Google is watching

[darkemeralds]

I've just started using gmail as my regular email address.

Call me naive, but I'm dismayed to discover that it reads your email and advertises to you according to what you communicate about. I mentioned Rebecca Fine, Wallace Wattles, and "The Science of Getting Rich" in passing in an email to roseambr and here's what the sidebar looked like when I next looked:



Make $18,000 in One Day?
Act Fast Be The First In Your Area Automated + Residuals + No Selling.
www.YourLegacyMentors.com

What Law of Attraction?
How does it Really work? Learn the truth, avoid pitfalls
TheSecretLawOfAttractionSuccess.com

Free Think and Grow Rich
Audio Book plus Additional Personal Development Bonuses
www.FreeThinkandGrowRichMP3.com

...and so on.

So I sent this to myself at another address:

Subject: Loneliness
Text: I'm so happy to know you've found someone. I wish I could get a date! I'd like to meet a nice man, someone who likes the same kinds of things I do, and settle down. I've heard that online dating can be effective, but you're honestly the only person I know who has had success with it. Let me know what dating service you were using and how it all works.

Here's what my sidebar looks like now:

Signs He Likes You
Don’t Go Here Unless You’re Serious About Understanding Men!
www.Understand-How-Men-Think.net

Free Teen Dating Site
Browse Profiles and Make Your Own. Find a Local Hottie. Totally Free!
www.eSpin.com

Public Relations Mgmt.
Double Your PR Productivity with PR Software From Vocus. Free Demo!
www.vocus.com



That's just creepy.

Comments

[decemberleaf.livejournal.com]

"Oh my God that's just hilarious. Though sobering, because as you say, you were posting a comment in my LJ, not even emailing me."

Sobering is right! What to do about it? Stop commenting? Damn!. Maybe. Maybe just pick up threads in another way: instead of commenting, simply post something eventually that relates to the original LJ entry?

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I think tehomet was probably posting her comment through a gmail interface. I always post directly into LJ (as I'm doing right now) and I think that's a little cleaner.

I've accepted that the concept of privacy is changing radically, and for the most part it doesn't strike me as a problem, except in adjusting to it.

But dang! I just found myself clicking on one of those eerily targeted sponsored links in my gmail. It's a black hole.