Retailers Selling your Email Address to Spam Merchants?

Rezident

I went to Specsavers last week and I usually use my gmail on any of those random forms but I accidentally gave them my work email address. Since then my work email is getting bombarded with spam: ‘STOP WEARING EYEGLASSES’ and ‘I CAN SEE PERFECT AFTER PUTTING 2 DROPS IN MY EYES’ etc. from dodgy looking addresses with dodgy links every day and another three over the weekend. Which is strange as I have never needed or worn glasses or eye drops.

Also, I definitely ticked the box that said DO NOT share my details etc. as I always do. Now, while I can’t prove that specsavers sold my details to a Spam merchant (yet), it really does appear that it must have been them due to the timing and me not normally using my work email address for anything else.

What’s the best way to handle this? Who is the authority to take this up with?

Thanks,

Firewalkwithme

That's a pretty big font you're using, are you sure you don't need glasses?

godtabh

Rezident wrote: »

I went to Specsavers last week and I usually use my gmail on any of those random forms but I accidentally gave them my work email address. Since then my work email is getting bombarded with spam: ‘STOP WEARING EYEGLASSES’ and ‘I CAN SEE PERFECT AFTER PUTTING 2 DROPS IN MY EYES’ etc. from dodgy looking addresses with dodgy links every day and another three over the weekend. Which is strange as I have never needed or worn glasses or eye drops.

Also, I definitely ticked the box that said DO NOT share my details etc. as I always do. Now, while I can’t prove that specsavers sold my details to a Spam merchant (yet), it really does appear that it must have been them due to the timing and me not normally using my work email address for anything else.

What’s the best way to handle this? Who is the authority to take this up with?

Thanks,

They haven't. Put it down to coincidence

Rezident

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

That's a pretty big font you're using, are you sure you don't need glasses?

I’m in work, and Boards doesn’t work properly in work anymore. Also, have to manually confirm that I am not a robot plus do a recaptcha or three for every single post.

Rezident

godtabh wrote: »

They haven't. Put it down to coincidence

How can you be so sure?

Rezident

Rezident wrote: »

How can you be so sure?

I went to Specsavers last week and I usually use my gmail on any of those random forms

Which random forms? You mean the paper ones you fill out? I go to specsavers about twice a year and never seen spam from them.

Also, seeing spam in your work inbox should be rare. Maybe your spam filters need a once over. I never see spam in my work or personal addresses.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Rezident wrote: »

How can you be so sure?

Because SpecSavers would be subject to the Data Protection Act and would get a serious kicking and massive fine from the Data Protection Commissioner if they did what you claim.

Manach

On the one hand, the above poster has capture the core arguement against Specsavers being the source of the ads. Given how google operates it is likely it took any search engine searches and feed them into their adverts.

On the other hand, never discount corpotate stupidly. There are numerous cases against companies who though that in essence the marketing of private data was more a guideline than an EU law.

spaceHopper

Test them of course.
Set up a burner email address, make it something odd and unlikely to get spam. Leave it for a month and then go for an eye test under another name like Joe King.

Id it suddenly starts getting spam you know it's them.

testicles

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ItHurtsWhenIP

I was talking to somebody this morning who heard Ian Dempsey on TodayFM mention something about receiving spam after visiting a store.

I listened back to it - it was in the "toss" to the Anton Savage Show in the last 2 minutes of the listen back.

to paraphrase:

Ian goes into Brown Thomas on Grafton Street a couple of days ago, and because of the Breakfast Show ski trip, he wandered around looking for winter clothing and saw a brand he'd never come across before called Canada Goose (or something like that). Stupid prices, so he walks away. The next day he starts getting e-mails about ... Canada Goose.

Anton Savage then got more into it in his show (I've only listened back to the first 2 hours so far), but he and the listeners actually started focusing more on Facebook ads, as opposed to Spam. They even had a gentleman on, who had previously worked for some large multinational that may have skin in this game (so probably a googler or a facebooker). He explained that it was location services and other hooks that were connecting things and making very accurate assumptions about what people were looking at. This was all fine and dandy, and we know that the ads on FB pages are based on what our likes and interests are.

What was concerning, and I didn't hear any explanation for something one e-mailer to the show mentioned. She and her partner, totally at random one evening, were discussing what it was like to be a forensic cleaner (crime scene clean-up). The next day, Facebook shows them a promoted post for, something like, "A day in the life of a crime scene cleaner". They had only talked about it - no searching or nothing. :eek:

I guess Canada Goose are paying Apple or Google big money for tracking visitors to their franchises and then spamming the visitors.

But - is Mark Zuckerberg (of the Laptop camera and microphone covering Zuckerberg's) listening to all of our conversations.

900913

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-using-people-s-phones-to-listen-in-on-what-they-re-saying-claims-professor-a7057526.html

The app might be using people’s phones to gather data on what they are talking about, it has been claimed.

Facebook says that its app does listen to what’s happening around it, but only as a way of seeing what people are listening to or watching and suggesting that they post about it.

The feature has been available for a couple of years, but recent warnings from Kelli Burns, mass communication professor at the University of South Florida, have drawn attention to it.

Professor Burns has said that the tool appears to be using the audio it gathers not simply to help out users, but might be doing so to listen in to discussions and serve them with relevant advertising. She says that to test the feature, she discussed certain topics around the phone and then found that the site appeared to show relevant ads.

ItHurtsWhenIP

One of my android phones has given permission to the microphone for the FB app. I just talked about shopping for something "unusual" ... I shall wait and see what happens! :D

testicles

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shedweller

I was talking to a co worker one day about the plastic decking he got in. I wasnt googling it but afterwards i saw ads for plastic decking. Another time a mate of mine was on about his ibiza trip and lo and behold....ibiza ads!
I dont like it but what am i going to do about it? At least if my co workers are on about some lap dancing or what have you, i dont get ads for that. Maybe they are ethical spammers!!

ItHurtsWhenIP

shedweller wrote: »

I was talking to a co worker one day about the plastic decking he got in. I wasnt googling it but afterwards i saw ads for plastic decking. Another time a mate of mine was on about his ibiza trip and lo and behold....ibiza ads!
I dont like it but what am i going to do about it? At least if my co workers are on about some lap dancing or what have you, i dont get ads for that. Maybe they are ethical spammers!!

ItHurtsWhenIP wrote: »

One of my android phones has given permission to the microphone for the FB app. I just talked about shopping for something "unusual" ... I shall wait and see what happens! :D

Well I'm still waiting to see ads for Wookie Costumes ... I' ain't seen nothing yet ... :pac:

I'm just wondering if my settings might be helping me ... this is my FB Adverts settings:


Could I be immune? :rolleyes:

shedweller

To be fair, the ads dont always show things i was talking about. I suppose the listening algorithm thingy is advanced enough to filter out the everyday words and when it hears new words it goes ping! New ads. Scary that its listening all the time.
Do police (or whoever) use this for anti terrorism. You'd think they would.