We received three items of mail that were sent in August or September today. I could accept the constant takeover of my life by the government more easily if they could at least be good at it.
On the other hand, incompetence means that they probably aren't very good at those other things taking over my life that I'm paranoid about. Same with the tech giants or large companies, like my insurers. I occasionally have moments of wondering how someone got a particular bit of information about me, accompanied by a queasy feeling. Yet other times I have the mixed annoyance and relief of seeing how they have guessed wildly and humorously wrong about what I might like or think, based on a random fact like an address I had in 1985.
I do search purposely for random things on Amazon, and the only time I search explicitly on Google is to ask it questions I don't want the answer to. It works at least partly, as I am still getting sidebar ads for chamfer bits, which I never needed but put in to throw them off. Indonesian history and Michelle Obama's childhood have also kept them on the wrong track for quite some time.
Yes, the algorithms will see through the ruse eventually, maybe even soon, but we do what we can.
I've been doing the search for random things for years. John Deere lawn mower parts and 4" heels, etc...
ReplyDeleteThe thing that both frightens and encourages me is the ads I get for/from companies I have long done business with.
I often research issues my neighbors seem inexplicably incapable of researching for themselves, which is a random assortment. Amazon also gets very confused by the things I buy for other people, especially books and music.
ReplyDeleteGood point about competence and threat levels; on the other hand, DARPA looks pretty good today.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2017-02-06a
Yeah, we'd better hope those guys are on our side. The day they aren't, I don't think it's going to matter much what Biden, Google, or China are doing.
ReplyDeleteStory research might set off algorithmic alarms. spore images, how and how long some dies in a vacuum, Chinese rockets and submarines--that was just for one story...
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