Posted on 06/21/2024 7:01:09 PM PDT by Not_Who_U_Think
Something very odd happened to me yesterday.
I had noticed a mole on my back that concerned me and rather than wait a few weeks for an appointment, I dropped into my dermatologist for him to have a quick look. He gave me a name for it, "Seborrheic Keratoses", and said it benign and was nothing to worry about. He sent me off with a pamphlet about it.
I had not done any searches online, for either skin cancer in general or for this specific lesion, not now or ever. I have watched cardio docs on Youtube, but it doesn't suggest them often on my YT homepage. You can imagine my shock when I opened YouTube last evening, and up popped a video (first choice) about how to tell if you have one!
Here is the link to video made by a dermatologist over a year ago. It is not a new video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXSJyXW1EHo&t=6s
I honestly don't know what to make of this. I cannot think of any action I took online that indicated an interest in this topic, and the only two people in the room were the doctor and nurse. I suppose it's possible someone leaked the info to big G (owner of YT), but it would be a blatant violation of HIPPA and I can't imagine anyone th the medical field risking that.
Does anyone have an idea of how this medical tidbit got from my doctor's lips into the machine within eight hours? ? This is so specific, so soon after discovery... what the heck is going on?
Alexa is listening to you.
For fun - go on Alexa and send her some messages.
Wait and see what pops up on your computer’
Within MINUTES Facebook was showing me specials to vacation in the Virgin Islands. St. Thomas to be exact.
Well, remember back about 15 or so years ago when doctors all of a sudden stop their patient care and went to work on ‘digitizing all medical records’ in order to ‘make it easier and quicker’ for different docs to communicate between one another about a patient?
the writing was on the wall even back then- private medical info on the Internets- yeah- real safe-
oh, and back when they started digitizing it all- they came out with requiring docs to ask about guns in people’s homes- and whether or not they felt in danger, or had thoughts of harming others-
Thankfully the NRA i believe stopped them cold from asking about guns- but they still ask about harm and welfare-
We do the same-
but another worrying scam is taking place- people spoofing numbers AND sounding like your relative in trouble- they are using AI to mimic voices now i guess-
it’s almost gettign to the point where we gotta let the caller hang up- then call who we think called us back again to make sure it was them-
Dogbert41 nailed it.
Maybe you really didn’t have a smart phone with you.. Did your spouse? - Not much difference. “It” knows.
“Privacy” as you knew it is gone.”
.......
In retrospect, my old buddy was not all that far off.
Some of the guys at the fire station were discussing a suicide call they had been on recently. One of them pipes up and says “I almost committed suicide” and begins to relate a story about almost being in a big wreck but was quickly silenced when his phone, not any of the others around the table, said “if you are considering suicide, please call....”
I’ve heard this kind of “coincidence” discussed among several groups of friends. Every friend who has experienced it has one thing in common. An Android phone or google smart device...
We KNOW they listen. That is how ads on Facebook pick up topics from our conversations at home. We bought RFID bags, but have yet to use them. No, the microwave is not a Faraday cage. We tested it.
Did you have your phone with you when you got the diagnosis from your doctor?
Did you bring your phone with you, or our car, or your license plates (if an old car)?
I used to have a GP who used only paper, and he brought it home every night instead of leaving it in his office.
Now YouTube knows everything about me. I just gave up on this.
Did you ‘check in’ at the doctors office? Front desk people easily could have put the doctor’s notes into their computer system - and God only knows where that information is sent off to...
AI knew before you went to the doctor.
one of my prev bosses was big into big data analytics, so much so that he once was hired to be head of consumer privacy at facebook.
If you spoke such things around the phone or searched for it on the computer the bots always pick that stuff up and show you more
HIPAA is very strict about that stuff. A service provider could be out of business immediately for a violation of privacy.
The phones are another matter.
I guess I would approach it differently.
Why do you think “they” give a hoot about you? Are you important to “them”?
The number of clicks they would get from what you describe is “one.” That doesn’t seem like a very good return on their investment.
I have a friend who is schizophrenic who created a Facebook page after he had just gotten out of a stint at a mental health hospital. When I became his friend on Facebook, immediately an ad for his medication showed up on my feed. I know he does not research his disease online. Also, Facebook did not allow me to send him a friend request and he had to send me a request. At the time, I felt strongly that somehow his medical records and history were available to both advertisers and Facebook.
Did you have your cell phone with you! Google listens to everything. When I first got my new phone I would play podcasts on it and when I went back to get the phone google had posted dozens of “fact checks” and ads for what it was listening to from the podcast.
Did you do anything on your smart phone? I don't know how it is with PC's and smart phones, but I use an Apple computer, and when I ended up having to get a smart phone, I got an iPhone. My iPhone and laptop are synced, and searches I do on my laptop show up on my iPhone. I rarely use Safari on the iPhone to search for anything, and basically only use the phone for calls and the occasional text message to confirm doctor appointments, and reorder scripts.
His medication purchase history at the pharmacy would have been sold to marketing companies if he ever used one of those drug discount coupons. A waiver of HIPPA privacy rules is a standard term and condition of those deals.
"Big Data" analytic programs would compute a high probability that any person connected to their target would have similar problems and would be a possible new target for advertising.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.