Over the last few days I have been collaborating with three and four other persons on a document. We have been using
doc.google.com to collaborate on the drafting and editing of the document – emailing the document with edit privileges back and forth between us.
During the few days that the document was in progress, myself and another of the collaborators also worked on other projects involving the internet.
I was working on cost analysis of a solar panel installation and another collaborator (in the same building with me) was working on a fabric design project.
Almost immediately after I began work on the solar project – I was looking at the efficiency vs price of different brands of solar panels – the collaborator in the same building as I was in got an ad in the sidebar of their computer screen for a type of solar panel. Certainly this is not coincidence.
The collaborators sent another round of the google doc draft between themselves.
Bingo!
On the side of my computer screen I have an ad from Jo-Anne Fabrics – featuring a fabric similar to a fabric my same-building collaborator had just researched on their computer.
Eric Snowden (thank heavens for him) continues to bring to light how fake our privacy is with regard to our government, but meanwhile Google knows our every thought and every move and exactly with whom we collaborate.
Don’t use your computer to access the internet and research anything embarrassing….Google might send an ad to those you collaborate with about it!