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[tubemonkey]

So I'm listening to Pandora on my Echo Show and decide to look up the discography of an artist while their song is playing. The first hit I get when I do a Google search of that artist is the very song I'm currently listening to.

Now, I wonder how Google knew that?

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

So I'm listening to Pandora on my Echo Show and decide to look up the discography of an artist while their song is playing. The first hit I get when I do a Google search of that artist is the very song I'm currently listening to.

Now, I wonder how Google knew that?

For those who are interested and/or concerned, and who have the inclination to do so, there's an interesting DIY detection exercise suggested in a followup article at El Reg

[ZodWallop]

I got swampped in work and out, so haven't done any more experimenting or research. I don't think I've seen further targeted ads. But then I also haven't really been looking.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

So I'm listening to Pandora on my Echo Show and decide to look up the discography of an artist while their song is playing. The first hit I get when I do a Google search of that artist is the very song I'm currently listening to.

Now, I wonder how Google knew that?

You mentioned it here, so apparently Google knows all about it now

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

For those who are interested and/or concerned, and who have the inclination to do so, there's an interesting DIY detection exercise suggested in a followup article at El Reg

That article suggests almost exactly the experiment jhowell suggested a few pages above.

What I found most interesting was the cited paper "When speakers are all ears: Characterizing misactivations of iot smart speakers."
It addresses and documents the unintentional activation of smart speakers, which can result in them sending audio to the cloud that the user did not intend, but what matters more to me was they proved with some certainty that these devices are NOT always sending audio home and do not appear to be behaving with any malicious intent or intentional subterfuge. They just have less than perfect wake word detection.


So I can continue to rest easy.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by ApK

They just have less than perfect wake word detection.

I wonder how many here would grok why I instantly thought "ftumch!" when I read this

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

You mentioned it here, so apparently Google knows all about it now

Except they knew about it before I mentioned it here.

I think Alexa's a little snitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The fact remains that you with your high threshold for tolerating visual noise may not even notice something another person finds absolutely intolerable, and calling that other person's perception hyperbole is condescending and arrogant. How can you decide what is hyperbole for me? You don't know how high, low or nonexistent my tolerance threshold is. As I said in a previous post, people are very different.

What I think can be a real bother to a lot of people is animated ads and ads with sound. The static ads may not be so much of a problem unless they take up too much screen space.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Except they knew about it before I mentioned it here.

I think Alexa's a little snitch

Why in the world would your Amazon Echo share anything with Google? Are Amazon and Google partners now?

Shari

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by shalym

Why in the world would your Amazon Echo share anything with Google? Are Amazon and Google partners now?

Shari

No idea. How else would you explain what happened to me? Seems like an astronomical coincidence if it was random.

No matter, it doesn't bother me. I find it rather amusing.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

No idea. How else would you explain what happened to me? Seems like an astronomical coincidence if it was random.

Maybe tracking data from Pandora?

The odds of it being a coincidence vary greatly with stuff like how popular that particular song was, etc.

Also, just for curiosity's sake, if you want to tell us the name of the artist and song, and what exactly you searched on*, several of us can do the same search and see what results we get.

ApK

* You'd have to provide all that info in some kind of obfuscated code to hide it from any ad targeting algorithm scraping the forum content....

[DiapDealer]

In my experience, tracking cookies tend to explain most of what people assume is the result of "eavesdropping".

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ApK

Maybe tracking data from Pandora?

The odds of it being a coincidence vary greatly with stuff like how popular that particular song was, etc.

Also, just for curiosity's sake, if you want to tell us the name of the artist and song, and what exactly you searched on*, several of us can do the same search and see what results we get.

ApK

* You'd have to provide all that info in some kind of obfuscated code to hide it from any ad targeting algorithm scraping the forum content....

Dang, I forgot Pandora was in the equation. So Pandora is more than likely the culprit.

As to the song, I don't remember its name. It was from Petula Clark and it was the first time I'd heard it. I was listening to 1957 Hits Radio from Pandora (free version) and this song came on. I was looking it up because I wasn't aware that she was recording hit songs back then. I thought 1964 was her debut year when she had a massive hit with Downtown.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

In my experience, tracking cookies tend to explain most of what people assume is the result of "eavesdropping".

Sounds good. I'm now satisfied that Pandora was responsible for what happened and not Alexa.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Sounds good. I'm now satisfied that Pandora was responsible for what happened and not Alexa.

Of course, Pandora and Alexa could be in cahoots....

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I was listening to 1957 Hits Radio from Pandora (free version) and this song came on. I was looking it up because I wasn't aware that she was recording hit songs back then. I thought 1964 was her debut year when she had a massive hit with Downtown.

Wait...you searched for her discography, and the earliest songs showed up first?
TM, sometimes I don't know if you're messing with us.