Being spied on by M$ through my niece's HP laptop...

[Duncan113]

So last night my ten-year-old niece was showing me her new HP laptop. She logged into her Microsoft account and started showing me Roblox, an M$ kids' game she plays with her friends. She then showed my her vocabulary assignment in Word. I had never heard of Roblox, much less played it, but when I got home, powered up my own PC and hit the Windows key, there was the Roblox icon waiting for me in the Store section of the menu array.

Now, I sit here wondering how big brother or big M$ "made me" and have come up with a few possibilities. First, it is my understanding that certain apps and sites, like YouTube, turn on your mic, record your voice and upload the file. Could Microshaft have done that here, and would they have been able to identify me from my voice? (Yes, I'm sure.) Second, the HP laptop would have a webcam in it, I guess, (it's an entry level kids' laptop), and through that possibly the Microsoft network used facial recognition on me. Third, there were several other people in the room all on there phones, and conceivably I was identified by those mics and cameras, but this seems the least likely of the three. Any help on this matter would be much appreciated.

 

[vrumor]

I think you are blowing a coincidence WAY out of proportion. Roblox is a very popular game. It does not surprise me that you saw an ad for it. Did you log into any accounts of yours on your nieces laptop? If you did, that may have triggered it.

 

[Eximo]

Agreed, you might have seen that game in your start menu everyday for weeks and just not noticed it.

As for the big brother stuff, welcome to the internet? With website ad revenue slipping rapidly they have to do something. As long as they think they can all sell everybody's information to each other for profit, they will do it until that goes bust too. Might be seeing all your favorite things turn into subscription based or pay wall type services in the near future.