<story><title>How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies</title><url>https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-23/health-data-shared-with-tech-companies/10521456</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>donjoe</author><text>Last week, I got hit by a car while riding my bicycle. You won&amp;#x27;t believe in how many colors an upper arm can shine. Anyhow, I took a picture of the arm, shared it to a friend on WhatsApp and promptly got a newsletter from Pinterest promoting tattoo posts. I do not have the Pinterest app on my phone, barely use it otherwise and would never search for tattoos since I&amp;#x27;m just not interested.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been trying to find out since then where and how Pinterest might have gotten my blue&amp;#x2F;red&amp;#x2F;yellow&amp;#x2F;green arm picture from to analyze it, interpret it and link it to my account. They might be able to search my friend&amp;#x27;s phone&amp;#x27;s pictures (in case he&amp;#x27;s got the app which I&amp;#x27;m not sure) and link the picture back to my account. Spooky though.</text></comment>
<story><title>How my sexual health searches ended up in the hands of big tech companies</title><url>https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-23/health-data-shared-with-tech-companies/10521456</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>13of40</author><text>I had a related thing happen a couple of months ago: I started getting some lower back pain that I thought might be kidney stones based on a couple of Google searches.  Went to my doctor, who prescribed a muscle relaxant, which I got at the pharmacy across the street.  It went away.&lt;p&gt;Over the next few weeks I got several robocalls on my cell phone from a pain clinic offering me relief for my &amp;quot;chronic pain&amp;quot;, so it was either triggered by my online searches or my doctor&amp;#x27;s office or pharmacy sold off my private information.</text></comment>