Friday, September 2, 2016

Computer Spying On You? It Just Might Be...


At work my team all participates in a group messaging thread. It's extremely helpful for us to bounce off ideas, compare notes, and help each other with the issues that crop up in the course of a typical work day.

But, as sometimes happens, the thread can be used as a way to deliver non-work related messages. Last Wednesday in a very short post, someone said they had switched from their cable TV service to Sling TV. They also said they were very satisfied with the switch and suggested the rest of us look into it. A few commented that they might.

And that was it.

If you're part of our modern society, chances are you're paying for some type of entertainment service, be it cable TV, satellite TV, or one of the many internet options. I've heard of Sling TV. But truth be told, after I read the comment on the group feed, I pretty much forgot about it.

Until, that is, I came home.

My wife and I were hanging out watching TV when I saw something that reminded me of what my co-worker had said.

"You ever heard of Sling TV?" I asked and she said she had not. I told her that it was a service to get cable channels without going through our local cable provider. Again, though interesting, I wasn't interested enough in the service to look it up. I forgot about it, again.

That is, until I was absentmindedly scrolling through Facebook, and I saw it--an ad for Sling TV. I had never mentioned Sling TV before, let alone the day I said something about Sling TV for the first time in my life.

And I thought--my computer is spying on me! I wasn't working on the computer when we discussed the product. How else could it know? It must be spying!

I held to this believe until I told my wife about the same Sling TV ad. she looked at my Facebook screen and simply said, "Oh yeah--that ad popped up on my Facebook screen yesterday."

I guess my paranoia is unjustified...at least, in this case.

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