Targeted Ads Spying through Camera

I’ve had a few really weird instances where something popped up on social media that was so uncanny.

For example, I had purchased an oven mitt from William Sonoma. I loved it but it was looking a little old, I thought to myself I need to get a new one. Low an behold what shows up as a targeted ad. The exact mitt. I didn’t search for it, I didn’t talk about it, I merely thought about it.

So today I was cleaning my bathroom. I had a small jar of face cream. I didn’t like the cream but the jar was so cute so I decided to wash it out and am going to reuse it for travel. I was watching some Investigation Discover and my tablet was facing me. I had the camera covered previously but the cover fell off.

I finish what I am doing and what shows up…………
www.berlinpackaging.com...

This is no coincidence, this is literally the exact same JAR!
It got me thinking. I think these sites, especially FB are spying, and then put “targeted ads” so you’ll click and they will make money.
It doesn’t matter so much that you are buying the item, they make money per click. Of course if you are buying even better.

With so many things with cameras we are being watched 24/7. Our tvs, our phones, our tablets, our laptops, computers, etc….
It is really sickening when you think about it.

The weird thing is when it is viewing us there must be some kind of interpretation of expressions, or something as it zeroed in on that empty jar.

a reply to: JAGStorm

This has happened to me twice in the last couple weeks. I did not previously look up the items. Did not talk about the items. All I did was think of them. Went straight to the tablet to look them up, and the there the ads were. It’s a very unsettling feeling.

I’m not cool with people reading my mind.

a reply to: JAGStorm

You're not the first that I've heard this from.

Does your camera have a light that comes on to show that it is working?

My computers have the camera inside, and I have to pop it out for it to work. I often forget to pop it out whenever I am in a meeting or on a video call.

originally posted by: tamusan
a reply to: JAGStorm

You're not the first that I've heard this from.

Does your camera have a light that comes on to show that it is working?

My computers have the camera inside, and I have to pop it out for it to work. I often forget to pop it out whenever I am in a meeting or on a video call.

No light. I wouldn’t have even connected the two if I hadn’t have had the tablet facing directly toward me and realized what it was seeing.

a reply to: JAGStorm

For example, I had purchased an oven mitt from William Sonoma. I loved it but it was looking a little old, I thought to myself I need to get a new one. Low an behold what shows up as a targeted ad. The exact mitt. I didn’t search for it, I didn’t talk about it, I merely thought about it.

It's all very metaphysical Jag. You expressed an internal desire and had no resistance to it, so the universe answered.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I am testing now. Putting my camera on a bottle of a specific supplement my kid buys and I don't to see if I get an add for it or that brand in the next couple of days.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: JAGStorm

This has happened to me twice in the last couple weeks. I did not previously look up the items. Did not talk about the items. All I did was think of them. Went straight to the tablet to look them up, and the there the ads were. It’s a very unsettling feeling.

I’m not cool with people reading my mind.

I had wondered about it reading our brainwaves, but I actually think that is probably not it. It’s all the cameras!
I seriously think it can read out expression. Maybe when I looked at that jar I raised my eyebrows, or smiled or looked at it for x amount of time. Something triggered the ad.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I had my laptop camera uninstall, from the beginning, but I experience the same thing while watching my Roku TV, they use targeted adds.

Is weird and I feel been watched.

Do not like it at all.

Our nation has been run by entities that are getting out of control and nobody in government is making laws to keep the citizens safe from their intrusion.

originally posted by: infolurker
a reply to: JAGStorm

I am testing now. Putting my camera on a bottle of a specific supplement my kid buys and I don't to see if I get an add for it or that brand in the next couple of days.

I don’t think it works like that. If that were the case there would be ads for my toothpaste, and shampoo, and towels etc.
I think it was the act of me holding the jar and making an expression.

Soooooo Try this. Empty the bottle a bit. Then sit down and shake it and look at it like you need to get it refilled soon.

a reply to: tamusan

I used to have a webcam that was being remotely accessed by someone and they were able to disable the light.

I flipped them off and don't use my webcam anymore.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: KKLOCO
a reply to: JAGStorm

This has happened to me twice in the last couple weeks. I did not previously look up the items. Did not talk about the items. All I did was think of them. Went straight to the tablet to look them up, and the there the ads were. It’s a very unsettling feeling.

I’m not cool with people reading my mind.

I had wondered about it reading our brainwaves, but I actually think that is probably not it. It’s all the cameras!
I seriously think it can read out expression. Maybe when I looked at that jar I raised my eyebrows, or smiled or looked at it for x amount of time. Something triggered the ad.

Interesting. For me one time was an ad. The other time I went to google to search something I’ve never searched before. I typed in one freaking letter to google and it auto-populated the rest of the sentence exactly as I would have written it. And it was not a common search.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Just wanted to let everyone know on some tech there are multiple cameras and you might just be covering the obvious one.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Cover your cameras and microphones at all times you're not using them. Also, check into Pi-hole, black holes DNS requests you don't want going out. It doesn't 100% help, but it gets most of the job done.

a reply to: JAGStorm
Thanks for posting this!
I don't use social media, reject all cookies etc, and I have a small black 'sticky square' of tape on all cameras, except for the one that looks at me everyday in my hand!
I've never taken a selfie lol, just forgot it was there, but after reading your OP, it is now covered, so any spooks will have to rely on voice recordings instead!😱

Seriously, thanks for making me realise, and correct, an obvious schoolboy error...for an ATS member to make ffs!!!🤣

There are phone apps that access a lot of your info if you're not careful. There was a story among the tech crowd recently about a seemingly 'harmless' app that would snag your list of contacts as soon as it was downloaded. The app had location tracking and some other features that I would consider stalker-ware. Of course, the app makers were selling user's data to corporations.


If you use an Android phone, I'd recommend downloading the free app GeekyTools. It will tell you if there spy apps, or generally unfriendly apps on your phone.

Predictive algorithms are very good at predicting. That said, I don't think you need to worry about your camera watching you consistently. Moving video over the wire is bandwidth intensive. You cant hide when it's happening. Processing video for pattern recognition client side (your device) and sending meta data could be hidden, but youd notice something was off the moment you picked your device up and it burned a hole through your hand from attempting to run recognition on (relatively) micky mouse compute. Itd be too slow.

The devices that listen for commands on the other hand, probably shouldn't have those in the house if you're worried.

a reply to: KKLOCO

Interesting. For me one time was an ad. The other time I went to google to search something I’ve never searched before. I typed in one freaking letter to google and it auto-populated the rest of the sentence exactly as I would have written it. And it was not a common search.

Lemme guess “Is it safe to use a cucumber for….”

i have m0zilla running.
i have FOUR adbl0kers running.
it takes m0zilla a few minutes to 'start up' when i turn on my pc.

totally worth it.

i have no adz here, no adz on utube, no adz on my sports or movie or toy newz websites, no adz anywhere.

install them. who cares if some websites blok you.

you can always 'nuke anything' that pops up saying 'turn off adblok'

also, if the website refuses you, you can try to look at the cache version to see the report.

but most times i just skip it lol, because the adbloker guys are constantly working to workaround those adbloker blokers.

originally posted by: drongosrevenge
i have m0zilla running.
i have FOUR adbl0kers running.
it takes m0zilla a few minutes to 'start up' when i turn on my pc.

totally worth it.

i have no adz here, no adz on utube, no adz on my sports or movie or toy newz websites, no adz anywhere.

install them. who cares if some websites blok you.

you can always 'nuke anything' that pops up saying 'turn off adblok'

also, if the website refuses you, you can try to look at the cache version to see the report.

but most times i just skip it lol, because the adbloker guys are constantly working to workaround those adbloker blokers.

For the sites that detect you're using ad blocking extensions you can still browse most of the content (most are basic client side checks) by finding the responsible script / function and overwriting it to just return true. Disabling js works too, but youd likely need to find the element that prevents the site from rendering without js and modify that too (most sites)

Ever notice that when you get a new car you suddenly see that make of car everywhere. My daughter has a cream mini with a black roof, I see loads every day and before she got it I saw none.

Well the truth is I didn’t notice and I assume a similar thing is happening here. loads of ads appear on screens all of the time, you just noticed the ones you wanted to see.

I saw an interesting show on tv some years ago. They took people and showed them a surveillance photo of a launch site. Then they wired them up with sensors on their heads and asked them to watch a screen with very fast moving photos that moved a little too fast to really take in. They were asked to look for launch sites. Strange thing is they saw almost or none, their brain however showed that they saw many many more.

My point, our brain sees much more than it gives us. it just gives us the edited highlights.