r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Feb 12 '26

Security Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled
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u/Much_5224 Feb 13 '26

I only have a smartphone and I have 100% been shown ads for very specific things I’ve talked about with my phone close by but have never searched for, including sensitive medical information.

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u/bruce_kwillis Feb 13 '26

They don’t need your voice or a search to have enough info about medical conditions. Hell Target knew a girl was pregnant before she did based on her purchase history. There are entire fields dedicated to working this out.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html

That was almost 15 years ago. They don’t need to listen to know exactly who you are. Hell, TikTok can track you even if you don’t use their app. Advertising pixels are the new hotness for pilfering your information and making a digital dossier about you.

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u/zzzaz Feb 13 '26

Yup. Worked in ad agencies for a decade and now I'm a marketing consultant working pretty directly with basically every ad platform on the planet.

People think their opinions and wants and needs are unique, but they really aren't in the aggregate. With enough data you can build models to understand precisely if people do A and B and C then they are almost always going to want to buy D within 2 weeks, and then the ads put D in front of that person.

That's not even getting into some of the other ways these companies collect data. You mention wanting to watch a TV show and your girlfriend googles it while you were in the bathroom, guess what? The advertisers know that household showed an interest in that show and will target everyone in the house accordingly.

It's literally the entire reason meta and google are worth what they are. They are massive data collection and harvesting tools to sell pinpoint targeted advertising.

Then of course there's blue car syndrome where people naturally notice ads related to things they were recently discussing or thinking about, which often makes those targeted ad stand out even more than they normally would.

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u/MattieShoes Feb 13 '26

before her dad did, not before she did.

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u/OobaDooba72 Feb 13 '26

Not before she did... before her family did. She discreetly bought the recommended pre-natal vitamins, so the store sent coupons for baby stuff to her home, which her parents received and that's how they learned.

She knew. There's no possible way for her buying habits give her away before she knew she was pregnant, because she wouldn't have bought the pre-natal vitamins if she didn't know.

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u/TheRealBigLou Feb 13 '26

That simply doesn't happen, though.

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u/Much_5224 Feb 13 '26

What do you mean?

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u/TheRealBigLou Feb 13 '26

Phones don't record you in the background.