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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • I’ve given up on AirBnB in the last few years. When I first started, you could get great places for cheaper than hotels and it felt exciting having a house to yourself. I don’t know if the novelty has worn off or if the quality has got worse, but the last few times I’ve used it I’ve regretted it. “Check-in” is never simple. Bad directions to the place. Bad communication leading to issues trying to get the key. Stupid rules like having to put bedsheets in the wash. Reviews can’t be trusted. And it’s not even much cheaper than hotels now.

    This doesn’t go for every AirBnB, I’m sure plenty are great. But a lot of times you don’t want the uncertainty.







  • On top of this, there’s lots of ways that they would get the data without secretly listening to microphones, which people may not be aware of in all these anecdotes. In the one above, maybe just one party member googled lab grown diamonds, or perhaps messaged a friend on Facebook messenger about their trick. Not sure if that gets analysed for ads but it’s more plausible than mics. Anyway if they’re all on the same WiFi then they’ll probably be on the same IP and could easily be shown the same ads, making all party members now ripe for a diamond ad.

    There’s a well known video of a guy saying “cat food” around his phone, and then his phone shows Google ads for cat food. He concluded that it was secretly listening to him, because there was no other way for Google to get that info other than to shadily tap into his mic. He performs this experiment on a live streamed YouTube video