This is WEIRD!!! (VERY weird!!)

a reply to: kwakakev

Oh, I have absolutely no doubt there is a cause. It's certainly not magic.

I guess my question is, how and to what end?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
I think what is happening to you let's us know how well they are at analyzing our voices.

You say that your job is to keep people secure. I do not know you so this part I will take you at your word. And assume that you are good at your job.

Now, what is the one thing that you are not protecting? Your voice. When mom calls you talk about the bill she didn't pay to the ISP and the email she can't seem to figure out. All of this is being loaded into databases. And it seems that they have enough of your conversations to link you and your mother.

I am a member of LinkedIn...It always freaks me out when some old friend that I haven't had contact with since way before the internet days suddenly shows up "Do you know this person?" How do they know that? Databases....tons and tons of databases.

Is it possible someone in your home got on your laptop and logged in as your mom----said person being aware of the account you set up for her??

Is it even REMOTELY possible?

Because a person close to you there would be as likely as any other option here.

IMO of course.

a reply to: Maverick1

No, I can safely say this is not a possibility. Exactly zero % probability. My wife wouldn't do it (she just wouldn't, for any number of reasons) and there is no one else here. Anyone else wouldn't know Mom.

a reply to: Martin75

Interesting point(s). Pretty sinister if that's how the connection was made, but it's a possibility I guess. We did talk about it. However, I remember the call and we didn't talk about her gmail account, only the bill from the ISP. In fact, we've never discussed her gmail account.

Funny you would mention LindedIn. I'm not even a member and I get those same crazy invites from people I haven't seen in 40 years!

Do some research online to figure out how big your online footprint is.

The best way to keep things is to not have yourself come up at all when you do an internet search.

I have located people I have not seen in years by simply googling names and looking for pics in google images.

Tineye reverse image search works good for finding out if pics you have shared with others are being shared with others by still others.

Go clean up that mess before somebody tries to sell you something you don't need...

In a connected world it is wise to be remote.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Thanks for answering.

Then the only other conclusion is (if you don't sleep walk, lol) is some way , some how, Google did this in a way that the IT guys on here can't figure out. So, right back where we started from with the 'how'.


You are right, friend, it IS spooky.

Good luck man.

a reply to: MyHappyDogShiner

This is a great suggestion, and I recommend all people do this on a regular basis! I do it all the time, and to the best of my knowledge have zero footprint.

One word of caution though (for others)...if you do this, make sure you do it from somewhere OTHER than your home / personal equipment. If you don't you wind up creating the very thing you are trying to research and erase.

a reply to: Maverick1

Well, I'm an IT guy and I can't figure it out!

Well, I can, but the answer is very troubling, hence my OP.

a reply to: Maverick1
I work in IT, my answer is above. We know they are listening. Of course they are sorting through all of this and putting it into databases. The question is when will all of this be used against us?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The internet has become self aware, but right now its still like a baby trying to figure out how to use it's hands to get food to it's mouth.

a reply to: Martin75

Exactly. I mean, like I said above also, I can see how it's "possible", but I'm trying to understand how it could be done in such a way which is "legal", and I can guarantee the scenario in the OP could/should not have worked under any laws I'm aware of.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

But the legal part is what is going to be so interesting.
We unknowingly gave up our rights when we bought smart phones, smart TV,
OH yeah...and the microwave

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Use the Tor browser or maybe the "Incognito Window" in Chrome.

I like to keep a disposable machine running Linux, like you can get on Ebay for near to nothing without an HDD or memory, wipe the HDD and use it for backups.

I call it a "Dead Head Computer"...

That's just me and my drama...

a reply to: Martin75

I bought a "Dumb Phone" and took it back when it required so very many permissions to activate any part of it.

I have "a flip phone", "a camera", "a computer"...

...Those things do what they are designed to do better by themselves, rather than all of them being combined into one device.

And you don't lose everything when you lose one or it fails.

OK guys I'm just throwing this out there....think about it in context to the OP...


Are we being tracked by the IOT? (The internet of things)

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You said Gmail, Google, YouTube.

You're an IT Person, you keep things secure, have you gone into Google Account Settings and checked out the Login History connected to your accounts and your Mothers account? It stores all login information, where, what computer, I.P and browser etc that logged into the account.

On a web browser, Firefox, Chrome etc there are also options in the cache and cookies to find out when and how those Names were stored into the quick access box, it is quite simple; if her name is in the boxes, then there is a log on your system that tells you when and how it was stored there.

Your browser, Google and your Laptop stores a log in every application on the system with controls to access them easy to the user.

It's time for you to do a little brush up on your skills.

originally posted by: PhoenixDescending
I, too, am an IT professional and can not think of a way that this could happen based on the information you have given.

It seems that you are insinuating that Google has automatically signed you in to YouTube, into your mother's account no less?

Are you sure it is not the account that you use for questionable adult only videos?

I'm thinking maybe some local Javascript had access to local youtube permanent cookies. Maybe there was a old permanent cookie that was no longer in use but the Russian hackers somehow had some Javascript run the page to setup the phishing form. I think if you go to your browsers content settings and delete all content (forms data, cookies, passwords) for all time then that would probably have prevented the local scraping of personal data.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Martin75

Exactly. I mean, like I said above also, I can see how it's "possible", but I'm trying to understand how it could be done in such a way which is "legal", and I can guarantee the scenario in the OP could/should not have worked under any laws I'm aware of.

See my post previous to this one.

a reply to: Martin75

For quite a while now I've been of the mind that people (individuals, corporations, governments, etc.) will take and use any information the masses will give them...if you willing give it to them. It's when this data is not willingly provided where I have a problem. It's shocking actually how many things you can find out about people by putting together a whole lot of tiny shreds of data. At it's core this is what data-mining is, it's about building metrics profiles for everything. Probabilities, statistics and all manner of other habits and patterns. As you likely know, there is a whole professional field dedicated to exactly this; it's called BI or Business Intelligence. It started out in the product placement world, but governments have quickly begun to realize the value of this data. Given their seemingly limitless funding (thank you, taxpayers) they can open new doors by partnering with the private sector. Google is a prime example; the government funds the staggeringly expensive compute and storage and the private sector brings the expertise.

I mean, just look at the new data center the fed boys built outside Provo, UT. Normally one would think of power or cooling requirements as the limitation, but not there. Believe it or not the limitation there is actually WATER! They're going through literally billions of gallons of water! I forget the actual compute they have (someone told me once), but it's staggering, and the storage capacity is in numbers so large you can't even print them on a sheet of paper! Just astounding. I think I read somewhere that just one half of that data center has more compute and storage than every single personal device on Earth...combined (PC's included)! The storage is something like 12 "million" Terra-Bytes...and that's just for starters!

So you just know they've got to be warehousing one hell of a lot of data to make use of hardware like that!!!