Maura Tierney was on Busy Tonight this week. She’s promoting Beautiful Boy, starring Timothee Chalamet, and she’s also on The Affair, which has been renewed for a fifth season starting next year. Maura and Busy were actually on ER together for a season so they had an easy rapport, but Busy seems to have that with everyone. Busy asked Maura if she’s on social media and she said she’s not because it’s too much work. What’s more is that she supposedly doesn’t shop online because she’s paranoid.
On why she’s not on social media
It seems like a lot of work and also I don’t know how to take a selfie. I decided two weeks ago [to try]. I’m like, I can’t figure it out. I never look good. I don’t know how to do that [duck] face.Busy: Do you shop online?
No. Don’t you notice you’ll have a conversation and then an ad will come up? I don’t need to give them any more ammo about what I like and what I don’t like.Busy: Why? Are they going to come get you with cozy sweaters and sensible boots?
On her phobias
I’m really afraid of getting locked out of my house. The only reason to have a husband is to have an extra set of keys or to change the batteries in my smoke detector. That beep is like ‘get married, get married, get married.’
[From video of Busy Tonight]
While I can’t find any definitive evidence that ads come up based on things our phones overhear, I read a thread on reddit about this last year. A technician was able to measure packets being sent from his phone to the Facebook app when it was idle. He also received ads specific to things he was watching outside of his phone. He mentioned that you can test this by playing spanish channels on your TV (If you’re not a native Spanish speaker.) I tried this out by watching Telemundo. Before I subscribed to YouTube Red I would regularly get ads in Spanish. So I uninstalled Facebook. Actually I’ve noticed this happening to me again, I’ll see ads for things I was just talking about and know for a fact I didn’t google. I just realized it must be because I installed Instagram on my phone! I need it for this job (follow me!) but that’s crazy. Here’s an article on Vice about ads that spy. The companies deny doing it, but it’s possible for them to do based on their TOS, and it’s the most likely explanation.
As for Maura, I’m surprised she doesn’t buy anything online at all. I know people like this who still do all of their shopping in person, but I really enjoy the process of looking up items and reading reviews. I’m one of those people who think that the right product can streamline or change my life. I mean this rarely happens but I still get excited for it.
Here’s the video!
photos credit: WENN and Instagram/Busy Philipps
Oh its scary how much companies can track you and what they can learn about your habits. I find the comment about the sweater to be kind of glib, because some people DO care about companies knowing their spending habits. Facebook doesn’t need to know what I’m looking at on Amazon.
But I’m someone who has “concerns” about privacy and what information is being shared…and I’m still all over social media and facebook and I shop through FB links all the time, so I’m just a giant hypocrite, lol.
Yeah it’s pretty freaky. It hasn’t stopped me from using social media, or buying stuff online. I’m not overly concerned if people know what I’m looking at or buying, I got nothing to hide. It is a problem though and it would be nice to know exactly how much of it is going on
It creeps me out when I do a google search on my phone for something and then all of a sudden I’m seeing ads on websites (this one included) for the very thing I was researching. I have a VPN on my phone to prevent that kind of tracking but it’s obviously failing me.
What’s insane to me is I can look for something on my work computer—which I never use for personal emails, social media, or to make purchases—and I’ll immediately start getting Facebook ads and Amazon recs about that very same thing on my personal devices. I don’t know the science, but I definitely believe it’s happening. I once searched for something ridiculous on my work computer (I think a wives of Henry VIII tea cup set). There’s no other way they’d know to send me those ads. 🤔
smcollins: may i ask what VPN you use? i just began using PIA but i rarely remember to turn it on my phone
@karen I use the Phone Guardian app. It’s little mascot is a guard dog. It would tell you how many tracking attempts it blocked between app visits. It worked really well but lately it doesn’t seem to be doing it’s job, or even telling me how many blocked attempts there were. I might try uninstalling it and then reinstalling it, maybe that will help.
It’s not about having ‘nothing to hide’, it’s that we have no privacy. Everything we do is being tracked. Our calls are listened to, google home and amazon echo record conversations in the home, every text, tweet, comment you deleted is still stored.
Frontline PBS is doing a 2 part series on Facebook. Right before they went public, revenue was flatlining, so Sheryl Sandberg mandated that they expand from tracking their users only within Facebook, to tracking EVERYTHING they do. They started tracking credit card purchases, gps location, all internet searches. They would give that information to advertisers so they can ‘customize’ ads for you. That’s why ads about something you just bought show up on your phone. I don’t blame people who switch back to flip phones. I’m considering it.
I read the other day about a woman suffering a miscarriage and still getting tons of ads for baby things.
Also…think about how this information impacts things like insurance or credit. For example, if you are looking at baby things and also shopping for health insurance, the insurer might quote you higher rates with the expectation that you’ll get pregnant within the year. Or your spending habits on Amazon making the bank think twice about giving you the home loan, so they offer you higher interest rates because they see you as an increased risk due to unnecessary spending.
@Tiffany, there are so many examples of the kind you just gave. There was an article not long ago about airlines manipulating prices based on how much you searched for a certain date/route. If you used the same computer to repeatedly search flights to a specific city on specific dates the system would intentionally keep the price inflated because it figured you had solid plans to go. If you then went to a non-linked device, a friend’s computer for example, and did a one-time search for the same flights the chances were it would show a lower price because the system hadn’t yet gauged your interest level and a lower price might persuade you to make the purchase.
I don’t think the general public even realizes to what extent our information and interests are tracked, examined and exploited.
@smcollins (and anyone else): I highly recommend NordVPN. It’s works very well for me since I started using it about 5 months ago. (Never use public/customer wifi without tunneling through a VPN!)
The Reply All podcast did an investigation on this very thing last year, and they said they were always able to trace the ad back to something that the person or a person they are digitally connected with searched or clicked on.
Everything is so connected now – our computers/phiones, our friends and their computers/phones, our credit cards, our banking, etc.
Never mind what’s being tracked about your spending habits, look at how your specific locations and the time spent in different places can be tracked. Very scary.
This article was published this past Monday – “Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, And They’re Not Keeping It Secret”: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/10/business/location-data-privacy-apps.html
I am sure it is happening. I do not have kids but I was recently having coffee with a pregnant friend and she was describing the stroller they got for their baby. I am getting stroller adds non stop!
I don’t think you even have to talk about it, I went to the store because I needed to buy a bag of flour. I didn’t say anything to anyone about needing to buy flour and I didn’t talk to anyone at the store. I didn’t google flour before going to the store either. I bought a bag of very specific brand, King Arthur organic. I paid for it with my credit card and went home. When I got home, I took out my phone and opened Instagram check my feed and practically the first thing that popped up was an ad for King Arthur flour! It creeped me out so bad.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that happening more and more to me, too. It is creepy af, it feels like they are mind readers and it’s awful.
We have been sitting around as a family,watching TV or movies,and at the same time we all have our devices on-My daughter and I are online browsing and usually my husband is watching sports from his phone.In a certain show someone will ask who is such and such actor,in whatever movie.I go to google the cast of whatever show,and honestly I type like one or two characters and the movie cast has popped up.If we are talking about something-Say shoes ,the brand and style pop up on my device.I do as little online as possible.
I’ve always adored Maura since the days of ER and continuing with The Affair. She looks like an actual woman instead of a plastic doll. Here’s hoping that she continues to find roles that allow her to soar.
She looks like an adult woman who has not aged since ER! She looks unbelievably fantastic. I don’t watch The Affair, I’m thinking I should check it out because I forgot how much I like her.
She does look amazing and …real. She is gorgeous. This might be weird, but I love Maura’s voice and wish I’d been blessed with it instead of my sixteen year old sounding voice. She always sounds so womanly and sexy. Definitely check out The Affair, it has a really great cast and Maura is great in it.
The first 2 seasons of The Affair are amazing, but thenit totally tanks. I can’t believe they are coming back with a 5th season.
If you didn’t catch News Radio in the early 90s, check her out on that. In some ways, her sassy NR character was better than her ER character, but I loved that on ER her nerd girl character was the object of desire for both geeky billionaire John and mega hot brooding Luca (like, mega hot. You forget how hot till you rewatch a few episodes, and he only had eyes for Maura’s character).
Agree so much with you Louisa. It became predictable and stupid. It was really so predictable. I kept watching for Joshua Jackson but even that couldn’t keep me hooked.
Word. Love her too.
Love her!She looks really beautiful and really real at the same time.I am a big fan of turtle necks and I love her look with the grey sleeveless one and her hair up.She looks so comfortable in her skin in all of these photos.
I also really liked her on ER,and found her portrayal of the stressed doctor,mom,wife battling alcoholism to be such a strong performance .
I love her too – she’s a fantastic actress, and I agree she looks great. Hardly changed at all over the years.
She’s pretty much the only reason I kept watching The Affair.
That freaks me out. I once had a conversation with a friend and we mentioned a city, just once, we didn’t even talk about it and I got ads on Facebook and IG for it. I bet it’s just a coincidence but it was weird.
Lol, Spotify knows everything I do, and also recommends me things my colleague sitting at the desk next to me listens to. It’s majorly creepy. Also I still do all my shopping in person too and I never gave a crap about ads, so they really are wasting their money on me.
I got used to being tracked online of course, but now they’re listening to us offline through our cell phones, and that freaks me out. Big time. And yeah, they’re doing it.
Yes this,if I google something I know they are tracking what I look up,but LISTENING to what I say,no.We aren’t ever aloud to be vulnerable if that’s where this is going.
One of my best friends is from and older generation and she is staunch in her views about A I being too much.She will not have a private conversation with someone if they have their phone or iPad near and on,this may seem extreme but I get where she’s coming from.
I swear this happened to me a few weeks ago, my friend was talking about her brother having bad acne but no insurance , I told her how I used proactiv around 10 years ago when I was in the same boat and it really helped. Not 10 minutes later I get a fkng email from proactiv for a coupon! I checked my email to see if I had others and there was nothing until after we mentioned that name, it freaked us out! I’m at the point of downgrading back to a flip phone, I’m seriousky over it all, I was in a daze yesterday morning just thinking about how 10 years ago I was able to just wake up and start my day, now I have to glue myself to this phone for an hour or I’m not “up”, my husband is even worse. I hate these things and wanna go back to how things used to be!
It is crazy how quickly we have become attached to our phones. And sometimes I think the older the person, the worse their addiction is. I know kids are glued to their devices, too, but somehow they seem to have a healthier relationship with them. At least my kids and their friends seem to be more balanced than a lot of parents I know and observe.
Yes! My dad is the absolute worst, he retired a few years ago and it’s hard to even hold a conversation with him because he’s glued to his iPad NONSTOP. It’s actually hurtful when people do this, I’ve started staring at the wall when my husband speaks or staring behind him, he gets annoyed and asks what I’m doing and I remind him of how he’s on his phone or iPad half the time I’m talking to him. I think it’s getting the message across lol, I know I’m bad about it but I put it away at night and try to focus on family, I’m trying to get him to go device free on weekends but so far he won’t.
“I hate these things and wanna go back to how things used to be!”
I love my computer and my phone’s definitely useful but I’ve definitely noticed people are so distracted driving on the roads and walking around.
It really isn’t a mystery. If you have smart devices, then profiles and accounts get linked, browsing data gets shared between devices and accounts. It is highly adaptive and the information is delivered real-time. This is also why so many people use ad blocking software. It isn’t about getting things for free or screwing hard working professionals out of their revenue; It is about security and freedom from the “noise” of America’s fetishistic submission to invasive capitalism. Browsing software that prevents ads and tracking means you have a faster, safer browsing experience and don’t have surveillence level advertising nonstop in your life. My life isn’t polluted by interruptions, stupidity, or demands for money. I don’t care what movies are coming out, because I don’t have to watch a 30 second trailer for a graphic zombie slasher while trying to watch my relaxing bedtime videos. I don’t know what new sale Outback Steakhouse is having on rubbery shrimp, because I don’t have to have my Bob’s Burgers soundtrack interrupted by a fake Aussie accent. I don’t have to see ads for something my partner googled on their phone which has my etsy login information, which is shared to my phone, etc. Our tech will only get worse.
Is it just apps that “listen”? If I go to fb via a web browser on the phone is that better?
As soon as you log into a computer with your facebook, that computer is “linked” (I don’t know the technical terms) to you and your accounts. So if you look up a brand of shoes on that computer a week later, an ad will show up on your phone FB app for them. My mom logged into her own account and looked at something on amazon the other day, and now I’m getting ads for the stuff she looked at on my phone FB app, because it’s linked to my own home computer, however that happens.
I’ve noticed this – ads appearing in Instagram for things I have recently discussed with people in my immediate environment (& have NOT searched for).
If it hadn’t happened to me, I would likely think that people are probably just making much ado about coincidences. Nope.
It’s an incredible breach of trust & I have essentially quit using Instagram because of it. I now keep the app (& other linked accounts) only on a secondary device that I keep turned off when I’m not using it. I don’t “browse” on those devices. I feel a little “overboard” doing that, but oh well.
That’s smart! I just deleted Instagram because of the spying stuff (don’t have FB) and figure I’ll only go online occasionally to take a look. This stuff is not cool. Having a 2nd (old) device to browse is a good idea
Browsers like Firefox automatically open IG and FB in a container tab so Zuck and Sandberg can’t follow you around on the net.
I like Busy a lot and I’ve seen some episodes. I do however long for the days of yore when talk shows were hosted by trained professionals either with a journalism background or an apprenticeship under a more seasoned host. Same issue I have with many podcasts- the voices, the way their topics meander and a lack of interview skills. It is so grating and uninspiring – I extend this analysis to shows like The View, Wendy, The Real and so forth. It’s a lot of babble but no cohesive thinking.
This so much. I stoped watching and listening to many shows because of exactly this. Everything is always great, cool, happy, blablabla
No actual content.
My husband and his coworker had a conversation about visiting Ireland, and shortly after he had adds all over Facebook about visiting Ireland. I deleted Facebook shortly after!
Who doesn’t know how to take a selfie? I don’t take them because I don’t wanna look at myself, but selfies have been around since timers! Maybe she’s talking logistics lol?
NO – she’s talking taking HiDEoUS selfies! i suffer from the same complaint!!! I refuse to believe I look as terrible in person as i do on a phone selfie.
I do not understand how your phone can “hear” your conversations when you’re not using it. Of course I understand that if I’m google searching, I’ll get related ads. That’s totally different. And I understand that sites such as this need to make money and they do so via ads. Fair enough.
I had to scroll up on this article to see which ads were targeting me and none related to any of my searches. I really don’t look at the ads. Not interested in a mobile car wash or pest control. A few weeks ago though I kept being hit with some awful ad about aging asking what I was going to do about it accompanied by a hideous photo. That jarred me I must admit. Did not click on it.
Ok never mind. Just did some research and now I’m totally freaked out. Turn off the mic on all your apps if you’ve given permission for it to be on. See fine print. Android phones worse than iPhones. Read here:
https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/coincidence-or-is-my-phone-listening-to-me/
Android has become evil, thats all i have to say.
My dad stayed at my house for almost three weeks over thanksgiving. He also is still mostly functioning with Alzheimer’s disease. The entire time he was here, I kept getting ads for a nearby assisted living facility with the tag line “be the daughter again” with a pic of a woman visiting her aging parents. Creepy, but it also cracked me up.
It’s one thing when corporations use tech to target us for ads. It’s quite another when entities target us the ways that Cambridge Analytica has purportedly done–using hacked data, including stolen medical records. In the hands of hostile foreign powers, all these hacked data sets put us at real risk. Look at what’s happening with the Chinese government mapping every little detail about their people in order to control them (even plans to issue them “ratings” and give “social credit” for acceptable behavior–outrageous!). We need a Manhattan Project level R&D initiative to combat this.
Agree! And I believe that Huawei is spying on North Americans if you buy their phones.
You can turn the microphone off on Instagram, but ofcourse it will want to turn back on if you do an instastory.
I read this story and the comments, then I went on Instagram and an ad for Rennie appeared. Just three hours ago my co-worker asked if that product is still around. He was only joking because he had too much for lunch.
I turn my data/Wi-Fi off when I’m not using my phone, so maybe that helps bc I haven’t encountered this problem yet. I also am really careful about what apps are on my phone (no FB, Instagram, etc., just use them through the web browser instead). My husband still has his old Nokia bar phone from 2004 and refuses to give it up — I can’t even text him (which is kinda annoying, lol)!
On that note,i just refreshed app permissions to disable microphone and cleaned out cookies.
I only use instagram as far as social media goes, but I constantly get relevant ads on there. I canceled a subscription to something via gmail and then had the company pop up on instagram a couple of hours later. I never had ads for that company before. And it’s like that all the time.
I was having a conversation with my son, with my phone turned off. It was a real odd random subject, something I never searched, looked up and totally unrelated to my life.
When I turned my phone on and few minutes later I had ads about it.
This was no coincidence, my phone heard us when it was “off”
So yeah it’s happening.
Any chance your son looked up what you were discussing?
I’m to the point that I’m convinced my wifi router hears me. On Saturday (we observe Shabbat) my husband and I were sitting in the living room where the router is, talking about getting a new nespresso machine. Once shabbat was over and I turned on my phone, I was seeing ads for nespresso on instagram. THEY ARE LISTENING. I’m not interesting so I don’t really care but it’s sooo creepy.
Do you have a smart TV in your living room?
Facebook and IG are the worst at stealth tracking like this and with Google I think you can go into your account settings, on phone/app or computer, and turn it off. I turn off everything and block everything and I don’t use FB or IG (just watch some public content without having actual accounts or downloading the app and I use Firefox, which uses auto container tabs for nasty platforms like FB or IG). I turn off everything on my computer and mobile – location tracking, microphone, auto assistants like Cortana, etc. Yes, not because I haven anything to hide but because I don’t appreciate this stealth collecting of information. Also I use a bunch of blockers.
Companies abusing this stuff in terms of not being transparent, like FB/IG, are in for a rude awakening. Pretty certain the US and Europe will adopt stricter laws around this. This level of no privacy is not healthy and always keep in mind if something is “free,” you and your data are likely to be the product. I think Shoshana Zuboff coined the term SURVELLIANCE CAPITALISM.
I love Maura so much. So talented.
So I was in Sephora a few days ago. I was looking at a bottle of perfume shaped like a stiletto heel shoe…can’t remember the name. I get home that evening and am on my tablet, and an ad for that same damn perfume pops up! I have never searched for that product. Only looked at the bottle in the store, smelled it and told my friend I thought the bottle was cool. So was Sephora spying on me? Creepy AF. Don’t like.