this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
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I already get "random" ads for things that were only part of a verbal conversation that happened to be near the phone.
What I want is a physical kill switch for the mic and camera, less surveillance not more.
That's been happening for well over a decade now, and while "respectable security researchers" call it bullshit... there's simply too much anecdotal evidence for it to happen organically.
It's not all that exciting. If the person you had the conversation with searches for the thing and they're in proximity or on the same network, they can link you to them.
Except as I said NOBODY looked up the term. How many times and in how many forms do I have to state that the MENTION of pulse oximeters was: verbal only, in no way entered into a computer before I started getting the adverts?
The discussion itself wasn't even that long, colleague asked why I looked so tired, I told him how the previous night we had to call an ambulance and sort the guy out, colleague said "maybe he should get a cheap pulse oximeter, it can be helpful to predict attacks and handle them without a call [for an ambulance]", and that was it. Topic was dropped.
And no, mutual friends didn't look it up either as they didn't care much for the guy (tbf it was a super toxic community I'm glad I've left behind).