Test reveals that web sites target you for ads

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Websites have the ability to look at your search history and are able to select ads for you specifically. And sometimes they might be able to listen to your conversations in real life.

A problem with computers recently is the fact that they are getting so advanced they can listen in on our conversations, look at our searches, and look what you do. Based on this, they can find out who we are. That can be scary for many people because they don’t want their information to be given to people on the internet, which is essentially what is happening.

A test was conducted among the triton voice staff and what was found was mixed in results. The staff tested two different ideas. The first was a test of search results on YouTube and google. Multiple searches for a game were made the ads were checked both before the video and on the sides of the page. The ads were for the game that had been searched all those times. The other test that was conducted one based on voice. When around the device used what was being said was directly related to one subject. When looking for the ads later for what was said nothing was fine. This could have been for many different reasons such as not having “hey Siri” on so that the device was not directly listening.

A test was conducted on YouTube and the finding was ads for many things very similar to what had been searched. The test was conducted by user Neville, Neville took his wife’s phone and left Facebook open on it. He then began to talk about cats and cat food while the app was open. Notably Neville and his wife have never had a cat, Neville conducted this test over the course of three days. His results found cat food ads all over Facebook, meaning that there is a strong chance that Facebook had been listening.

One senior Lucas Connatser does not like the fact that people could be finding out things about him he said. “It’s against the rules written by our founding fathers, it’s time to stop”. This seems to be a very common response to anyone that is told that these things are a possibility. One Junior Quentin Callewaert said “I think that blatantly intrudes people’s privacy.”

One Junior Ethan Tougas thought something a little different though. Tougas said “I think it’s kind of creepy, but I am fine with it because I know it happens. There’s nothing I can do about it.” he takes the stance of giving into it as a societal norm which is essentially true.

This is a scary concept to think about. To think that people are learning things about you so they can exploit it. Ways that you can avoid this happening is by turning off anything that makes the device ambiently listening for keywords. Other than that the only way to avoid search history use try to use private browsers and tabs.