A-May-Zing Ultimate Coffee Date

Welcome to the May Ultimate Coffee Date Link Up! I thought last month’s Ultimate Coffee Date marked the beginning of spring, but Mother Nature had other ideas. Hopefully winter is over for real now. No matter the weather where you are, we are so glad you took time out of your busy weekend to join us! 

The Ultimate Coffee Date
Make this month’s link up even more a-MAY-zing by leaving comments on other blogs– and don’t forget to visit my co-host Deborah at Confessions Of A Mother Runner.

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Ultimate Coffee Date

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that after the Cambridge Analytica hullaballo I cleaned up my Facebook Friends list and swore off those “quizzes” forever. I  already skipped ones that asked for access to my Friends list, but I guess I have at least one “friend” who took that infamous “personality” quiz and gave me up!  This article from the Better Business Bureau caused even more concern, because I have had to answer those weird security questions and I can see how seemingly innocuous quizzes could extract the answers.

Did you get this message warning that your information was shared?

If we were having coffee, I would admit that all the reporting around Cambridge Analytica opened my eyes to the information I might be giving up for convenience. For example, when I get in my car my phone predicts where I’m going and gives me an ETA–I wasn’t even sure if it’s Google Maps or the iPhone Maps app that’s doing it. It would be one thing if I’m inputting where I’m going, but it gives me an ETA for CycleBar on Tuesday mornings (because I’ve checked in there), Old Town on Wednesday mornings (I guess I haven’t checked in to OTF?), church on Sunday mornings, and Giant on Sunday afternoons, all based on the time and day of the week, I guess. It’s a pretty cool feature, but also means that Apple must have all this information on my routine stored somewhere–I don’t think they’re reading my Weekly Wrap posts. 😉 

That’s the building I park in front of across the street from Orange Theory Fitness.

Do you have this feature turned on? Does it freak you out a little bit?

If we were having coffee, I would ask if you’re as annoyed as I am about Amazon jacking up the price for Amazon Prime–even as they just reported record profits. Of course, instead of giving any serious thought to cancelling, I decided we need to get more out of our membership, by watching more of their TV programs (we just started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel– it is fantastic!) and using the Amazon Music app more often.  I think I listed to the Cardio Dance Workout on my 12 mile run last weekend.

On the slim chance you’re not hooked yet,
here’s an affiliate link for the Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial.

If we were having coffee, I would apologize for spending so much time talking about technology, and ask if you think it’s safe to put some flowers in yet? Now that it is light outside in the evenings, I’d really like pretty up my patio view!  

Is it time to put these in again?

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19 Responses to A-May-Zing Ultimate Coffee Date

  1. Farrah says:

    Yeahhh, it’s kinda creepy how big-brother-y things can get for the sake of convenience. My maps app thinks I live at a convenience store though, so I’m just gonna let it keep thinking that.

    The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is awesome–I can’t wait for season 2! :]

    Thank you for hosting the coffee date!

  2. Coco says:

    LOL. The app thinks I’m visiting someone in my running group when I’m going to yoga and I’VE NEVER BEEN TO HER PLACE! She must live in one of the apt bldgs nearby. :-O

  3. Wendy says:

    When my iPhone first started telling me how long it would take me to get somewhere as soon as I got in the car, I was kind of creeped out. How did my phone know where I was going? And yes, I have sworn off the quizzes–no matter how funny they seem. The FB story was an eye opener!

    Thanks for coffee!

  4. Marcia says:

    No more quizzes for me either. Like so many things in our society right now, the whole thing has gone too far. I’ve embraced Amazon Music now too. It is still too early to plant New Guinea Impatiens here cuz our last frost date is 5/15, however yours is 4/21 so it may be fine for you to forge ahead. They are super sensitive to cold though.

  5. I did not know that feature exists on the iPhone – I must not have it turned on, but yeah that’s cool and creepy at the same time. I feel the same way about Amazon Prime and plan to check out both their shows and the music app too.

    Thanks for coffee!

  6. I had the same Facebook message, sigh! I definitely have some FB friends that I need to purge!

    I should definitely use more Amazon features now that you mention it!

  7. All those quizzes creep me out after hearing of your experience. I have never done the “check-in” thing, ever. I know too many people who do it repeatedly, daily, all day long. Honestly, why do they think the world wants to know where they go throughout the day? I can see the significance of it if it’s a new and different place, though. But still. ugh. Glad I never jumped on that wagon LOL AS for flowers…just this week, my front garden has erupted in color! Yay!

  8. I am waiting one more week to put flowers out on the deck. Weather is too crazy here. I binge watched the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel it’s fantastic! Trying to get my parents to watch it. I feel like all my info is already out there so not much I can do about it at this point! Great catching up over coffee

  9. Kim W says:

    I’m starting to think a lot more about the technology privacy issues. I have so much data out there I’d like to pull back. In the past few weeks we’ve also had the myfitnesspal hack and the alert from twitter about changing passwords out of an abundance of caution.

    I also just changed my Garmin settings because I realized that sharing my activities – which used to be just my runs – now also shares daily stats like heart rate, sleep, etc. I know all of my Garmin friends well, but I don’t want to share that level of information with them!

  10. I did the same thing with my amazon subscription, LOL. I muttered annoying things to myself and then decided to get more out of if and watch more Amazon prime TV.

  11. I completely agree. Technology has a way of being really creepy. I stopped doing those quizzes long ago because 1. I just don’t care, 2. I think they’re mostly ridiculous, and 3. years with a high level security clearance made me pause and go ‘Hmmmm…..”

    My phone also likes to tell me estimated times and destinations. That’s definitely google because I don’t have an iPhone. Also, for GPS, I use Waze and sometimes, that pops up and tells me that there’s traffic on what used to be my route home from work …. nearly 2 years ago. LOL You’d think it’d figured out that I don’t go there anymore, since it thinks it’s so smart.

    I just did a whole bunch of work in the yard this week! Got flowers on my front porch and I put in a couple hibiscus and another flower that’s escaping my mind. Fingers crossed I don’t kill them. I generally do better with plain green plants. haha

  12. Laurie says:

    You did more research about the whole Cambridge Analytica thing than I did. I cleaned up my Twitter account, and I never take the quizzes on FB, but I am still worried about so much data being out there.

    I am putting out my annual flowers today, based on the weather forecast!

  13. I loved the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! And no it isn’t too soon to plant your flowers…so pretty!
    I do get weirded out when my phone predicts where I am going. Have you ever noticed after talking about something it will suddenly show up on you FB or IG feed? Creepy.

  14. I do think it’s safe for the flowers! Mother’s Day up here is typically the last day you might expect a hard freeze, but next week looks to be relatively nice. Finally. Since we had 3 seasons this week!

    Never happy about Amazon Prime going up, but we are power users, so no, we’ won’t be canceling either. We do watch movies/shows occasionally on it, and I listen to music via Alexa all the time.

    Let’s not even get into those privacy issues with Alexa . . .

  15. OK – now you totally freaked me out! At least we don’t use Alexa!

    We love Amazon Prime and use a lot of the freebies like TV (YES to Mrs Maisel!) and free Kindle books every month and the Prime Photo share app which is also free for unlimited photos and 5GB of video when you have Prime. I’m not considering cancelling. Prices go up. It’s been 5 years since they raised it.

  16. I listen to Amazon Prime music on my Amazon Alexa All. The. Time! I couldn’t believe they jacked up the prices, but like you, I didn’t drop it. I guess the richest man in the world needs a little more padding on his retirement income. LOL

    Thanks for the linkup!

  17. Clarinda says:

    I literally LOL’d at your comment about Apple not reading your weekly recaps. 😀 It is pretty crazy how much our technology knows us.

  18. I gave up the quizzes too! And I hate how my iPhone predicts where I am going. It creeps me out! I also saw in your post from today you got Scooby to slow down to get a picture! He is cute!

  19. HoHo Runs says:

    I got freaked out a few years ago when notifications told me how long it would take me to get home, to work (or wherever) when I got in my car. I turned all of that off. Even though I don’t get those notifications now, I’m sure the data is still being collected. I need to plant some flowers around the patio but have been very lazy with that this year!! Thanks for coffee!

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