I don’t believe it’s your car. It’s your phone.

I was with a group of people recently, most of whom I know well and a couple I know slightly. I did not use my phone while I was there. Later that day, FB suggested I add a new friend - one of the people in the group that I knew slightly. Apparently unbeknownst to us, our phones were communicating with one another.

* Insert Twilight Zone music*

But if my phone is turned off, how is communicating/sending data?

It could be the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. You noticed it when you were driving by. Then it was advertised on your phone. Coincidence. A frequency illusion.

I didn't see the ad on my phone, it was my desktop. But this place is so highly specialized and a nonprofit...I have a hard time believing it's actually a coincidence or the B-M phenom.

Do you have maps/GPS in your car? You said you were going somewhere that you rarely go. Your GPS obviously could communicate with other electronic devices along your route.

Where ever you saw it again just stuck out to you because you took notice of it in town. Otherwise you wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

It was on your mind. Maybe?

”a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it”

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/baader-meinhof-phenomenon.htm

Yes, I have map/GPS in the car.

So, your phone was turned off and not in use during your drive?

Nothing is ever COMPLETELY off. Location tagged you.

Renember the books about Big Brother, Silent Spring, and Farenhient 451 and so forth. We are there.

" But if my phone is turned off "

Was your phone actually turned off, or just sleeping? Just about everyone I know never actually turns their phone off.

“Yes, I have map/GPS in the car.”

And is your car somehow tied to your email? For example do you get carfax notifications telling you that you’re due for an oil change or DMV telling you your inspection is up? Did you use your credit card at your destination, to indicate that you passed this area?

At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s either your phone, your car, your card, or coincidence. Maybe another source I’m not thinking of. License plate readers?

Assuming not coincidence, it’s all just data, nobody is specifically tracking you. Yes it’s unsettling but I find it more unsettling when a mere random conversation triggers ads. Who’s listening?

Unless you’re ready to disconnect from all modern life, chances are you’re being tracked in some capacity. Sad but true. Better to assume you’re being tracked than to assume anonymous movement at all times.

" Nothing is ever COMPLETELY off "

This isn't correct as regards smartphones. Off is off.

Porkchop, the cell phone carriers can ID general locations of phones because they know what cell tower the phone is or has been connected to. Maybe that data is generically shared. If you use Google maps for navigation, it has a setting to keep the history of where you are. Google originated the idea of using location-centric and internet surfing-centric data for ad selection. That's always happening when one visits different sites on the internet. Some browsers have a hard to find setting to turn it off.

My car's communication with the mother ship (the manufacturer) conveys a mountain of data to it, as I can see on the car's app. Where the car is at the moment, where it's been, Times of trips on a daily basis, the miles for each trip, MPG, etc. It'll even take me to the car if I get lost in an unfamiliar place. The capabilities can also be used to summon emergency help. I believe the specific data only goes to the car company, not elsewhere. I'm not sure but I also don't care. t.

My reaction to all of this is a yawn, frankly. Some of it that provides utility to me is helpful, most of it is not. The data can only be used generically and not identified to you as a person. Since I stopped working as a courier for the CIA, my whereabouts are no longer Top Secret. Why care?

Not very surprising to me - if you have location services turned on in your phone - or a newer model car.

Along with the fact that local ads can be directed to users based on their IP address.

People who do not want to be tracked remove the phone's battery. Your GPS and phone are connected, so when you phone goes on the car will send it information. The business is paying for the invitation.

I swear if I think about something, i start getting ads.

" People who do not want to be tracked remove the phone's battery. "

That's not a trivial thing to do with an iPhone or newer Androids. And it's also not necessary.

Anyone who's paranoid about this and thinks that their whereabouts are important to anyone with access to such data (which isn't the case) can buy a Faraday bag. These block radio signals from reaching whatever has been put into it. They're easily found (like on Amazon) and are not expensive. People can get one and keep it on a counter next to their aluminum foil helmets. So that both are ready for immediate use when the need arises.

Big brother IS watching. No surprise to me since I have Google Home, which I know is listening, a newer car, an Apple watch, and an iPhone. I tried on Birkenstocks in a local store, and from that day on, I have gotten a daily email from them.

" I have gotten a daily email from them. "

That happens with most merchants who ask for an email address when a purchase is made. Simply unsubscribe - this isn't information gathering by the CIA or an unidentified superior life form on Dagobah.

Anyone who wants to think they're so important that Big Brother is watching them can expect to be disappointed. Big Brother doesn't even have the time to monitor Little Brother and other members of the family.

" " I have gotten a daily email from them. "

That happens with most merchants who ask for an email address when a purchase is made."

Why would lily316 have given her email address just when trying on Birkenstocks?

" Anyone who wants to think they're so important that Big Brother is watching them can expect to be disappointed. "

Big brother is watching, but not in the way conspiracy theorists think.......Big brother doesn't care about who someone is personally, and there may never be a name attached to a profile, but there a link made between locations, computer activity, credit card activity, and a myriad of other information, but most of the time only a small number of people are looking at a small amount of that information for their business/marketing reasons. But the information is there, if someone high enough up in the food chain really wanted to check.

I did not give out my name or any info when trying on Birkentocks, and I'm not getting the emails from the running store where I tried them on. They're coming from the company. I do own six pairs, but none were bought recently and non online

Other than scraping third party information that crosses the internet (which I believe is illegal), I know of no way anyone would have your email address unless it was supplied by you to someone somewhere in some context that caused it to be passed along. With or without your explicit permission.

Something to consider - newspapers, magazines and the like sell their subscriber lists with names, addresses, email addresses, etc. Organizations you belong to do too. It's more limited than it used to be (because of people getting upset) but it used to be quite common.

Not trying to be funny, but if you're a member of the Sierra Club or Greenpeace, they may have sold member lists in the past and who more likely to have wanted lists of such org members for marketing purposes than Birkenstock?

I won't say it doesn't happen because I have no way to know. But I've never personally heard of such a thing and in nearly 40 years of online activity, it's never happened to me.

Interesting to read everyone’s theories. I believe it is somehow connected with our phones.

DH and I were in Central Park talking crime in the park. Back home DH gets a staistics on Central Park.

I have other examples as well.

By what means was the Central Park data received - an email, a text message, an ad when using the browser, or ?

Call your cell carrier customer service department, ask if they sell location data to third parties and if so, how to turn it off.

I'm surprised anyone is bothered by this or even pays enough attention to it to know. I'm a stronger believer in coincidences than in possible nefarious behavior.

Dismissing people’s feelings is rarely helpful. Everyone is entitled to their feelings.

I've concluded it's the phone. Why? Yesterday I know my phone wasn't turned off, and I had a conversation with someone indoors about going to a shooting range. This isn't something I search for on-line nor ever really even think about. What is popping up in my feed today? Gun ads....

I'm going to make doubly-sure my phone is actually turned off when I'm out and about from now on. I certainly don't need it turned on, but it's there if I need it.

" Dismissing people’s feelings is rarely helpful "

bpath, my intent was to try to allay the apparent fear the OP seems to have and continue to have, of being victimized by what's she sees as nefarious behavior. I was trying to be helpful, not critical. Including my suggestion, which was serious, to get a Faraday bag if they were so concerned.

not critical, but rather dismissive. Calling people paranoid, wondering why people are bothered and they shouldn’t be, declaring ”anyone who thinks they are so important…”, then explaining by continuing to put down their feelings, are not at all helpful. You might try different language if assuaging fears is the goal, but one is always entitled to one’s feelings. I understand that you feel other’s concern is not real, and that the occurrence is not worrisome, and you are entitled to that. The response, however, could be expressed in a more empathetic way. Once. And then leave it alone.

I don't think you need to turn off your phone - just location tracking - and maybe voice assistant, if that's something you usually leave on. I know they claim that voice assistants don't listen unless the wake word is spoken, but you never know...