Galaxy S8 spying on me through photos?

[AC Question]

I took a photo of a friend of mine in a Packers t-shirt. An hour later, I get an email "Hey Packer fans!" I take a picture of my daughter without her braces outside a dental office and I get offers on dental insurance. What is going on?

Is there a setting I can turn off to keep some privacy?

 

[jeffmd]

Emails from...who?

 

[EnemiesInTheEnd]

I took a photo of a friend of mine in a Packers t-shirt. An hour later, I get an email "Hey Packer fans!" I take a picture of my daughter without her braces outside a dental office and I get offers on dental insurance. What is going on?

Is there a setting I can turn off to keep some privacy?

Are they being saved to Google Photos?

 

[Atomic Belly Lint]

Oddly, two emails came from Playstation and had a large "P" next to them. I don't have a playstation. The Packer ad also had the same P next to it (indicating who sent it) but it was from Packer Backers.

 

[Atomic Belly Lint]

Not that I can tell. Just switched from Iphone and still learning "android." Not regretting the decision to switch in any way. I've had it for a week and am pretty used to it, just can't find all the settings and HATE the bloatware and carrier hijacking of the voicemail app.

 

[BratPAQ]

I took a photo of a friend of mine in a Packers t-shirt. An hour later, I get an email "Hey Packer fans!" I take a picture of my daughter without her braces outside a dental office and I get offers on dental insurance. What is going on?

Is there a setting I can turn off to keep some privacy?

Go to you apps permissions page and check all the apps that has storage permission and camera permission. Try to disable them for apps you don't really use.

 

[arunma]

FWIW I've never had this happen to me. I do get ads shown to me on Facebook after doing a Google search for something, but that has more to do with Google and Facebook, and less to do with my phone. If you're getting email marketing, it's very hard for me to understand how the data could have been extracted from your phone's photo gallery and propagated to whatever marketing service is doing this. Not saying it's impossible, just a little beyond what I understand to be most tech companies' current marketing ability.

Maybe try turning off your Gallery's image analysis feature (that's the feature which classifies your pictures as, e.g. "food," "wildlife," etc.). Then see if you get fewer marketing emails. And what others have said about disabling app permissions is also good advice.

 

[Ca_lvn]

There is a location service setting to turn off, I used to get the same thing, would walk in a grocery store and get a notification for add a picture or something, I don't remember what I changed, I think it was the Mod here that gave me direction.

 

[Atomic Belly Lint]

Thank you all! As I said, I switched from iPhone and say what you want about iPhone, but the one thing I miss is their refusal to alter the functions of their phone for carriers. The native voicemail app is disabled so I have to pay Sprint for voicemail (all the carriers do it). They do have a free version, but they serve ads on it. WTF. I bought the phone from Samsung and already pay for service, so what gives them the right to disable functions and hold them for ransom?

Anyway, that and Samsung Pay popping up while I'm in a store to tell me I can use the app in "store's name" has made me suspicious of what could be coincidental junk mail. But still, how random is Packer Backer sending me an email within 30 minutes of a photo?

I'll check all my settings. Thank you all for your help.

Wow. I feel better.

 

[Dooki]

Thank you all! As I said, I switched from iPhone and say what you want about iPhone, but the one thing I miss is their refusal to alter the functions of their phone for carriers. The native voicemail app is disabled so I have to pay Sprint for voicemail (all the carriers do it). They do have a free version, but they serve ads on it. WTF. I bought the phone from Samsung and already pay for service, so what gives them the right to disable functions and hold them for ransom?

Anyway, that and Samsung Pay popping up while I'm in a store to tell me I can use the app in "store's name" has made me suspicious of what could be coincidental junk mail. But still, how random is Packer Backer sending me an email within 30 minutes of a photo?

I'll check all my settings. Thank you all for your help.

Wow. I feel better.

i suggest Google voice for your voicemail. It's free and easy to set up. No ads and is cross platform, use it anywhere. I use it and it's great.

 

[punk999]

That's unusual, maybe its a spyware? try cleaning your browser cache and turn on protection

 

[Maggie Pantsvanilla]

if you use the gmail app,the P is just the p for the first letter of the senders name unless its a logo, i dunno then.

 

[Aquila]

There's a zero percent chance that taking that photo caused you to receive that email.

 

[ahiqar]

I took a photo of a friend of mine in a Packers t-shirt. An hour later, I get an email "Hey Packer fans!" I take a picture of my daughter without her braces outside a dental office and I get offers on dental insurance. What is going on?

Is there a setting I can turn off to keep some privacy?

This has been a helpful thread to read. Thanks for the discussion. I haven't noticed any such issues on my phone, but I felt compelled to add one comment to the discussion based on the initial question:

Go Pack!

 

[jb4kats]

Bixby maybe?

 

[anon(123856)]

That's a thought. What if Bixby Vision or whatever its called was enabled?

 

[jeffmd]

gj cluttering the thread with fud and generic solutions for a problem that hasn't been confirmed. Still waiting on op, need to find out where these packer emails came from. Rarely does malware from an app lead directly to an email In fact it is kind of unheard of. Web ad's tailored via cookies and IP locations, or actual popups from the infected application itself, but not through your email box.