# Scary story re: online fleet enema



## trilinearmipmap (Mar 8, 2005)

Today I went into my Hotmail account. Beside my inbox was an ad for purchasing fleet enema at an online pharmacy.

Several months ago I did some Google searches on dosing fleet enema for plant tanks. In addition I posted some questions about fleet dosing on one or two aquarium bulletin boards.

Somehow either through Google's database (I think they store everything anybody has ever searched for) or through a bot crawling through the bulletin board postings, my e-mail account has been flagged as someone who wants to purchase fleet enema. So I am being targeted with fleet enema ads, even though one bottle of fleet will last me a couple of years.

It is just frightening that people are collecting data about others, presumably selling this data to advertisers and using it for commercial purposes without the person's consent or knowledge.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Whew!!!

I can think of far more frightening things that might be attributed to Fleet's. Still, internet privacy is something of an oxymoron and it's best to be as careful as possible.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

They get you no matter what you're doing. It's a part of the internet life and all we can do is protect ourselves the best we can with antispyware, spam blockers, and the like, and not feed the fire and click on any of those links.

I did a search a little over a year ago to see how much insurance I should put on a Rolex watch that I was sending to a relative. Since that day my spam folder his been filled with a slew of Rolex replicas and black market offers for them... Grumble....


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

guaiac_boy said:


> Whew!!!
> 
> I can think of far more frightening things that might be attributed to Fleet's.


LOL! Not to veer off topic, but their "Phospho-soda" was pretty frightening to me....:scared:


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Here's an odd question for all of you that have experienced this unnerving search/spam connection ....... are all of you using XP as your operating system?

Also, do you have Cable Modem or DSL access with a static IP address (rather than dial-up, which can generate an anonymous, temporary IP address for you each time you log on) ???

Just curious.... I'm currently on a Mac, but am looking into getting a PC to work with a prospective client. So I've been reading about the XP operating system, and all the stuff about "Passport" (the online storage of ALL your passwords, "keychains" and other security information via Microsoft....) is raising all sorts of red flags for me. 

Financially, I'll then have to decide whether to conduct my internet business on the Mac or the PC machines.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks,
Jane


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