of controversy when they first went online.
 
Unfortunately "datamining" is a fact of life that in reality cannot be avoided. You just have to be very aware of the "fine print" with the ISPs, email clients, vendors, etc., etc. to protect yourself as best as possible with the data you transmit through those sites.

We have three separate locations, two with dial-up (using a more local type ISP) and one with highspeed cable (Cablevision). We run a Netscape client on all three to minimize the hackers, virus', pop-ups, dataminers, etc. Exploitation always seems more concentrated on Internet Explorer. On the high speed line which is used 12-16 hours a day, with a lot of internet activity, we also run both "Spybot" and "Adaware" at the end of EACH DAY! On the dialups, which we log onto about 2-3 times a day for each system, and have the most emails ... approx 125 to 250 per day ... we run "Spybot" and "Adaware" after EACH SESSION! You can't believe the amount of spyware, etc. that we find each time! (We also run double fire walls, and anti-virus programs.) With this persistence and other procedures, even though many people consider this over-kill and time consuming, knock-on-wood, we have never had a successful hacker or virus/worm attack, nor a loss of sensitive data. Some stuff runs in the background simultaneously while other scans get done while we get a cup of coffee! I guess its the old cliche "Better safe than sorry!!"

Warren
 
Be warned...nothing useful in this post. I'm cruising around the grumble while I wait for some paint to dry on this sunday afternoon. </P>


The subject "Big Brother" caught my attention, and then I saw oboes and patriot act. Well, don't you know that some people think oboes are weapons?! :D

My other thought while reading this thread is that spam and scam are interchangeable.

I think that paint must be dry by now.
Mike
 
Val:

There you have it. Your friend's Gmail programs scanned her email and put up ads about the oboe!

One should run Adaware, SpyBot Search & Destroy and other Anti-Spy programs quite often. If you can do it daily, the better.

And don't forget to keep those uptodate.
 
Our local computer guru has a website for clearing your computer of the nasty stuff.

It is asknick.com and he calls it the Security Tango.

Roz
 
"Watching", 337668? Who is that?! Hey, now you're really freakin' me out!! That's not funny! (I heard you snicker!) Bob?? 'That you?? Who's there?? Identify yourself!! :eek:
 
Interesting...
I never paid too much attention to the sale banners that appear at the top of pages but since I posted on the grumble about training a puppy, I've been getting "puppy banners".

Today it was on puppy training from Iames. Boy, could I use that one!
 
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