Social Question

King_Galaxius's avatar

Do you think that it is an invasion of privacy for a website to "eavesdrop" on your browsing/search history?

Asked by King_Galaxius (348points) December 9th, 2021

I joined a website today and browsed a couple of topics through searching and using my words of choice to find questions that I wanted to answer. My account was deleted from the moderator and he admitted in so many words that he did not believe in psychics.

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9 Answers

chyna's avatar

There’s nothing we can do about that in this day and age. Anything I look up on the internet is fair game to anyone that wants to know my browsing history. Also, anything I say on my smart phone is being listened in to and within minutes I’m receiving ads for anything I discussed.
But if it is true that you were removed from a site because of your interests, you don’t want to belong to that site anyway.

elbanditoroso's avatar

If you were a half-way qualified psychic (or if there is anything to psychic abilities) then you would have foreseen the issue and never joined the unwelcoming web site in the first place.

So the way I see it, the moderator was 100% correct about you.

Zaku's avatar

“Do you think that it is an invasion of privacy for a website to “eavesdrop” on your browsing/search history?”
– Yes.

“I joined a website today and browsed a couple of topics through searching and using my words of choice to find questions that I wanted to answer.”
– Ok . . .

“My account was deleted from the moderator and he admitted in so many words that he did not believe in psychics.”
– What do you even mean? Why did they delete your account? What does your believing in psychics have to do with anything else in this question, or the situation, and why would the moderator mention that topic, and what do you mean “admit” to that? Just . . . what?

jca2's avatar

I’m with @Zaku about being confused. Do you mean you went on the website and claimed to be a psychic, and so they deleted your account based on that? I’m confused about what that has to do with the website knowing your browsing history.

Mimishu1995's avatar

Agree, @Zaku and @jca2. I believe we are missing a lot of context here, and there are more to the story than what we are presented with.

Forever_Free's avatar

It is a well known fact that the use of the word “psychic” will cause this to occur. It is not the website that did this. It is code that is built into the internet itself.
As a warning, do not say “Psychic” out loud if you are in a moving Tesla.

snowberry's avatar

It’s a worse invasion of privacy to be discussing something in my home, and the next thing I know my phone or iPad is now inundating me with ads for that item. That’s beyond creepy.

SnipSnip's avatar

Try clearing your browser cache before you go to the next website.

Zaku's avatar

^ Yes, or use a browser set to not share, such as Tor Browser.

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