In the small town I live in, it's either Walmart, Lowe's, or drive to Louisville or Cincy for shampoo. I will go to Walgreens when they have a sale on stuff we use.

(06-11-2018, 02:23 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Why do people act like they are ashamed to admit they shop at Wal Mart?

I'm not a bit ashamed to admit I have to shop at Wal Mart. But I avoid it like the plague as much as possible because of the very large portion of undesirable class peeps in and around there. At least 1 out of 3 times I go there, there's a cop sitting there with his lights on doing an arrest.

(06-11-2018, 02:11 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: Went to WalMart yesterday at my son's behest. I only go there once or twice a year. I noticed they had a camera filming people as they walked by in the aisle. It didn't appear to be for security purposes, so I was wondering why they had that.

This morning, I had four emails from WalMart asking how my shopping experience was and inviting me to take a survey.

If the way this world is going doesn't frighten you, you are not paying attention.

About a month or so before this past Christmas I was going to work early one morning listening to the radio and they had a segment on with an IT guy, I forget who he worked for but a computer wiz to say the least.

He was talking about smart TV's, all the new gadgets, the things whatever they are where you can say order me a pizza and it does. Sorry I'm not tech savvy and will never have one.

Anyways he said they conducted an experiment about facebook because of the privacy concerns. They bought a brand new laptop with all the bells and whistles. Went home hooked it up and set it up and then set up a facebook account and that's it, nothing else was done.

They closed the lid on the laptop and just carried on a normal evening conversation, spaghetti for dinner, golf the next day, new shoes for the kids, whatever.

The next morning the fired the laptop up and got on facebook and low and behold there were ads for...... you guessed it.... spaghetti sauce and pasta, shoes, golf clubs etc.

He said the computer was not touched other than setting it up and closing the top.


You tell me ??????

(06-13-2018, 11:31 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: About a month or so before this past Christmas I was going to work early one morning listening to the radio and they had a segment on with an IT guy, I forget who he worked for but a computer wiz to say the least.

He was talking about smart TV's, all the new gadgets, the things whatever they are where you can say order me a pizza and it does. Sorry I'm not tech savvy and will never have one.

Anyways he said they conducted an experiment about facebook because of the privacy concerns. They bought a brand new laptop with all the bells and whistles. Went home hooked it up and set it up and then set up a facebook account and that's it, nothing else was done.

They closed the lid on the laptop and just carried on a normal evening conversation, spaghetti for dinner, golf the next day, new shoes for the kids, whatever.

The next morning the fired the laptop up and got on facebook and low and behold there were ads for...... you guessed it.... spaghetti sauce and pasta, shoes, golf clubs etc.

He said the computer was not touched other than setting it up and closing the top.


You tell me ??????

facebook is an absolute data mine  that's what it does... but this isn't Minority report yet.

(06-12-2018, 04:32 PM)Wyche Wrote: Bengal Hawk:  Meijer and Kroger.  I'm not above anyone, but the day I watched "The High Cost of Low Price", I quit going to WalMart then.  It's been about 10 years or so since I set foot in one.

Same here. For groceries it's mainly Krogers, with occasional trip to Meijers. Then I also will shop local farmer markets in season, local butcher shop which offers top grade meats like Waygu beef. Maybe make a 15 minute trip over to Jungle Jims which once a month or so. Huge fan of that store, and their beer/wine selection, plus their hot sauce corner-room.

Other stuff I will go to Lowes or Home Depot, Bass Pro shops or Dicks for outdoorsy stuff. I just dont find a need for WalMart anymore where I live, and it's not like I am missing out on any savings either.

I do understand though depending on an area why WalMart is a good option to go to. Luckily I am in a suburb that has all those stores from 5-20 minutes away at most.

(06-13-2018, 07:47 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Same here. For groceries it's mainly Krogers, with occasional trip to Meijers. Then I also will shop local farmer markets in season, local butcher shop which offers top grade meats like Waygu beef. Maybe make a 15 minute trip over to Jungle Jims which once a month or so. Huge fan of that store, and their beer/wine selection, plus their hot sauce corner-room.

Other stuff I will go to Lowes or Home Depot, Bass Pro shops or Dicks for outdoorsy stuff. I just dont find a need for WalMart anymore where I live, and it's not like I am missing out on any savings either.

I do understand though depending on an area why WalMart is a good option to go to. Luckily I am in a suburb that has all those stores from 5-20 minutes away at most.

Yea that's where I was at when I lived in a small town in between Richmond and Winchester Indiana.  I worked in Richmond so I'd stop at Meijjer on the way home if I needed anything.  But if I was already at home and needed something, I'd head to Walmart in Winchester, because was closer. Since moving back to the Nati I'll shop at Walmart for some things depending on what it is.  Hell the laptop I'm on, I bought from them.  However I don't usually grocery shop with them, mainly because Krogers is closer.  I also don't usually shop for clothes with Walmart unless it's an emergency .

(06-12-2018, 08:21 AM)Au165 Wrote: I am 100% sure it's not facial recognition, especially one with cross platform lookup functionality scraping old Facebook accounts and doing projected age modeling with a success rate good enough to be able to email you. It could be an app and possibly not even the google maps but other apps that are tracking your location. There are apps that will forward on geo locations only when you are at certain locations. 

The other big one is if you leave WiFi or bluetooth on your phone on, even if you aren't connected to a network or device, your phone can be tracked based on the WiFi routers seeing you, or blue tooth beacons picking up your device. While you may say "Walmart doesn't have WiFi that I can see on my phone" they actually do they just don't broadcast the SSID so while you can't see their WiFi they can see your phone. Also many retailers are installing bluetooth beacons that basically "count" customers and their phones that come in and can often scrape data from them as far as who you are. This has become a common method and it's a legal gray area in a sense because you "opt in" to have your Wifi/Blue Tooth on and in the public domain.

Probably a good reason to use a VPN.. 
Here's a great idea .Leave your wifi open to look up your bank account online whilst shopping at Walmart.  ...then wonder why you're always broke   

(06-14-2018, 08:28 AM)grampahol Wrote: Probably a good reason to use a VPN.. 
Here's a great idea .Leave your wifi open to look up your bank account online whilst shopping at Walmart.  ...then wonder why you're always broke   

A device having their WiFi on doesn't really open you to any potential threat, other then the information gathering I talked about before. It's when you connect to an open network you are at risk, however banks tend to use pretty good encryption that other than something like a keylogger an open network isn't going to be much of a threat banking wise. Man in the middle attacks, which is what normally occurs on open networks, basically monitors traffic and passes it on to its desired location recording the stuff they want. Things like logging into email accounts on open networks are what get people in trouble because they then use that login information to reset other, more interesting, account information. Very very few people can force their way into systems, most times when people are "hacked" it's because they got your login credentials through social engineering or something described above then work across different platforms seeing where you used this login information repeatedly.

Long story short, don't login to account from open networks and don't use the same passwords across multiple sites. 

(06-14-2018, 08:38 AM)Au165 Wrote: A device having their WiFi on doesn't really open you to any potential threat, other then the information gathering I talked about before. It's when you connect to an open network you are at risk, however banks tend to use pretty good encryption that other than something like a keylogger an open network isn't going to be much of a threat banking wise. Man in the middle attacks, which is what normally occurs on open networks, basically monitors traffic and passes it on to its desired location recording the stuff they want. Things like logging into email accounts on open networks are what get people in trouble because they then use that login information to reset other, more interesting, account information. Very very few people can force their way into systems, most times when people are "hacked" it's because they got your login credentials through social engineering or something described above then work across different platforms seeing where you used this login information repeatedly.

Long story short, don't login to account from open networks and don't use the same passwords across multiple sites. 

I know that what you're saying is true, and sound advice.  It's tough to have different passwords for many different login accounts, and remember what each one is, especially if it's a bill pay account that might get logged into once a month.  I think I might have to start keeping a hard copy list.

(06-14-2018, 08:53 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I know that what you're saying is true, and sound advice.  It's tough to have different passwords for many different login accounts, and remember what each one is, especially if it's a bill pay account that might get logged into once a month.  I think I might have to start keeping a hard copy list.

Yea, I tend to use variations and then something from the website that I can easily associate back. 

(06-13-2018, 07:47 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Same here. For groceries it's mainly Krogers, with occasional trip to Meijers. Then I also will shop local farmer markets in season, local butcher shop which offers top grade meats like Waygu beef. Maybe make a 15 minute trip over to Jungle Jims which once a month or so. Huge fan of that store, and their beer/wine selection, plus their hot sauce corner-room.

Other stuff I will go to Lowes or Home Depot, Bass Pro shops or Dicks for outdoorsy stuff. I just dont find a need for WalMart anymore where I live, and it's not like I am missing out on any savings either.

I do understand though depending on an area why WalMart is a good option to go to. Luckily I am in a suburb that has all those stores from 5-20 minutes away at most.

Absolutely......the smaller the burgh, the less the choices.  I hit all of those spots too, but we're getting a Menard's soon, so there goes Lowe's for me.

Dude, I'm jealous you have access to Wagyu and live that close to Jungle Jim's.  I frggin' love that place.  Every time we go to Dayton to visit the inlaws, I pack a cooler and make a pit stop there.  They also have a killer cigar selection, especially at the Eastgate location.

(06-13-2018, 11:35 PM)RICHMONDBENGAL_07 Wrote: Yea that's where I was at when I lived in a small town in between Richmond and Winchester Indiana.  I worked in Richmond so I'd stop at Meijjer on the way home if I needed anything.  But if I was already at home and needed something, I'd head to Walmart in Winchester, because was closer. Since moving back to the Nati I'll shop at Walmart for some things depending on what it is.  Hell the laptop I'm on, I bought from them.  However I don't usually grocery shop with them, mainly because Krogers is closer.  I also don't usually shop for clothes with Walmart unless it's an emergency .

I won't grocery shop there due to getting food poisoning from their beef many years back.  That was the longest trip back from Bristol I've ever been on......there weren't enough bathrooms on this planet that day.

(06-14-2018, 08:53 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I know that what you're saying is true, and sound advice.  It's tough to have different passwords for many different login accounts, and remember what each one is, especially if it's a bill pay account that might get logged into once a month.  I think I might have to start keeping a hard copy list.

I have about 50 sites I have to periodically log-in to for work, and several of them require password changes every 3 or 4 months. I have to use  a small composition book to keep track of them all and the changes, not to mention just remembering my log-in ID's.

(06-13-2018, 11:31 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: About a month or so before this past Christmas I was going to work early one morning listening to the radio and they had a segment on with an IT guy, I forget who he worked for but a computer wiz to say the least.

He was talking about smart TV's, all the new gadgets, the things whatever they are where you can say order me a pizza and it does. Sorry I'm not tech savvy and will never have one.

Anyways he said they conducted an experiment about facebook because of the privacy concerns. They bought a brand new laptop with all the bells and whistles. Went home hooked it up and set it up and then set up a facebook account and that's it, nothing else was done.

They closed the lid on the laptop and just carried on a normal evening conversation, spaghetti for dinner, golf the next day, new shoes for the kids, whatever.

The next morning the fired the laptop up and got on facebook and low and behold there were ads for...... you guessed it.... spaghetti sauce and pasta, shoes, golf clubs etc.

He said the computer was not touched other than setting it up and closing the top.


You tell me ??????

When you set up any app that could potentially use a microphone it will ask for access. If you give it access to your microphone they will record your conversation and then market to you. It’s not against the law because you have access (unknowingly)
http://mentalfloss.com/article/500567/why-you-should-think-twice-allowing-apps-access-your-microphone