iMessage Privacy vs. Safari/Amazon

[rittchard]

I'm not really sure which section to post this in, or even what a proper title is, but here's the story.

A few weeks ago within my family's iMessage chat group, we were discussing Christmas present requests. Within that chat, my niece mentioned she could use some more binders, and my other niece asked her what kind. She replied something simple like Avery and another brand. I never responded to that particular part of the chat.

A day or two later I was doing a search (on Safari) in Amazon, I think it was for a book my nephew wanted so I typed in the word "Wondla." After the first 5 or 6 listings, there was one of those "suggested items" boxes and inside that was an AVERY BINDER and I was immediately weirded out. I have been known to forget things, but I am 100% positive I had never searched for the binders, Avery or otherwise, especially since my other niece was working on that. And though I am familiar with the brand in passing, it definitely isn't something I'd normally even think to search on so it couldn't even be something a keyboard logger would track.

Was this a coincidence, or is there some way for Safari (or Amazon) to scan or track what's in my iMessage chats? I thought I'd read iMessage was considered private and secure, but perhaps that doesn't extend to the browser you use?

 

[Gav2k]

iMessage chats are isolated and encrypted end to end. So it wasn’t iMessage.

 

[NoBoMac]

Could be more along the lines of Amazon tying family members together. Lots of hints out there for them to follow: your Amazon address book, other family member's address book, previous orders by either, etc. Using same social media site algorithms to build your network(s). Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn how they seem to suggest people you do know, however, never looked them up, friended, etc.

 

[jtara]

^ Yes. Maybe your niece looked-up binders in a browser.

There are MANY ways that sites make correlations between family members. Heck, Facebook maintains a database even even for non-members.

I don't have Facebook, but assume they have a feature similar to LinkedIn's feature where you share your phone book to help "find associates" (or for Facebook "find friends").

All it takes is for one idiot to fall for that gambit, and now they have that person's entire network of contacts.

I think one has to assume at this point that multiple parties have pretty-much the complete network of everybody's contacts, their relationships, mutual interests, etc. There is little any of us can do to stop it.

 

[TimFL1]

It‘s the good old „facebook listens to me via mic“ scenario. A group of friends talks about Avery binders at a party, the next day facebook has an ad for said binders presented to you. Reason for that is one of the friends you talked to searched for said binders after talking to you (and facebook trial/errors the ad to you or ties you to your friend via location data from the party). Pretty impressive tech to say the least.

The same probably applies to amazon stuff. You could be connected via prime family feature or adresses matching. Amazon has an insane pool of data at their disposal, wouldn‘t be surprised if they pulled off stealthy hints like this from time to time.

 

[rittchard]

I asked both my nieces and they insisted they didn't search for the binders themselves on Amazon. They don't have the same last name as I do, and we are not in the same Amazon Prime or iTunes/Apple family cluster. We are friends on Facebook though, and of course their contact info is on my phone. But as far as I can tell, the only reference to the binders was the single comment in the iMessage chat.

Anyway, I'm not normally one to be paranoid about such things and in general I don't really care if someone wants to spy on my iMessage chat (they'll be in for some big surprises lol); heck when Google first debuted and gave out free Gmail accounts, my friends and I deliberately tried to include specific keywords to see what they would send us. But this just seemed a little bit too coincidental/creepy to me. I thought at first iMessage may not be protected, but then I read it was supposed to be private.

 

[CTHarrryH]

Gee they say they are being helpful when they bombard you with ads just because you thought of something 1 time. Better than random ads they say - Ha Ha. I clear website data, history and cookies all the time on both iphone and MBP - especially before and after going into certain sites. I know it is a pain but.
I think many companies make more money selling info than they do with the real products they claim they sell.