How did they do it ?

How odd Bluebell it's time to call in Miss Marple.

My niece who lives in Italy came over to the UK last week for a short holiday with us. She text me on arriving in the UK to say which train she was on. The following day I got a text from my mobile phone provider offering me cheap calls to relatives in Italy. Clearly they picked up that a foreign mobile had contacted me. I wonder also if they read my emails as they obviously knew it was a relative who called not a business call.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU has arrived !

I think (like the mysterious photo problem the other day) it has something to do with your phone being Bluetooth enabled Bluebelle When I set foot in a large out of town shopping centre not far from where I live, they know you're there as they pick your phone up and start sending you messages.

Yes, it's all through your phone. I had a brief stop at a Carluccio's recently and later received a message hoping I'd enjoyed my visit to Boots which was opposite.

Now I know why I don't have my bluetooth enabled.

Yes, you have your location enabled. That allows the whole world and his wife to track your movements.

I turn my location off, except when I need it e.g. to use my phone as a SatNav.

I don't think it's anything to do with Bluetooth.

Just checked up on this re Bluetooth and there are certain apps which will pick up Bluetooth.

These are small Bluetooth devices that can be placed to indicate a very specific location and the system respond in some way when they are detected. Enter a shop and an app for the shop showing you the latest offers might be one way for this to be leveraged. This would be different from usual geolocation APIs which become inaccurate when you are inside large structures (offices, shopping centres, etc.) as they cannot get a GPS fix, and WiFi coverage tends to be meshed with repeater stations.

So turn off GPS and Bluetooth

I wonder how many positive responses these advertisers ever get to their soliciting... I never buy anything from a random online advert - does anyone?

As an aside, I'm now getting messaged on my phone and Kindle "We notice you have an Adblocker installed. Please disable it so that you can benefit from ... " etcetera. As if!

Yes GN i might respond.

The other day I had an email from my local coffee shop with a special offer. So I went in later that week, showed them my message and m daughter and I had two coffees for the price of one.

We were planning a coffee chat in town anyway.

Big brother is definitely watching ...

Add to Bluetooth - tracking', Cortana on the laptop and Google ' Listening'.

I hate the ' Anything I can do for you?' and 'Have you thought of...?' I see adverts pop up related to things I have been TALKING about - in the privacy of my home ...not even looking up on the internet. So, evidently 'something' listens ... I do turn Cortana off, I tracked it down through my settings buttons - but I find it creepy. It also worried me that a large percentage of the population probably thinks nothing of these apparent 'services' and doesn't consider the subliminal effects of targeted advertising and worse still - our own 'habits' and even 'thoughts' being tracked.

I am all for enjoying many benefits of the cyber-connected, but for me these 'wonders of technology' are intrusive.

How did you turn Cortana off? I've been trying on both my phone and laptop - but I really, really want to get rid of it on the laptop.

I've got both Bluetooth and my location switched on on my phone as that means I can answer the phone in the car and if I fall while walking the dogs on my own the police can track where I am. But I don't get these ads. Perhaps it's down to not using the internet on the phone? (apart from GN and FB very occasionally).

Well thanks folks I do have Bluetooth on so that will be the answer I never considered that.... dah to me to be honest only realised it's on as I ve now looked
Well you live and learn I knew I d get my answer on here, clever grans

I Googled this for you Nfk

"It is actually pretty straightforward to disable Cortana, in fact, there are two ways to do this task. The first option is by launching Cortana from the search bar on the taskbar. Then, from the left pane click the settings button, and under "Cortana" (the first option) and slide the pill switch to the Off position.

The second option is by launching the Settings app and on Privacy, go to Speech, inking, & typing, and click Stop getting to know me"

Ironically while googling an ad from Admiral popped up saying I had an AdBlocker installed and could I please turn it off!

Was it phoenix who started a thread about 'big pants' ?
I had a quick Google to check my suggestion and now get several pants adds at the bottom of GN pages and on other sites

PS I don't see any ads on GN because of my AdBlocker but don't tell HQ ?

Anya you did a better job of explaining how to disable Cortana than I could. It still continues to appear at the bottom left of my screen, but is dormant now.

I also regularly review my privacy settings for FB as I seem to inadvertently change them from time to time.

I'd already done your first way Anya so did the second way. The lovely Cortana is switched off on every setting I've come across, but she still pops up when I move the curser across the screen. I think I've just got a particularly bossy Cortana!

Running Bluetooth all the time also eats your battery life. Don't use it unless you need to.

A couple of days ago I looked on a few airline sites for flights to a specific place - today I had a post on my Facebook from Air France with offers to this destination! How does that link up work!?